Bilbao

Bilbao is an archaeological site near Escuintla in southern Guatemala, considered one of the principal sites of the Cotzumalhuapa culture, which flourished in the Pacific lowlands of Mesoamerica roughly between 400 and 900 CE. The site is renowned for its carved stone monuments depicting ballgame rituals, death symbolism, and cosmological scenes — an iconographic tradition markedly distinct from contemporary Maya centers. The ethnic and linguistic identity of the Cotzumalhuapa culture remains debated among archaeologists. Some monuments survive in situ, while a number were removed to European collections in the 19th century, including pieces now held by the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin.