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Prehispanic Northwest and Adjacent West Mexico 1200 B C A D 1400 An Inter Regional Perspective
Prehispanic Northwest and Adjacent West Mexico 1200 B C A D 1400 An Inter Regional Perspective
Ben A. Nelson, Elisa Villalpando Canchola, Jos Luis Punzo Daz & Paul E.
Minnis
To cite this article: Ben A. Nelson, Elisa Villalpando Canchola, Jos Luis Punzo Daz & Paul E.
Minnis (2015) Prehispanic Northwest and Adjacent West Mexico, 1200 B.C.A.D. 1400: An Inter-
Regional Perspective, KIVA, 81:1-2, 31-61, DOI: 10.1080/00231940.2016.1147003
bnelson@asu.edu
2
Centro Regional Sonora, Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia
3
Centro Regional Michoacn, Instituto Nacional de Antropologa e Historia
4
Department of Anthropology, University of Oklahoma
Northwest Mexico and West Mexico include four to five times as many named
cultural areas equivalent to those known in the US Southwest, all with indepen-
dent yet also connected histories. Together these changing cultures formed the
bridge that connected the US Southwest with Mesoamerica. We review some
aspects of regional diversity and moments of inter-regional relations, beginning
with early agriculture and sedentism in the north. We trace the northward spread
of rising regional centers and the appearance of some of the tangible elements
of connection. This review shows that specialized production was more sparsely
distributed than archaeologists once thought. Cultural identities were gained
and lost; yet material connections persisted, and with the advances of past
decades archaeologists can better characterize their occurrences, if not yet
the mechanisms that produced those connections.
Introduction
In 1980 and earlier, archaeologists studied Northwest and West Mexico (Figure 1)
primarily in terms of their intermediary roles in relations between Mesoamerica
and the US Southwest. Since then, we have found that these regions were not
passive intermediaries, but included diverse cultural subregions with their own his-
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tories. Such diversity does not eliminate the question of long-distance interaction. To
illustrate, we (a) review the origins of agriculture and sedentism in Sonora and
figure 1. Regions by which discussion is organized (not strictly cultural areas). Ben
A. Nelson.
PREHISPANIC NORTHWEST AND ADJACENT WEST MEXICO, 1200 B.C.A.D. 1400 33
We identify several key patterns. Sonora and Chihuahua were front-runners in the
adoption of maize agriculture relative to most other regions north of Mesoamerica.
That precedence also applies to early sedentism, as marked by the earliest trincheras
sites in Chihuahua ca. 1000 B.C. In these senses, the international Four Corners area
was an island of accelerated, early demographic and economic change. Those early
developments, however, did not entrain the region symbolically with Mesoamerica.
Not until ca. A.D. 875, after the gradual spread of regional centers from the Rio
Lerma-Santiago northward, was there a full-length continuum of cultures overtly
sharing styles, objects, and symbols. This important engagement, coincident with
the beginning of the Mesoamerican Early Postclassic period, coincided in West
Mexico with the advent of the Aztatlan tradition.
figure 2. Cultural areas and sites in Northwest Mexico. Ben A. Nelson. Site names: (1)
Cerro Juanaquea, (2) La Playa, (3) Huatabampo, (4) Cerro de Trincheras, (5) Paquim, (6)
Chaco Canyon, (7) Convento, (8) Ojo de Agua, (9) San Jose Bavicora, (10) Buyubampo,
(11) navas: El Cementerio.
far earlier than anticipated. Work at Cerro Juanaquea and other early trincheras
sites in Chihuahua and Arizona documents variability of early farming in the North-
west. Some early farming likely was nonintensive whereas in other locations, it was
more intensive and undertaken by aggregated and semisedentary groups.
Sonora, too, had an important role; La Playa, with its irrigation system, hundreds
of hornos, tons of fire cracked rocks, and thousands of artifacts (among them marine
shell in the form of ornament-manufacturing debris), displays the productivity of
early Sonoran Desert farmers (Carpenter et al. 2002, 2007, 2008). More than
350 inhumations provide evidence of changing social personae, health status,
PREHISPANIC NORTHWEST AND ADJACENT WEST MEXICO, 1200 B.C.A.D. 1400 35
mobility, and social violence ca. 800 B.C.A.D. 800 (Watson 2008a, 2008b; Watson
and Stoll 2013).
