Los Cocos Complex
(500 A.D. – 700 A.D.)

(Written by Archaeologist Joseph B. Mountjoy, Museologist)

Thirty of the sites registered in the municipality of San Blas have evidence of this complex. With the arrival of people associated with this archaeological material the Early Ixtlan Complex came to an end in southern Nayarit as did its counterpart that existed in northern and western Jalisco. It probably indicates an invasion of the “heartland” of West Mexico by foreigners coming from the highlands of central and northwestern Mexico, probably originating in the region that includes southern Guanajuato, Aguascalientes and southern Zacatecas.

These people had a pottery tradition very different from that of the Early Ixtlan Complex, one that emphasized decoration of the vessels with simple geometric designs executed in red, as well as similar simple geometric designs executed with deep, wide incisions sometimes filled with a colored pigment, on the exterior of other vessels. The pottery figurines are also of a different style: small, solid and flatter than before.

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