West Mexico and the Teuchitlán culture

West Mexico is mysterious and often misunderstood. In some ways, a peripheral area and in other ways closely tied to the rest of Mesoamerica, West Mexico is a paradox. The Teuchitlán culture is the best known culture from this area and its beautiful art is a testament to its rich culture. Join us as we explore the Teuchitlán culture!

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Chapters:

Introduction: 0:00
West Mexican Origins: 3:41
The Shaft Tomb Tradition: 6:28
Teuchitlán Culture: 13:49
Guachimontones: 20:31
Life in the Teuchitlán Culture: 26:55
West Mexico and Mesoamerica: 31:55
Conclusion: 35:48

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Sources and Bibliography:

[AncientAmericas]

Please let me know if you have any questions!

[Gidister]

I was today years old when I learned that Tequila is named after a mountain.

[robertoarguelles]

I'm from Guadalajara. From elementary school, precolombine cultures like the mexicas and mayans overshadow the richness from the region in local history classes. Now that I teach history to architecture students, having this video available will reasure the importance of the region and its cultural value, as well as the imp'ortance of embracing such heritage in order to define identity which always is a problem when dealing with context and self assuring in the field of architecture. Thank you so much for your invaluable hardwork.

[M-Z-R]

Ancient dioramas have to be my favorite artwork, I love how they just depict how they saw there life.

[cabwaylingo_]

ever since i subbed to you ive been WAITING for the west mexico content, you literally have no idea how much this means to me. i grew up in the region and i got to visit many sites around colima, jalisco and nayarit throughout my life. love this!!! thank you as always for the great videos!

[danem.]

One of the best channels on youtube right here.

[sereysothe.a]

dude I can't overstate how great these videos are. they're the college lectures I wish I had gotten. keep it up!!

[kristianOLS]

My father is from colima and I've seen the shaft tombs, pyramids, and ball courts. I've also drank the pulque (somehow watery and thick). It was awesome to watch this episode and get further insight into the wonders of my ancestors. Thank you!!

[amwolfmusic]

My mom is from west Mexico and she has told me so much about ancient civilizations and beliefs! Thank you for this as it's not very often there's videos of western Mexico and it's peoples

[MajoraZ]

Glad to see this come out and that Anthony Deluca (aka Tlatollotl and /u/Mictlantecuhtli, check out their posts on various sites for more on West Mexico and Mesoamerica in general!) was able to help! I don't have too much to add, hence suggesting you work with him instead of me for this video, but here's some quick thoughts: Firstly, the soldier ceramic figures: Something that's always stood out to me is how weird some of the armor and weapons look compared to what we see in other parts of Mesoamerica (except, perhaps, to the Gulf Coast: I have a *very* hard time telling apart Gulf Coast and West Mexican ceramic figures and both have some pretty weird weapons, but that could just be a lack of familiarity rather then a similar style?): At 29:30, you can see how the left figure has a very barrel shaped piece of armor on the chest, with a raised flared/lipped collar, while the figure on the right also has some sort of raised portion on the back

This is... not really something you see elsewhere, with the possible exception of a specific Maya ceramic, K5451 (the helmet is even sorta similar!). The straps across the chest seem to tie the armor in place evoke the open-sewn variation of Ichahuipilli (cotton padded or stuffed gambeson vests and tunics), and indeed Dr. Marco Antonio Cervera Obregón, one of the leading researchers on Mesoamerican weaponry, seems to believe these are variations on Icahuipilli, with the Maya ceramic also striking me as being cloth. However, TheGhostHero, another hobbyist whose main interest is West Mexican soldier ceramics, believes that at least some of these had a solid construction.

You didn't show any examples in the video, but some of the figures from West Mexico have even more extremely raised/flared back-portions, extending above the wearer's head (it reminds me of the "plate" armor Mississippian soldiers had), or even things like separate hip-armor plates(?). While it could just be a stylized exaggeration of what's seen in the video (indeed, the "barrel" shape on the left could also be an exaggeration of the right figure too, as I noted it's neckline is raised and transitions into the back"plate", tho K5451 is also in a more realistic style and has a uniform "barrel" lip, so it's probably actual variation), it does make me wonder if the back portions are perhaps some sort of wood or bamboo plating (a few even have what seem like distinct plates on the front)? The entire "barrel" armor being wood or bamboo/wicker breastplates is also fun to imagine, though at this point I do lean on it/the front and sides being gambeson.

Other things of note is the "bowler hat" looking helmets soldier tend to have, square or rectangular shields, what seem to be serrated knives or maybe serrated Macuahuitl like weapons, large two handed clubs (as seen in the video, note also one with spikes or studs!), slings, and what seem to be stone axes or clubs with a stone striking head. As a final note for soldiers and warfare, I would caution against too strongly focusing on ritual warfare and captive taking. Certainly West Mexico is not my area, but the consensus has certainly shifted to warfare among the Aztec being more pragmatic and tactical then once thought, with ritualism and captive taking being secondary to actual political and strategic aims in war.

Speaking of ceramics and potential misinterpretations, I have seen some sources interpret the lower niches in some of the architectural ceramics as perhaps being a lower first story on a multistory structure... however, as you say in the video this being a underground niche or even a metaphorical lower underworld level seems to be the prevailing interpretation. Quite a few artists such as Angus Mcbride and Scott and Stuart Gentling use the distinctive "hooked" points on the straw roofs as inspiration for they how to draw roofs for lower status homes in Aztec sites, too!

