The territory of current Honduras was inhabited by villages of two cultural types different: The cultures Maya and Tolteca.
Contents
Culture
These cultures reached big attainments in the diverse fields of the human knowledge.
Agriculture
They were promoted by the development of a varied agriculture (bean, cocoa, chili pepper, etc.) and had big irrigation systems which guaranteeed a suitable production for his numerous populations.
Arts
They developed technicians of great sophistication in the fabrics and the ceramics. They developed an intense and varied trade.
Sciences
They reached a high scientific development in the mathematics and the astronomy; in addition to the architecture and the sculpture, that employed in the construction of big cities.
Toltec cultures
In the northwestern section of Honduras, villages with Tolteca influences predominated, between them the following:
Nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures
The rest of the Honduran territory is inhabited by villages from the south of the continent, with a nomadic and semi-nomadic cultures, governed by relations of primitive communal production.
Between these villages found the following:
Into this group, falls the majority of the population of the country.
Lencas
The largest population is the Lencas who, at the moment the Spanish arrived, were the most widespread and organised of the groups of the country.
They lived in populations of considerable size, with an average of 350 houses and much more of 500 pobladores. Although scientific controversies exist on the descendants and origin of the Lencas, of agreement to Rodolfo Baron Castro, are the direct rests heirs of the mayas, that did not follow the exodus that gave end to the Ancient Empere. At the arrival of the Spaniards, they were found established in the territory that today comprise the Republics of El Salvador and Honduras."
The area maya comprises what in our days are the countries of Honduras, Guatemala, The Saviour and Mexico. The mayas flowered in these countries in the first 15 centuries of the Christian era. Unknown causes until today, caused the abandonment and the destruction of Copán and other cities mayas, that in the period of the Spanish conquest no longer were more than ruins. Hunger, plagues, internal wars have proposed like the causes of the abandonment.