Guachimontones

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Guachimontones (alternatively Huachimontones) is a pre-Columbian archaeological site near the Mexican town of Teuchitlán in the state of Jalisco. It is a major site of the so-called Teuchitlan tradition.

Guachimontones includes shaft tombs, two Mesoamerican ballcourts, circular complexes and five plazas. Its most unique characteristic are circular stepped pyramids in a middle of a ten round building complexes, one of them 60 feet tall. Plazas and wide raised ledges surround each pyramid. On top of the ledge are platforms that once supported wooden temples made of pine and bamboo and poles used for volador ceremonies.

The excavation of the site is mainly work of archaeologists of the Colegio de Michoacán in Guadalajara and US archaeologist Phil Weigand and his wife Celia Garcia de Weigand. Because the sites have been heavily looted, the archaeologists have had to contact the looters themselves to identify potential sites.

It has recently been unveiled that the people who inhabited this region and constructed these pyramids left the region around 400 B.C.

UNESCO has added the whole region, including the nearby tequila distilleries, to its World Heritage List.

[edit] References

• Julian Smith - Surprise Finds in Tequila Country (Archaeology magazine November/December 2006)