How did maize and other cultigens move to the northern regions beyond Mesoa-
merica? Were the crops adopted by local groups or did farming communities
expand, or both (e.g., Merrill et al. 2009)? Haury (1962), argued that early maize
spread through the Sierra Madre Occidental from subtropical Mesoamerica, but
was restricted to high elevations until new varieties appeared, with better tempera-
ture tolerance and lower moisture needs. Surprisingly, no evidence of early maize has
been found in the dry caves of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Data from Chihuahua to
address these questions is currently inadequate. For Carpenter and colleagues, the
early dispersion of maize relates to Proto Uto-Aztecan speakers who acquired agri-
cultural knowledge while living in high-elevation refuge regions in the western Sierra
Madre during the Altithermal (Carpenter et al. 2002; Mabry et al. 2008). When
more favorable conditions developed, they repopulated the desert regions, bringing
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maize agriculture to empty niches in the floodplains of Sonora and Sinaloa 3000
1000 B.C. (Carpenter and Snchez 2013; Carpenter et al. 2002:246). Observing
Alvarezs (1985:73) dates on maize and beans at Huatabampo (180 B.C.A.D.
950), Carpenter et al. (2002:253) suggest that southern Sonora played a significant
role in the diffusion of agriculture from West Mexico to the US Southwest and
Northwest Mexico. They urge work in the Serrana region, where they expect evi-
dence of maize prior to 25002000 B.C.
figure 3. Cultural areas and sites in adjacent West Mexico. Ben A. Nelson. Site names:
(1) Huitzilapa, (2) El Opeo, (3) El Pin, (4) San Sebastin and La Florida, (5) El Tel, (6) Ixt-
pete, (7) El Grillo, (8) Ixtln del Ro, (9) Amapa, (10) Alta Vista, (11) Nayar, (12) Cerro Mocte-
huma, (13) Ferrera, (14) La Quemada, (15) Tula, (16) Teotihuacan, (17) Las Ventanas, (18)
Cerro del Huistle, (19) Guasave.
and Lpez Mestas Camberos 1996; Solar Valverde 2010a). For example, El Pion,
San Sebastin La Florida (Cabrero Garca 1989), and El Tel (Solar Valverde 2010b)
are north and east of the previously defined range. Excavations near Mascota
(Mountjoy 2012) and in the Sayula Basin (Valdz 1994; Valdez et al. 2005) reveal
tombs with very short shafts, or none. Some are Middle Formative; others are
coeval with the shaft tombs and belong to a different social stratum than did the
deeper shaft tombs.
PREHISPANIC NORTHWEST AND ADJACENT WEST MEXICO, 1200 B.C.A.D. 1400 37
By ca. 150 B.C., aboveground monuments appeared in the form of circular cer-
emonial structure complexes Weigand (1974). Known locally as guachimontones,
these sites had patios formed by groups of 4, 8, 12, or 16 rectangular structures on a
circular banquette, surrounding a circular altar. First estimated to date ca. A.D. 200
900 (Weigand 2000), these monuments are now understood to span the Late Forma-
tive through Classic periods, 150 B.C.A.D. 500 (Beekman 2010; Jimnez Betts and
Darling 2000). The major guachimontn centers seem to have been built in the Late
Formative period; those built during the succeeding and final phase (ca. A.D. 200A.
D. 500) are considerably smaller (Beekman and Weigand 2010).
A turning point came ca. 500/600, when the independent West Mexican shaft-
tomb tradition and circular architecture was replaced by Mesoamericanized
material culture, upon which West Mexico reversed its tendency to be left out of
general Mesoamerican change (Schndube 1980). Sites such as Ixtpete and El
Grillo (Schndube and Galvn Villegas 1978), and Ixtln del Ro (Gifford 1950) fea-
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tured rectangular sunken patios surrounded by houses and temple structures, often
with central altars, similar in many ways to Chalchihuites settlements described
below. In coastal Jalisco and Nayarit rectangular structures were made of earth,
wood, and thatch, e.g., Amapa, Nayarit (Meighan 1976).
The site also includes an observatory oriented to a horizon calendar and a structure
decorated with Teotihuacan-like merlons. The Mesoamerican character of the
material culture is unmistakable (Medina Gonzlez and Garca Uranga 2010).
