The hills of the mounds of Takalik Abaj (formally Abaj Takalik) were first thought to have built by the Olmec but now they think they built on top of natural hills. Excavation of the road cuts show the layers of occupation as well as a 1 meter thick layering of Volcanic ash caused by the 1902 eruption of the volcano Santa Maria.

The most probably use of the site was that it was a commercial site. A line of communication and interchange of South Coast and all the way to La Venta site in Mexico.

No site was dominated by any of the other sites, but they communicated and interchanged ideals and rituals. Takalik Abaj was a strategic communication between the Highlands and the South coast.

It had very rich soils that enable them to have a strong Cocoa trade.

The Monuments depict various myths of the Maya vision:
The Wolf Man, the Duality/ Day for the animal spirit or the Nahual. The man who would want to be transform into his animal spirit and show it in ritual taking Hallucinogenic drugs and performing the needed auto-sacrifice.

Late pre-classic - early classic square altar was found on the road (Camino Real) signifying the communication of the highlands with south coast.

Stelae #1 is similar to the Style of Kaminaljuyu

Other stelae (Ixtapa style) serpent coming out of Earth monsters, have been found on other part of farm site.

PREVIOUS HISTORY
The importance of Takalik Abaj, as one of the most ancient and extensive archaeological centers of the coastal plains, was first reported by Dr. Gustavo L. Bruhl, a botanist who visited the site in 1888. The news of Bruhl, with regards to the monuments of the site, greatly influence other travelers and archaeologists to visit the site in different periods, a few of which are mentioned below:
Karl Sapper (1894); Walter Lehmann (1925); Erick Thompson (1942), who was the fist archaeologist to systematically study the site; Tatiana Proskouriakoff (1942), she being the first to confirm that various monuments of Abaj Takalik had Maya presence: Edwin Shook (1965) Suzanne Miles (1965), who formalized the name of the site a Abaj Takalik (the translation of Quiché for "Piedra Parada" or Standing Stone) In 1976, the University of Berkeley in California, initiated the first formal archaeology project in Takalik Abaj, under the direction of Dr. John Graham. This project extended for five season of field work the concluded en 1981, and whose final results are in the process of study.
In 1986, Miguel Orrego Corozo, director of the project of Abaj Takalik, with the help of the sub director of the technical direction of budgets of IDAEH, have united the funding for this project. These studies have uncovered more about the site and its relation with Mesoamérica.

DESCRIPTION OF THE SITE
The major architectural concentration of the site extends approximately over 9 km, forming a large belt from North to South, limited in its Eastern and Western extremes by the rivers Ixchiyá and Xab. Presently, the site is distributed between five coffee farms. The map drawn by Berkeley University registers more than 70 major mounds, situated on 9 enormous artificial terraces that ascend from South to North. The site is made up of three principal groups of ruins and a fourth group which is isolated at 5 km to the south. The heart of the site is located in the Santa Margarita farm, owned by the Ralda Family. They have donated a total of 22 "manzanas" so that the site can be part of the cultural patrimony of Guatemala.