Plazuelas is a prehispanic archaeological site located just north of San Juan el Alto, some north of federal highway 90 (Pénjamo-Guadalajara), and about west of the city of Pénjamo in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. The site is open to the public; it is dominated by a large, rectangular plaza with several pyramidal structures and platforms, along with a massive ball court. To the north of the structures is a field of boulders with thousands of glyphs carved into them.
The original settlement was considerably larger, with a large, circular structure called El Cajete marking its eastern extent.
According to INAH, site remains and evidence confirm the influence of many cultures merging on this site, although it is not certainly known who constructed this city, INAH believes the hunter-gatherer Chichimecas inhabited the Bajio region at the end of the postclassical period, and that many other sedentary culturesBrambila, 1993 lived here before, but these cultures are not mentioned nor identified.
Plazuelas (600–900 CE) is located in the same municipality as the site of Barajas (? – 1000 CE) and some west of Peralta (100 – 900 CE). These three cities were all settled in the Mesoamerican classic period, hence it is possible that they shared constructors, inhabitants, religion, governments and traded as part of a common "Bajio Tradition".
Very little is known about these societies inhabiting the Bajio Region, they are thought to have been members of hunter-gatherer, fishing Chichimec groups, it is now known that these places were trading confluence routes between central Mexico with northern and western Mesoamerica.
Over 1400 years ago, in addition to Plazuelas, there were other five known important cities in the region; San Bartolome (Tzchté), San Miguel Viejo, Tepozán, Loza Los Padres and Peralta (Mesoamerican site). Circular structures confirm the Tradition constant ancient relations with other civilizations. Circular structures are common across prehispanic Mesoamerica.
Background
The area north of the Lerma River, is presumed to have been originally occupied by hunter-gatherer nomadic groups, the surrounding area city construction was probably made by late occupants. Characteristics indicate that these constructions were sedentary establishments. Lifestyles and social characteristics follow the Mesoamerican model. It is estimated that the site was abandoned around year 1000 CE.
In prehispanic times, the Bajio region saw the most human development due to the fertility of the soil and the presence of surface water for agriculture. The oldest group to inhabit the area are called the Chupícuarios, who dominated the center of the Bajío area and were active in between 800 BCE and 300 CE. Their largest city is now the site called Chupícuaro, and their influence was widespread being found in the modern states of Zacatecas, Querétaro, Colima, Nayarit, Hidalgo, State of Mexico, Michoacán and Guerrero. Chupícuaro cities were associated with the Toltec city of Tula and when this city fell, these agricultural cities of Guanajuato also went into decline.Jimenez Gonzalez, p. 30 This and a prolonged drought cause these cities to be abandoned between the 10th and 11th centuries with only the Guamares left ethnically.
Then Chichimeca and other nomadic groups entered the area. These nomadic indigenous groups are generically referred to as Chichimeca, but in reality they were a variety of ethnicities such as the Guachichiles, Pames and Zacatecos. These groups were warriors, semi nomadic and did not practice significant agriculture, nor did they construct cities. Part of the state was also inhabited by the Otomi but they were mostly displaced or dominated by the Purépecha in the southwest and the Chichimeca in other parts. By the 16th century, most of Mesoamerica was dominated by either the Aztec Empire or Purépecha Empire, but Guanajuato was under the control of neither. It was on the northern border of the Purépecha Empire with southern Guanajuato showing significant cultural influence in the southern valleys, and Aztecs had ventured into the area looking for minerals. However, most of the state was dominated by various Chichimeca tribes as part of what the Spanish would call the "Gran Chichimeca". These Chichimeca were mostly nomadic with some scattered agricultural communities, mostly in the north.
Northern Mexico has been studied by Pedro Armillas (1964, 1969), Braniff (1989, 1994). More recent archaeological has been made by France, with research periods in 1998, 1999 and 2000.
Bajio Tradition
Not too long ago, the Bajio Region and a good part of the Mexican central plateau were considered of little archaeological interest. Little was known of native regional societies, beyond the historical data describing an almost uninhabited area two centuries before the conquest.
Data from historical documents indicated that the prehispanic Bajio inhabitants were only Chichimeca, nomadic groups with appropriation economies and belligerents. By 1972, Beatriz Braniff began to explain the Bajio cultures and proposed the contours of a "marginal" region of Mesoamerica, located on the edges of the high cultured regions The apparent influence of large Mesoamerican cities, mainly Teotihuacan in regional development, also departed from the academic debate the possibility of identifying and explaining the specific role played by local societies in the Mesoamerican development.
During the last ten years, archaeological studies have had a major boost in Guanajuato, and several myths of the Bajio past became truth, have provided better founded explanations based on the prehispanic life in this geographic area.