The Suchil Branch Chalchihuites occupation dates from ca. 200 to A.D. 950 and
the Guadiana branch from A.D. 600 to 1350 (Foster 1995; Punzo 2013a, 2013b);
changes that Kelley (1985) proposed for the Guadiana branch chronology have
been invalidated and the new dates are very near to those of Kelley and
Abbotts (1964) original proposal. Around A.D. 800, there were three main Chalchi-
huites centers: Alta Vista and Cerro Moctehuma in the Suchil branch, and Ferrera
100 km to the northwest in the Guadiana branch.
The Malpaso Valley occupation centered on La Quemada had over 200 villages
and hamlets (Trombold 1991). Some argue that it is taxonomically Chalchihuites
(Hers 1989); certainly it bears many similarities architectural, astronomical (Lelge-
mann 1996), ceramic (Strazicich 1998), and mortuary. The site is most noted for its
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spectacular hilltop fortress features, extensive road system (Medina 2000; Trombold
1991), and massive bone deposits (Gmez Ortz et al. 2007; Nelson and Martin
2015; ONeill 1995; Pijoan and Mansilla 1990). Weigand (Weigand 1978;
Weigand et al. 1977) initially placed La Quemada in the Early Postclassic (A.D.
9001100/1150), because its colonnaded hall recalled those at Tula. Now La
Quemada is known to be principally an Epiclassic (A.D. 600900) center (Hers
1989; Jimnez Betts 1989; Nelson 1997; Trombold 1990), making its apogee con-
temporary with that of Alta Vista (Kelley 1985).
As Schndubes (1980) term Incipient Postclassic for the period A.D. 600900
suggests, West Mexico had Postclassic traits earlier than the rest of Mesoamerica.
Colonnaded halls appear in Epiclassic Alta Vista and La Quemada but not till Early
Postclassic (A.D. 850/9001150) at Tula in Central Mexico; copper metallurgy
comes in the (very) Early Postclassic, as opposed to the Late Postclassic in Central
Mexico. The list of innovations goes on in ceramics and other artifacts (Braniff
1999). West and Northwest Mexico were dynamic and innovative agents.
Postclassic sites (i.e., A.D. 9001530) farther south along the Malpaso-Juchipila
and parallel streams were scantly documented prior to 1980 (Jimnez Betts and
Darling 2000). Currently a long-term project at El Tel is taking advantage a very
long occupational sequence to explore the expansion of the shaft-tomb tradition
out of the Lerma-Santiago, connections between West Mexico and Teotihuacan
(manifested in earring styles), the Epiclassic network embodied in pseudo-cloisonn
imagery of eagles and serpents, and the Postclassic occupation, about which so little
is currently known in Zacatecas (Jimnez Betts 2013; Solar Valverde and Padilla
Gonzlez 2013). INAH has conducted as yet unpublished excavations at two
other sites with Postclassic components, Las Ventanas and Cerro Tepizuasco.
Cabrero (1989, 1991, 2005, 2012; Cabrero and Lpez 1997, 2010; Cabrero
and Ruvalcaba 2013) has defined a sequence in the Bolaos valley spanning the
Late Formative-Early Classic (ca. A.D. 1500 through the Early Postclassic
(5001120 A.D.) periods extending upstream from the Teuchitln area toward
Chalchihuites. The sites contain mortuary evidence of hierarchical organization.
The mainly Classic period site of Cerro del Huistle (ca. 550950) (Hers 1989,
PREHISPANIC NORTHWEST AND ADJACENT WEST MEXICO, 1200 B.C.A.D. 1400 39
1990, 2000) also has individuals one a child buried with elaborate grave
goods.
The Late Classic period (ca. A.D. 600900) in this region is represented by
red-on-buff ceramics; sites are collections of house mounds representing platforms
that had structures atop (Mountjoy 2000). This red-on-buff development is not dis-
cussed further here. However, coeval early antecedents to the Aztatln style can be
found in the area of Chametla, Sinaloa (Kelly 1938; Smith and Heath-Smith 1982)
represented by flamboyant polychrome designs and engraving.
The Aztatln center of Amapa, Nayarit (Meighan 1976), 1 km2 in area, was built
of earth, wood, and thatch, so that its former magnitude easily escapes notice. Of
over 50 rectangular, long, vertical mounds, the largest was about 16 120 m at
the base and 7 m high. The mounds constituted four well-defined plazas and
other groupings, and included curvilinear house, trash, and burial mounds. A
small clay model matches details of the mounds and depicts an impressive temple
structure (Meighan 1976:Plate 12).
