The first settlement, established around 900 B.C., was an agricultural community, but the site was evacuated in the third century because of a volcanic eruption. The Mayans built their city in the fifth century, and for more than 300 years the powerful lords ruled over the Valley of Zapotitan and the Valley of Hammocks. Ceramics excavated from the site suggest that the city was an important trade center, with links to Mexico, Guatemala, Belize and Honduras. The political center collapsed toward the end of the ninth century, and the settlement remained purely residential until the Spanish conquest, when the area became a center for cattle-rearing, coffee growing and indigo production. The whole site was buried by volcanic matter during the 1658 eruption of the Playon caldera and not rediscovered until the late 19th century.
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