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Archaeological Research in Jalisco - The Atemajac Valley Project

Archaeological Research in Jalisco - The Atemajac Valley Project

1970-present Proyecto Valle de Atemajac
L. Javier Galvan V., INAH

      Javier Galvan, an investigator with the Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia, Centro Regional Jalisco, has focused his research on the Atemajac Valley, where modern Guadalajara is located. The project began with survey of the valley, but took advantage of opportunities created by urban growth to carry out salvage excavations in sites of different periods.

Tabachines

Shaft Tombs from Tabachines


       These are profile drawins of shaft tombs excavated by Javier Galvan at the site of Tabachines in the early 1970s. The artifacts found here define the Tabachines phase, which has since been broken down into Early, Middle, and Late subphases. This is the largest sample of shaft tombs from a single location excavated by any archaeologist, and a remarkable resource. From a slightly different sector of the site were found nearly the same number of box tombs, associated with quite different material culture from the El Grillo phase.


Bugambilias Abajo

      This is a guachimonton site, with the circular architecture of the Teuchitlan Tradition. Javier Galvan's surface collections and cleaning of looter's pits in the early 1980s found an overwhelming collection of material from the Tabachines phase, although the subphase is unknown.


Ixtepete

      Ixtepete is, I believe, the only archaeological site in Jalisco that has been official declared a protected archaeological park at the federal level, despite generations of work identifying much more impressive sites. It is a sizable site, however, on the western edge of Guadalajara. It includes some 40 mounds, most of which were not included within the delimited park area, and a central rectangular platform with a late style talud-tablero facade. Ceramics and architecture place it overwhelmingly within the El Grillo phase, although at least one shaft tomb with older materials has been found in the area. Galvan participated in some restoration work here in the early 1970s, which contributed to his overall schema for the Atemajac valley.


El Grillo

      El Grillo is the most interesting site in the Atemajac valley from my perspective. The site lies along the northern edge of Guadalajara's beltway (it's impossible to miss, as the highway partly cuts the back of it), just a few blocks away from Tabachines and probably related to the box tombs there. The site has a murky history, with several different Mexican and American archaeologists putting in small test pits over the past several decades. Galvan mapped the site, and showed that in contrast with Ixtepete, El Grillo currently includes a small number of larger mounds. It is somewhat reminiscent of Moundville in the United States to me, at least if you visit it in the rainy season. Materials at the site once again seem to pertain overwhelmingly to the El Grillo phase, although earlier and later materials are visible on the surface. One of the most prominent features is the large U-shaped structure that abuts the highway.


Bugambilias Arriba

      On the hill far above the guachimonton site, and apparently unrelated, is a group of small residential structures scattered across the rough terrain. They rarely have basal platforms, and their standing walls led to their nickname of Corrales. The ceramics found with these sites seem to be invariably of the Atemajac phase, perhaps dating to the later Postclassic. Javier Galvan mapped the site and carried out small excavations in the early 1980s.