The Pomoná Kingdom and its Hinterland

Crisóforo Chiñas

Crisóforo Chiñas is the name of the communal land on where most of this site lies. It is located about 4 km to the North East of Panhale, on the right side of the river. On the hierarchical settlement scheme of Pomoná, may have corresponded to a tertiary level site. Although the site was partially affected by the construction of a dirt road that leads to a private ranch and the community of Paso de la Sábana, fourteen mounds still stand arranged in four groups that extend for almost 50 hectares (Figure 19). Group CC-A consists of three isolated mounds, Mounds 1 and 2 measure about 50 and 40 m in diameter, respectively and reach a height of 5 m each, while Mound 3 is a mere 1.5 m high mound with 20 m in diameter. Group CC-B consists on two low, elongated platforms of about 1.5 m high, without any formal arrangement. Groups CC-C and CC-D present a more formal arrangement. The former consists of a small court-like group composed of a low platform enclosing its southern end: Structure 6. Structure 6 supports two twin mounds that rise 3 m from the patio floor. On its west and east sides the court is limited by two 2 m high mounds. Group CC-D is formed by two large platforms that run parallel on a northeasterly direction, Platforms I and II. Platform I is 300 m long and 55 m wide, and at its summit supports five mounds. Of these, Structure 10 is the biggest, it measures some 50 m in diameter reaching a height of 8 m. Mound 11, the second largest, is almost 6 m high and also about 50 m in diameter. The other three mounds are smaller with 2 m in height and between 30 to 20 m in diameter. At about 200 m to the east lies Platform II. Platform II constitutes a reconditioned natural rise of the terrain. There were no discernible structures on its top, but this may be due to the poor visibility caused by the presence of high grass. With the exception of Platform II, all of the structures were constructed with packed clay and river gravel.

There were very few surface materials recovered at the site, due mainly to the poor visibility. A 1 × 1 m test pit was excavated between Mounds 1 and 2 but the soils proved to be thin and rocky with just a few ceramic shards recovered.

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