Aztatln ceramics featured remarkable technical sophistication and striking ico-
nography. Red-on-buff, incised polychrome, white ware, and Plumbate wares of
fine pastes were highly polished and high-fired; motifs included feather bundles,
headdresses, and dancers or priests, one of which Mathiowetz (2011) interprets as
Xocihipilli or the Young Sun God, a deity whom he traces from Central Mexico
through West and Northwest Mexico to the US Southwest.
Copper objects included not only bells but also 12 other forms. Artisans fashioned
clay into earspools, pipes, decorated spindle whorls, beads, figurines, whistles, and
stamps. They made obsidian into prismatic blades and other stone materials into
labrets, beads, and pendants and sell into bracelets.
Aztatln sites are also found along the Rio Santiago-Lerma drainage system,
notably at Ixtln del Ro (Gifford 1950), with Early (A.D. 9001300) and Late Post-
classic (A.D. 13001529) components. Masonry temple or palace structures were
wide and shallow with colonnaded entrances.
Ramrez Urrea (2006) identifies an intrusive Aztatln occupation in the Sayula
Basin in a few sites amidst a persisting local tradition. For Ramrez Urrea, the adoption
of the style is a material means of legitimizing the power of an interconnected regional
elite and occurred in two steps. First was the use of the early Aztatln style and some
associated sumptuary goods; secondly the later iconographic style presented
40 BEN A. NELSON ET AL.
Di Peso (1974b) argued that Paquim was a very large community with 2000
rooms and a population of around 5000 and that it strongly dominated a large
area. Whalen et al. (2010a) argue that the site was roughly half as large with
about 1000 rooms and a population of no larger than 2000. Whalen and Minnis
(2001, 2009) working closest to Paquim, argue that it dominated only communities
within about a days walk of the center. Others document how Paquims influence
extended into Sonora, Arizona, New Mexico, and far west Texas (e.g., Douglas and
MacWilliams 2015; Whalen and Pitezel 2015) with some shared cultural (Rakita
2009), religious (VanPool and VanPool 2007, 2015), and material cultural common-
alities (Douglas and MacWilliams 2015). These studies imply that the center had less
impact regionally than Di Peso envisioned.
Certain studies (Weigand 1968, 1982; Weigand and Harbottle 1992; Weigand et al.
1977) captured intriguing evidence of mineral and metallurgical activity in West
Mexico. These findings allowed visions of intensive, specialized production through-
out the region following pioneering studies at sites such as Paquim, Alta Vista, and
Amapa. Weigand (1982) characterized northern Zacatecas in particular, but also
Northwest and West Mexico in general, as a rare resource zone exploited by
distant powers. Current evidence suggests that based on the accumulated evidence,
intensive production, while certainly present, was more scattered in time and space
than one might have thought.
Early agricultural period components at La Playa, possibly as early as 800 B.C.
A.D. 200 (Villalpando and Pastrana 2003, 2011), had remarkable quantities of
marine shell transported from the Gulf of California (Carpenter et al. 2007, 2008;
Villalpando and Pastrana 2003). Huatabampo participated heavily in this tradition
connecting West Mexico and Sonora (lvarez 1985, 1990; Braniff 1992).
Some shaft-tomb burials in the Late Formative-Early Classic period of the Lerma-
Santiago Basin, ca. 200 B.C.A.D. 400, have large quantities of shell. A shroud
made of many thousands of perforated shell beads adorned the central individual
(N1) at Huitzilapa (Lpez Mestas Camberos 1998). The same individual had jade
earspools, beads, pendants, nose rings, earrings, shell bracelets, and conch shells
with pseudo-cloisonn decoration. Large, hollow figurines accompanied the dead
in shaft tombs (Aronson 1993; Furst 1965; Galvn Villegas 1991; Graham 1998;
von Winning and Hammer 1972). No firm evidence exists as yet about the manufac-
turing locations of these objects.
Formal mines are abundant near Alta Vista, in the Suchil Branch of the Chalchi-
huites area (Weigand 1968). By comparing the spoil material with the consolidated
conglomerate that the miners excavated, Weigand inferred that they were taking
weathered chert, useful for carving pendants and the like. Eighteen radiocarbon
dates from the mines place this activity in the Epiclassic period, ca. A.D. 600900
(Schiavitti 1994, 1995). Mines are not known elsewhere. Cabrero (1991) views
the occupation of the Bolaos drainage as colonization from the Teuchitln area
to acquire and control the movement of Chalchihuites mineral resources.
