[26] Local vegetation includes the Pascua de Montaña (Pogonopus speciosus), Chichique (Aspidosperma megalocarpon), Tepecaulote (Luehea speciosa), Caulote or West Indian Elm (Guazuma ulmifolia), Hormigo (Platymiscium dimorphandrum), Mexican Cedar (Cedrela odorata), Breadnut (Brosimum alicastrum), Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) and Papaturria (Coccoloba montana).

The archaeological finds of the Middle Preclassic period suggest that the population of Takalik Abaj may have been affiliated with the Olmec culture of the Gulf Coast lowlands region who are thought to have been speakers of a Mixe–Zoquean language.

[31] Study of obsidian recovered at Takalik Abaj indicates that the majority originated from the El Chayal and San Martín Jilotepeque sources in the Guatemalan highlands.

[33] The proportion of obsidian from different sources varied over time: The site had a long and continuous settlement history, with the period of principal occupation stretching from the Middle Preclassic down to the Postclassic.

[20] From this period onwards a continuity of culture and population settlement is in evidence, as represented by the persistence of a local ceramic style (called Ocosito) that remained in use until the Late Classic.

[22] The Pink Structure (Estructura Rosada in Spanish) was built as a low platform during the first part of the Middle Preclassic, at a time when the city was producing Olmec-style sculpture and La Venta was flourishing on the Gulf coast of Mexico (c.800–700 BC).

[39] During the Late Preclassic (300 BC – AD 200) various sites in the Pacific coastal region developed into true cities; Takalik Abaj was one of these, with an area greater than 4 square kilometres (1.5 sq mi).

[22] At this time Takalik Abaj emerged as an important centre with an apparently local style of art and architecture;[42] the inhabitants began to make boulder sculptures and to erect stelae and associated altars.

[45] However, given the evident continuity in local ceramic styles from the Middle to Late Preclassic, the change in attributes from Olmec to Maya may have been more an ideological than a physical transition.

[22] This ceramic tradition consists of fine red wares that are particularly associated with Kaminaljuyu and are found throughout the southeastern Guatemalan highlands and the adjacent Pacific slope.

[49] In the Early Classic, from around the 2nd century AD, the stela style that developed at Takalik Abaj and was associated with the portrayal of historic figures was adopted across the Maya lowlands, particularly in the Petén Basin.

The most common forms are pitchers and bowls with a surface that has been smoothed with a cloth, leaving parallel marks, and usually coated with a white or yellow wash.[54] At the same time, the use of local Ocosito ceramics waned.

[58] The indigenous accounts of the Kʼicheʼ themselves claim that they conquered this region of the Pacific coast, suggesting that the presence of their ceramics is associated with their conquest of Takalik Abaj.

[16] In January 1942 J. Eric S. Thompson visited the site with Ralph L. Roys and William Webb on behalf of the Carnegie Institution while undertaking a study of the Pacific Coast,[13] publishing his accounts in 1943.

[16] Miles bestowed the name Abaj Takalik to the site, which appeared in her contributed chapter in volume 2 of the Handbook of Middle American Indians published 1965.

[69] The site is also noted for its hydraulic systems, including a temazcal or sauna bath with a subterranean drainage, and Preclassic tombs found in excavations from the late 1990s onwards by Drs.

The terrace lies within the San Isidro Piedra Parada and Buenos Aires plantations and the land is currently dedicated to the cultivation of rubber and coffee.

[85] Structure 7 is a large platform located to the east of the plaza on Terrace 3 in the Central Group and is considered to have been one of the most sacred buildings at Takalik Abaj due to a series of important finds associated with it.

[84] Another important find in Structure 7 was a Late Classic cylindrical incensario given the name "La Niña" by archaeologists due to its prominent female appliqué figure.

[16] There are several stelae sculpted in the early Maya style that bear hieroglyphic texts with Long Count dates that place them in the Late Preclassic.

[102] Takalik Abaj has various so-called Potbelly monuments representing obese human figures sculpted from large boulders, of a type found throughout the Pacific lowlands, extending from Izapa in Mexico to El Salvador.

[48] Sculptures of the Potbelly style are found all along the Pacific Coast from southern Mexico to El Salvador, as well as further afield at sites in the Maya lowlands.

[111] The Cargador del Ancestro ("Ancestor Carrier") consists of four fragments of sculpture that had been reused in the facades of four different buildings during the latter part of the Late Preclassic.

The upper surface bears the intricate design of a crocodile with its body in the form of a symbol representing a cave and containing the figure of a seated Maya wearing a loincloth.

[130] The sides of the monument are carved with an early form of Maya hieroglyphs, the text appears to refer directly to the person depicted on the upper surface.

It stands 0.58 metres (23 in) and was found in the first half of the 20th century on the site of the electricity generator of the Santa Margarita plantation and moved close to the administration office.

[158] Monument 67 is a badly eroded Olmec-style sculpture showing a figure emerging from the mouth of a jaguar, with one hand raised and gripping a staff.

[131] The lower surface of the stela had been sculpted completely flat with 6 small cupmarks and a series of marks forming a design reminiscent of the discarded skin of a snake or of a vertebral column.

[38] Stela 87, discovered in 2018 and dating back to 100 BC, shows a king viewed from the side and holding a ceremonial bar with a maize deity emerging.

[182] Grave goods include an 18-piece jade necklace, two earspools coated in cinnabar, various mosaic mirrors made from iron pyrite, one consisting of more than 800 pieces, a jade mosaic mask, two prismatic obsidian blades, a finely carved greenstone fish, various beads that presumably formed jewellery such as bracelets and a selection of ceramics that date the tomb to AD 100–200.