Regarding the Colima dogs, I'm going to borrow commentary from TheColimaDog / poethebadger 's excellent tq1wtter thread on the topic: She notes that, firstly, we only *think* the dog ceramics are from Colima: they, too, are a victim to heavy looting making provenance difficult. She also notes that they were likely burial goods, providing the deceased with a symbolic source of sustenance with their meat, and as in other world cultures, dogs were sometimes seen as guides to the afterlife in Mesoamerica: Look at Xolotl in Aztec mythology. The point being, dogs were not JUST a meat source, but were also companions and the like too. She thinks the breed the ceramics were modeled after was probably an ancestor to today's Xolo breed (While Treytheexplainer, who I am actually friends with and does run a great channel, has a really convincing video arguing that it, Chihuahuas, etc likely don't have any significant Precolumbian ancestry, apparently there is newer research establishing otherwise), as some of the ceramics actually do have incised lines, seemingly to indicate skin wrinkles with some of the dogs being hairless.

The Andes actually has some very similar wrinkly dog ceramics which show up starting around 750AD, wheras prior to that time, there were only haired examples. At the same time, Metallurgy (of soft metals like gold, silver, and copper) shows up in Mesoamerica around 600-700AD, with West Mexico being one of the most major centers of this, and by some theories, by way of sea-traders from Ecuador. She theorizes that the same West Mexican-Ecuadorian trade/contact which might have brought metallurgy up to Mesoamerica may have brought hairless dogs down to Peru. As you note, the Andes also has stirrup ceramic vessels like West Mexico, though I'm not sure if the chronology lines up for that to be a part of this, since you brought them up with the Capacha and obviously they far pre-date the 600-800AD range in question here. I'm also not quite sure how accepted the Ecuador-West mexican contact theory is: I know many researchers do take it seriously, due to similarities in textiles, metalwork, ceramics, and linguistics, and that Spondylus is thought to be one of the major trading goods involved, but my impression is there's some skepticism. Speaking of trade with other parts of the Americas, the Mesoamericans probably weren't getting turquoise from the Southwestern US/Oasisamerica: While there was definitely direct trade between that region and Mesoamerica, recent studies have shown all or most turquoise in Mesoamerican art was sourced within the region, not from Oasisamerica.

Regarding the bit about circular temples, while Cuicuilco's main temple does evoke the raised platforms at Los Guachimontones with a purely radial, concentric design (I might be overgeneralizing here, but that shape does seem more common in Western Mexico and the Northern edge of Mesoamerica, or more in the Preclassic/early Classic in Central Mexico), it is worth noting that we do see circular temples all the way into the Late Postclassic and Spanish contact in other parts of Mesoamerica, specifically in the context of temples to Wind gods, such as Ehecatl-Quetzalcoatl, though these aren't as purely circular.

Lastly, while it is not quite within the same area (Los Guachimontones is at southwest corner of it), the Bajio region of Northwestern Mexico is actually the likely area that the Nahuas who later would found the city-states that gave rise to "Aztec" civilization and the "Aztec Empire" as we know it migrated from starting around 1200AD. People like to claim that they migrated all the way up from the Southwestern US, but the spread of Uto-Aztecan languages and Proto (or Proto-Proto) Nahuatl down to Northern Mexico had already taken place centuries or Millenia prior. There's actually some recent proposals by Magnus Pharo (as well as some older ones by other researchers, though those are mostly disputed by now) asserting that Nahuatl or Proto-Nahuatl spread into Central Mexico as early as the Classic period or even before, and of course there's the assertions that "The Toltecs" (If they existed... I still think the video we did on that deserves a second pass!) where Nahuatl speakers, but to be honest I don't fully understand Pharo's exact proposals, so I can't clarify on it here.

We also do know a bit about the areas here as of the Late Postclassic period/Spanish contact, which I wish came up in the video, since i'm not sure it'll get it's own one down the line. As an example, in that same Bajio area, in Coyula, Tonalá, Guadalajara, the city or town of Tonala was a pretty large site (which, sadly, was bulldozed to make a garbage dump) of the Texcuexe culture, ruled via a queen. Reports from Guzman's expedition says that Tonala had around 6000 houses, and the queens daughter alongside other towns fought Guzman but were defeated. This conflict is actually depicted in the Lienzo de Tlaxcala where the Tonallan forces have some macuahuitl (including one with a pointed wood tip), ball-headed maces, elaborate back banners and breechlothes etc in addition to the bows and painted faces and pelt garments you expect from West/Northern Mexico. There's also some notable stuff with the the towns, states/kingdoms etc of Xalisco (not actually in Jalisco!) and Colima, but i'm running out of space and I'm honestly mostly going off of Deluca's own posts here!

[wanderingwhitley]

The viejos here in Nayarit say that Chacala was the largest port in mexico before the volcanos erupted and destroyed everything.

[oiaeyu]

OMG I was just thinking everyday since June 7, 2024, "I wonder when is the next Ancient Americas video"... What a synchronicity 👀❤

[jeffaltier]

It's always a better day when a new Ancient Americas video comes out. It was great to see a lesser known region covered.

[masterbanious]

new ancient Americas video dropped. Time to sit, listen and learn 💯

[tecpaocelotl]

My ancestry part (Jalisco). Sadly, I saw a lot of people digging them up as a kid and not getting experts involved.

[Dragons_Armory]

Feel like Christmas every time Ancient Americas uploads a new video
Christmas + birthday.

[Laeiryn]

You're doing some truly noble work in pointing out the holes in the research where someone's dissertation could go! So hard to find untrod ground sometimes, and so many weird little things that need investigating.

[Felipe_XIV-XVI]

Thank you for your effort on educating people on the civilizations in the Americas.

[Atahualpa]

Coming home from a hard day of work and seeing Ancient America has uploaded a video is always amazing. thanks for the content!

[solomonthefoolish]

I wish more people used your video format and narration methods. Thank you for uploading this, you are one of the greats in my humble opinion