PREHISPANIC NORTHWEST AND ADJACENT WEST MEXICO, 1200 B.C.A.D. 1400 43
Copper artifacts occur at many sites throughout North and West Mexico. DiPeso
et al. (1974a) and Meighan (1976) believed that Paquim and Amapa produced
copper. Hosler (1994), however, argues places production along the Ro Balsas in
Michoacn and Guerrero. Apparently an active distribution system emerged in
the Early Postclassic. We are skeptical of Hoslers beginning date of A.D. 600 for
copper production. This date is based on two insecure stratigraphic contexts and
contradicts all other regional evidence, which argues for an initial date around A.
D. 875. Copper artifacts circulated from then till ca. A.D. 1450.
Obsidian was both produced locally and obtained over long distances (Darling
1993; Jimnez Betts and Darling 2000). Prehispanic occupants of the Chalchihuites,
Bolaos, Malpaso-Juchipila, and Teuchitln areas, used local sources for everyday
tasks and rare, more distantly acquired sources for special functions. Prismatic
blades of Pachuca green obsidian, although rare, demonstrate that the north and
west Mexican centers were linked to Central Mexico.
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Turquoise was abundant at Alta Vista; Weigand (1982) reports 17,000 turquoise
pieces. UV ray fluorescence and X-ray fluorescence studies of samples from Suchil
branch sites by Crdova and Martinez (2006) confirm the presence of great
amounts of chemical turquoise and a smaller proportion of amazonite (Melgar
Tisoc et al. 2014). However, Alta Vista now appears to be one of very few Northwest
or West Mexican production centers for blue-green stones. Nelsons excavations at
La Quemada, for example, have turned up only a handful of pieces of chemical tur-
quoise. Hers (2013) notes that while turquoise was found at the Ferrera site, else-
where in Durango amazonite, another blue-green stone, was used instead. Of the
many other regional centers, only Paquim had significant quantities, which
occurred as beads, pendants, and mosaics (DiPeso 1974c). Important here is that
Tula and Teotihuacan, once thought to have driven turquoise trade, each have
only a single mosaic of turquoise.
Evidence of shell-ornament production (debitage, preforms, and manufacturing
failures) is present in practically all recorded sites from the Huatabampo, Central
Coast and Trincheras traditions, and in each instance indications point to local man-
ufacture based on variation in manufacturing techniques (lvarez 1985, 1990;
Braniff 1992; Fish and Fish 2004; Gallaga 2004; McGuire et al. 1999; McGuire
and Villalpando 1993; Vargas 2004; Villalpando 2001).
McGuire (1986) argued that elite in Northwest Mexico and the US Southwest
gained and maintained their sociopolitical status by manipulating the exchange of
high-value goods. Elite actors achieved and maintained power by controlling
access to certain goods that could only be acquired through external exchange
(McGuire 1986:251). Polychrome vessels from Casas Grandes recovered in funerary
contexts at Cerro de Trincheras may be examples of such luxury goods, as may the
copper bells recovered at Ojo de Agua (Braniff 1992), Cerro de Trincheras or San
Jos Bavicora (Punzo and Villalpando 2015).
At Paquim, the enormous quantities of Mesoamerican exotic artifacts, especially
shell, macaws, and copper, led Di Peso to suggest substantial workshops and guild-
like production. These goods were then destined for export markets that helped fund
Paquimes splendor. The general consensus now is that these goods were more for
consumption at Paquim and its nearby contemporaries and that the shell and
44 BEN A. NELSON ET AL.
copper were produced in West Mexico, not at Paquim (Bradley 1996; Rakita and
Cruz 2015; Vargas 1995; Whalen et al. 2010b). That leaves macaws as the best evi-
dence for the production of exotica at Paquim. They likely were bred at Paquim
(Somerville et al. 2010), and were ritually used at Paquim and nearby communities.
The scale of production may indicate that birds and feathers were also important
trade items.
and Northwest Mexican regional centers with distant cities, then thought of as
seats of empires. Some saw the regional centers as a succession of castle-towns
(Armillas 1964) or imperial outposts (Kelley 1971, 1976; Weigand 1968, 1978;
Weigand et al. 1977). Braniff (1974) and Kelley (1971) traced the arrival of
incised-engraved and red-on-buff ceramics, which came along with new architec-
tural forms ca. 550 B.C., to Central Mexico; to these scholars such links represented
the arrival of Mesoamerican peoples in the frontier zone. The earth monster, Venus,
lightning, eagles, serpents, and other icons indicated a connection with wider
Mesoamerican ideology.
