High-level utensils.

Analysis of household objects uncovered in continuing excavations of a village in El Salvador entombed by the searing ash of a volcanic eruption around 1,400 years ago reveals a curious and surprising pattern, reports project director Payson D. Sheets of the University of Colorado at Boulder. Residents of the thatched-roof communal structures placed the majority of utensils in daily use - including ceramic vessels, pots, mortars and obsidian blades - in elevated storage areas rather on or near the ground within easy reach.

Vessels and pots often turned up on top of ceiling rafters and columns, as well as in niches placed near the top of walls, Sheet says. Inhabitants of the windowless structures suspended some vessels from the ceiling with rope made from the fiber of a type of cactus they cultivated, he notes. Roofs also served as storage areas for obsidian blades and unexplained thin stone slabs, with some blades placed in accessible spaces above doorways. Reasons for the emphasis on elevated stashing of commonly used objects - also observed in a storage building on the site - remain unclear, Sheets remarks.

About 20 feet of volcanic ash buried the community, known as Ceren, yielding one of the best-preserved prehistoric villages in Latin America, according to Sheets. Architectural styles at Ceren display links to the Maya culture, he points out. For instance, excavators in 1990 uncovered an earthen-domed building with a central kiln surrounded by a rectangular adobe bench that may have served as a community sauna, much like those still in use by Maya groups.

Last year's field season also documented the first human remains at Ceren - three teeth discovered in an ash-filled depression about halfway between the village and a nearby river. More human remains may turn up along the river, Sheets suggests, since Ceren's inhabitants probably fled toward the water as hot ash rained down on their homes.