Three aspects seem fundamental: a) the Bajio as an important part of the Mesoamerican universe was a trade communication region and a link between three the cultural areas proposed by Paul Kirchhoff (1967): Central, North and West Mexico; b) theories based on influences determination from major population centers, has now been replaced by understanding the interactions and bi-directional relationships, where the implications of local societies such as Peralta have barely been addressed but no doubt will continue to investigate; c) during the mesoamerican classical period, between 300 and 700 CE, the Bajio developed a notable agricultural population, with a social and political organization structure, in addition to its deep regional cultural roots, that has been identified as the Bajio tradition.
Chichimeca Chichimeca was the name that the Nahua peoples of Mexico generically applied to a wide range of semi-nomadic peoples who inhabited the north of modern-day Mexico and southwestern United States, and carried the same sense as the European term "barbarian". The name was adopted with a pejorative tone by the Spaniards when referring especially to the semi-nomadic hunter-gatherer peoples of northern Mexico. In modern times only one ethnic group is customarily referred to as Chichimecs, namely the Chichimeca Jonaz, although lately this usage is being changed for simply "Jonáz" or their own name for themselves "Úza".
The Chichimeca peoples were in fact many different groups with varying ethnic and linguistic affiliations. As the Spaniards worked towards consolidating the rule of New Spain over the Mexican indigenous peoples during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the "Chichimecan tribes" maintained a resistance. A number of ethnic groups of the region allied against the Spanish, and the following military colonization of northern Mexico has become known as the "Chichimeca Wars".
Many of the peoples called Chichimeca are virtually unknown today; few descriptions mention them and they seem to have been absorbed into mestizo culture or into other indigenous ethnic groups. For example, virtually nothing is known about the peoples referred to as Guachichiles, Caxcanes, Zacatecos, Tecuexes, or Guamares. Others like the Opata or "Eudeve" are well described but extinct as a people.
Other "Chichimec" peoples maintain a separate identity into the present day, for example the Otomies, Chichimeca Jonaz, Coras, Huicholes, Pames, Yaquis, Mayos, O'odham and the Tepehuánes.
The first description of a modern objective ethnography of the peoples inhabiting La Gran Chichimeca was done by Norwegian naturalist and explorer Carl Sofus Lumholtz in 1890 when he traveled on mule through northwestern Mexico, meeting the indigenous peoples on friendly terms. With his descriptions of the rich and different cultures of the various "uncivilized" tribes, the picture of the uniform Chichimec barbarians was changed, although in Mexican Spanish the word "Chichimeca" remains connected to an image of "savagery".
The historian Paul Kirchhoff, in his work "The Hunting-Gathering People of North Mexico," described the Chichimecas as sharing a hunter-gatherer culture, based on the gathering of mesquite, agave, and tunas (the fruit of the nopal). While others also lived off of acorns, roots and seeds. In some areas, the Chichimecas cultivated maize and calabash. From the mesquite, the Chichimecas made white bread and wine. Many Chichimec tribes utilized the juice of the agave as a substitute for water when it was in short supply.
The site
The site was built over an artificial plateau, comprising a civic-religious complex and a ballgame court on the southern side. The structure complex known as Casas Tapadas comprises four buildings, a palace and a small altar bordered by a thick wall with a seating bench on the inside. There are several accesses, with a main access on the west side. A Large road leads to this entrance.
The place is believed to have worshiped gods representing water, earth, fire and wind. This worship is depicted in the architectonic manifestations, sculptures and ornamental articles found. Rays, clouds, serpents, snails and spirals are symbols represented in stone glyphs, and structures.
Plazuelas was built over three hill sides, divided by two ravines, overlooking a large valley to the south.
The eastern ravine has a water spring, considered the main water source, while western ravine, known as "Los Cuijes" only has seasonal rain water.
It can be said that the plateau where the site was constructed is surrounded by natural ravines in three sides (east, north and west), some deeper than others, the southern side, where the access to the site is located, is composed by a smooth slope towards the valley.
The esplanade to the west has remains of a second ballgame court, and possibly other remains, yet to be explored.
The central esplanade contains five buildings; it is believed to have represented the larger construction effort, in leveling the terrain. The buildings are the Casas Tapadas Complex, a ballgame court to the south, two structures just west of the court, a Temazcal and a large concentration of petroglyphs at the northern and western edges of the esplanade.
An interesting consideration is that the main three structures at Casas Tapadas, resemble three hills on the background and would seem to have been purposely aligned. See photograph.
The eastern esplanade has an unexplored circular basement.
The site structures seem to be aligned north south with a few degree deviation to the east.
Structures Casas Tapadas and the ballgame court to the south are connected by a long road
The building decoration depicts the stylized motif of "atadura de años" (bundle of years), the design was modified in several occasions to commemorate the end of a life cycle. It is also depicted in ray shaped sculptures ornamenting the eastern pyramid.
Casas Tapadas
The complex was built over a large rectangular platform oriented east–west, measuring approximately over which several structures were built, three main structures are aligned east – west.