More recently archaeologists have specified a sequence of interaction spheres of
changing geographic scope. The Capacha ceramic style, which Mountjoy (1989)
places ca. 1200800 B.C., suggests a very wide interaction sphere involving Michoa-
cn, central Mexico, coastal Veracruz, and Machalilla in Ecuador (Kelly 1980;
Mountjoy 2010). The circular monuments of Teuchitlan, ca. 200 B.C.A.D. 400,
establish a later, smaller, and differently oriented sphere (Weigand 1985) centered
on Jalisco. A dynamic northern interaction sphere in turn succeeded that tradition
(Jimnez 1989, 1992, 1995; Jimnez and Darling 2000). This sphere incorporated
the Chalchihuites, Malpaso-Juchipila, Bolaos, and other neighboring regions ca.
A.D. 400900. The northern sphere includes what Armillas (1964) and Kelley
(1971) had described as the expanded northern frontier of Mesoamerica. Most of
this development took place during the interregnum between Teotihuacan and
Tula, leaving little room for the notion of imperial forces as drivers (Nelson 1997).
Regional histories diverged in the Chalchihuites, Malpaso, and Bolaos areas
after their Epiclassic to Early Postclassic period occupations, variously ca. 900
1100. For example, the cultural identities expressed in material culture at La
Quemada and Alta Vista were no longer distinguishable locally after abandonment.
Elsewhere, such as in the Guadiana Branch of Chalchihuites, occupation continued
but in changed forms.
Ca. A.D. 900, the Aztatln tradition supplanted older networks of interaction,
particularly along the Pacific Coast, from the Tomatln Valley (Mountjoy 2000)
to far north as Buyubampo, Sinaloa (Carpenter and Snchez 2014). This network
PREHISPANIC NORTHWEST AND ADJACENT WEST MEXICO, 1200 B.C.A.D. 1400 45
omously, unlike the groups conquered and merged by the Purpecha to form the
Tarascan Empire to the south and east (Schndube 1980). After the collapses of
Malpaso and Chalchihuites centers, refugees may have joined the inhabitants of
the Sierra Madre Occidental, as groups there became todays Cora, Wixrika, and
Tepehuan. Archaeologists have demonstrated continuities in iconography and
ritual reaching back 1200 or more years (Coyle 2000; Kantor 2015; Medina Gon-
zlez 2000; Medina Gonzlez and Garca Uranga 2010; Nelson 2015; Rodrguez
Zarian 2009). To the south, the bellicose Caxcan controlled the Tlaltenango and
lower Juchipila valleys (Baus Czitrom 1985). Other groups too numerous to name
were in the Santiago and along the Pacific Coast in Jalisco, Nayarit, and Sinaloa.
In the territories previously belonging to the Teuchitlan, Bolaos, Malpaso, Chalchi-
huites, and Aztatln areas or traditions, inhabitants spoke more than 40 languages
at the time of contact (Longacre 1967).
Berrojalbiz and Hers (Berrojalbiz 2012; Berrojalbiz and Hers 2013) question
Kelley and Kelleys (1971) longstanding proposal that the Tepehuan are descendants
of the original, pre-Chalchihuites Loma San Gabriel culture. They argue that the
Tepehuan were Sonoran immigrants who arrived after A.D. 1350. Punzo (2009)
proposes a final Bajikam phase for the Guadiana valley, and also reviews evidence
for sixteenth and seventeenth century reorganization of groups in the Sierra
Madre Occidental and Guadiana Valley (Punzo 2013b).
Braniff (1985:89) assumed that the dwellers of prehispanic Sonoran towns and
villages dispersed into smaller units that the Spaniards labeled rancheras. Reff
(1981), however, identified towns encountered by Cabeza de Vaca. Later Braniff
(1992), following Di Peso (1974a:774775) and others, considered it crucial to
reconstruct the routes of sixteenth century explorers in order to connect prehispanic
occupations with colonial history. Most scholars assumed that Spanish-introduced
epidemics caused a protohistoric population collapse (Reff 1991).
