San Blas Complex
(800 B.C. – 400 B.C.)

(Written by Archaeologist Joseph B. Mountjoy, Museologist)

The archaeological remains of this complex are found along the northeastern flank and base of Contaduría Hill. These remains are found associated with habitation terraces and dwelling platforms that are possibly the oldest in West Mexico. This complex represents a new habitation of the area of San Blas, this time by people moving into the area from the south who were part of the great expansion of agriculturalists of the Middle Formative period. This expansion had its roots in the central highlands of Mexico and the coast of Guerrero, and the colonists were en contact with peoples located as far to the south as Guatemala in Central America and Ecuador in South America.

These people used pottery vessels and the great majority of them were large jars, either unpainted or painted with orange or rose-colored paint. The bodies of these vessels were often shaped in the form of domesticated squash. The inhabitants used a great variety of other household utensils, including hand and slab grinding stones of an unusually small size, obsidian flakes for cutting and scraping, shells of clams to remove the scales from fish, and bones shaped into a point for making the baskets they used to bring the seafood back to their settlement. These people appear to have made their own pottery and grinding stones at their settlement.

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