The Aztatlan Complex
(900 A.C. – 1300 A.D.)

(Written by Archaeologist Joseph B. Mountjoy, Museologist)

Evidence of the Aztatlan Complex is very scarce in the municipality of San Blas, with the important major exception of a large Aztatlan center at Chacalilla. At Chacalilla there is a big conical pyramid mound about 23 feet high that sits on top of a large platform, a ballcourt, a large number of small mounds and a cemetery for burial of the Aztatlan elite, as well as an abundance of fragments of beautiful Aztatlan pottery, and fragments of flat, mold-made Mazapa figurines.

Aztatlan centers typically have large platforms or pyramidal ceremonial mounds, courts for playing the ballgame, stone stelas, and remains of large houses inhabited by the elite, as well as special cemeteries for the burial of such people.

Aztatlan pottery is notable for its excellent technological quality and for its fine standardized decoration that consists of bands of geometric designs sometimes painted or incised around the exterior or interior of bowls, plus large codex-style designs painted or incised on the interior floor of bowls or the exterior of cylindrical vases. Sometimes these motifs are executed in complex polychrome designs.

Visit the Aticama Museum of Archaeology and History to read the rest of the story and view the artifacts from this period!!