McGuire and Villalpandos (1993) Altar Valley survey data show that following
the twelfth-to-thirteenth-century population peak, the scale of occupation returned
to that of the villages in the previous centuries. The Altar Valley was part of the
Trincheras tradition until the Altar phase but part of southern Arizona Oodham
46 BEN A. NELSON ET AL.
tradition in the later prehispanic period. Santa Teresa phase (A.D. 14501690) sites
in the area can be attributed to Sobaipuri groups. The Oquitoa phase (A.D. 1690
1840) was the period when the Jesuits concentrated the Sopa Oodham population
into missions, where they were slowly replaced with Tohono Oodham brought from
north and west.
Carpenter and Sanchez (2014:135136) note that southern Sonora and northern
Sinaloa largely resisted the Spanish intrusion. Epidemics reduced the population, but
survivors moved to more strategic locations without cataclysm. The authors argue for
continuity in this region between the Aztatlan tradition and the Cahitan Tahue popu-
lation. Historic texts document thousands of people living in towns, growing abundant
food crops and cotton. Some met the intruders armed with shields, lances, and clubs,
profusely ornamented with feathers, shell and stone belts, bracelets and anklets, and
dressed in cotton garments. Prehispanic ceramic styles also continued into historic times.
Di Peso inferred that Paquim met a violent end at the hands of its enemies
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Related observations can be made at smaller scales. For example, the groups along
the eastern side of the Sierra Madre appear to have played limited but significant
roles in the connections. La Quemada was abandoned ca. A.D. 900, never partici-
pating in the Aztatln tradition. Occupation at Alta Vista in the Chalchihuites
Suchil Branch continued till ca. A.D. 1050 and at sites in the Guadiana Branch till
ca. A.D. 1300. The connections implied by the impressive mining activity and anom-
alous amount of turquoise in the Suchil Branch need to be further understood in this
regard. These sites also appear to have had some role in transmitting certain ceramic
motifs that occur on Hohokam Red-on-buff pottery (Carot 2001).
Beyond the Chalchihuites region in southern Chihuahua Brooks (1971) documen-
ted archaeological remains, mostly small ranchera settlements and small hilltop
enclosures, but no aggregated villages or substantial architecture. Hard et al.
(2015) argue that the 300 km gap of large settlements between the Casas Grandes
and Chalchihuites regions was due to the viability of a dispersed settlement
pattern based on rain-fed farming. There are substantial differences between
Mesoamerican villages (such as village organization) and material culture (such
as ceramic types) as far north as Durango and villages that appear more Southwes-
tern as far south as central Chihuahua, so much so that we believe that southern
Chihuahua can be viewed almost as a boundary between Northwest Mexico-US
Southwest and Mesoamerica.
In contrast, nearly every main valley along the western side of the Sierra Madre
appears to have been connected to some degree. Recent findings at Buyubampo (Car-
penter and Snchez 2014), including a copper bell, obsidian prismatic blades, a cylind-
rical seal, Aztatln spindle whorls, and Aztatln and Casas Grandes sherds, suggest an
important role in the network for that northern Sinaloan town. The Yaqui Valley
(Gallaga 2007; Garcia 2011) has produced additional evidence of interaction. At
Onavas, Watson and Garca (2016) excavated El Cementerio, dated A.D. 943
1481. Among more than 100 human inhumations, 57 presented fronto-occipital
cranial deformation and 15 had dental mutilation, especially men and children.
Some inhumations were ornamented with bracelets, necklaces, earrings, of marine
shell and blue stones (turquoise or azurite). These features indicate possible relation-
ships with coastal Sinaloa and Nayarit in West Mexico, prior to A.D. 1200.
48 BEN A. NELSON ET AL.
One valley in the far north that does not appear to have had a role in north-south
interactions is the Rio Altar with the key site of Cerro de Trincheras. Today attention
is focused on the east-west connections forged by late prehistoric movement of styles
and items between people of the Casas Grandes area of northern Chihuahua and the
Trincheras area, with little evidence for connectivity with the Hohokam area to the
north (McGuire et al. 1999; Punzo and Villalpando 2015; Watson et al. 2015). It
appears that by A.D. 1250, the Hohokam and the Trincheras communities were cul-
turally distinct groups at war with one other (McGuire and Villalpando 2007,
2008).
Conclusion
Echoing an earlier call (Haury 1945), McGuire (1980) made a persuasive plea for more
field research in North and West Mexico. Some of that work has occurred; the accumu-
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Acknowledgments
We thank Henry Wallace, Peter Jimnez, Andrea Torvinen, and two anonymous
reviewers for critical comments and Christopher Schwartz for maps and other
thoughtful assistance.
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