Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition

Reconstruction of excavated shaft tomb exhibited at the National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.

The Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition refers to a set of interlocked cultural traits found in the western Mexican states of Jalisco, Nayarit, and, to a lesser extent, Colima to its south, roughly dating to the period between 300 BCE and 400 CE, although there is not wide agreement on this end date. Nearly all of the artifacts associated with this shaft tomb tradition have been discovered by looters and are without provenance, making dating problematic.^[1]

The first major undisturbed shaft tomb associated with the tradition was not discovered until 1993 at Huitzilapa, Jalisco.^[2]

Originally regarded as of Purépecha origin,^[3] contemporary with the Aztecs, it became apparent in the middle of the 20th century, as a result of further research, that the artifacts and tombs were instead over a thousand years older. Until recently, the looted artifacts were all that was known of the people and culture or cultures that created the shaft tombs. So little was known, in fact, that a major 1998 exhibition highlighting these artifacts was subtitled: "Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past".^[4]^[5]

It is now thought that, although shaft tombs are widely diffused across the area, the region was not a unified cultural area.^[6] Archaeologists, however, still struggle with identifying and naming the ancient western Mexico cultures of this period.

^ The International Council of Museum estimates that 90% of the clay figurines come from illegal excavations ICOM Archived 2008-05-06 at the Wayback Machine.
^ Williams, Classic period page as well as Danien, p. 23. There is some evidence (Meighan & Nicholson, p. 42) that many tombs were looted in ancient times.
^ Judy Sund, p. 13.
^ Townsend, Richard F.; Anawalt, Patricia Rieff (1998). Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05092-7.
^ Also, in the fourth edition of his Mexico: from the Olmecs to the Aztecs, Michael D. Coe talks about "our abysmal ignorance of the prehistory of the area", p. 56.
^ The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures says, for example, that "At no time in the pre-Hispanic era did any political or cultural entity impose itself on the whole region, even though certain cultural patterns (such as the building of shaft-and-chamber tombs) have in fact been widely diffused", Michelet p. 328. Beekman (2000, p. 393) makes the same argument.

[1] The International Council of Museum estimates that 90% of the clay figurines come from illegal excavations ICOM Archived 2008-05-06 at the Wayback Machine.

[2] Williams, Classic period page as well as Danien, p. 23. There is some evidence (Meighan & Nicholson, p. 42) that many tombs were looted in ancient times.

[3] Judy Sund, p. 13.

[4] Townsend, Richard F.; Anawalt, Patricia Rieff (1998). Ancient West Mexico: Art and Archaeology of the Unknown Past. Thames and Hudson. ISBN 978-0-500-05092-7.

[5] Also, in the fourth edition of his Mexico: from the Olmecs to the Aztecs, Michael D. Coe talks about "our abysmal ignorance of the prehistory of the area", p. 56.

[6] The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures says, for example, that "At no time in the pre-Hispanic era did any political or cultural entity impose itself on the whole region, even though certain cultural patterns (such as the building of shaft-and-chamber tombs) have in fact been widely diffused", Michelet p. 328. Beekman (2000, p. 393) makes the same argument.

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