shaft tombs and

figures in west
Mexican society:
a reassessment
Edited by
Christopher S. Beekman
and Robert B. Pickering
Published in conjunction with the exhibition Editors:
West Mexico: Ritual and Identity, Christopher S. Beekman
Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, Oklahoma, University of Colorado Denver
June 26 to November 6, 2016. and
Some of the chapters are based on papers Robert B. Pickering
presented at the annual meeting of the Society Thomas Gilcrease Institute of American
for American Archaeology in November, 2014, History and Art, and The University of Tulsa,
in Austin, Texas. Additional chapters have been Tulsa, Oklahoma
commissioned.
Design and production:
© 2016 Thomas Gilcrease Institute Cheryl Smallwood-Roberts
of American History and Art
1400 North Gilcrease Museum Road Images:
Tulsa, OK 74127-2100
Half-title: Representation of
All rights reserved.
shaft and chamber tomb.
Artist: Herb Roe.
ISBN# 978-0-9819799-9-1
Frontispiece: Ceramic figure,
Printed in South Korea by Four Colour ca. 300 B.C. - A.D. 300.
Print Group, Louisville, Kentucky. Ixtlán del Río style, Nayarit, Mexico.
Gilcrease Museum 54.4066.
Photo: Robert S. Cross.

This page: Vessel with snake motif,

ca. 300 B.C. - A.D. 300.
Comala style, Colima, Mexico.
Gilcrease Museum 54.3719.
Photo: Robert S. Cross.

Opposite: Ceramic dog figure,

ca. 300 B.C. - A.D. 300.
Comala style, Colima, Mexico.
Gilcrease Museum 54.7266.
Photo: Robert S. Cross.
 Table of Contents
vii Acknowledgments
1 Introduction
An historical overview of shaft
tomb archaeology in western Mexico
Robert B. Pickering and Christopher S. Beekman
Case studies: Archaeological and
bioarchaeological studies
23 From the living to the dead:
Connecting the ceramic figures with the
people of the shaft and chamber tomb
culture
Jill A. Rhodes and Joseph B. Mountjoy
39 Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s
funerary practices: Architectural and
ritual contexts
Brigitte Faugère and Veronique Darras
55 The shaft tombs of Parcelas
12, 19, and 25 and their inhabitants:
Funerary considerations on recent
archaeological finds in Colima
Marcos Trinidad Zavaleta Lucido and
Rosa María Flores Ramírez
Broader perspectives: The contexts of
figures and tombs across larger areas
73 Figurines in burial contexts
in the Ortices and Comala phases of
the Valle de Colima
Laura Almendros López and Rafael Platas Ruiz
85 Settlement patterns and
excavations: Contexts of tombs and
figures in central Jalisco
Christopher S. Beekman
97 Who did the western Mexican
figures portray? The correlation between
figures and their contexts
Christopher S. Beekman
Collections-based research: Natural
science or statistical perspectives
109 Next, the museum? An
analysis of West Mexican ceramics from
Los Guachimontones and Navajas using
a handheld portable X-ray fluorescence
(pXRF) spectrometer
Mads S. Jørgensen, Kong F. Cheong, Christopher
S. Beekman, and Benjamin Turkel
129 Results of external and
internal examinations of shaft tomb figures
Robert B. Pickering
149 Practical uses of statistical
analysis for interpretations of cultural
aspects of status and gender in the
figures of the Ixtlán del Río style
Jennifer Pirtle
Collections-based research: Visual
culture perspectives
163 Pathological and intentional
alterations of the skin on West Mexican
ceramic figures
Frédérique Servain-Riviale
175 Keeping the souls contained:
Instantiation and the artist’s hand in
ceramic figures by the “Mexpan Sculptor”
of southern Nayarit
Rebecca R. Stone
195 Ancestors in clay: A case for
portraiture in Lagunillas Style E figurines
Lauren Wilson Norwood
Summary
Future directions for research
207
Christopher S. Beekman and Robert B. Pickering
212 Bibliography
226 Contributors
229 Index
 Ceramic figure,
ca. 300 B.C. - A.D. 300.
Ixtlán del Río style,
Nayarit, Mexico.
Gilcrease Museum
54.7769.
Photo: Robert S. Cross.

Dedication

To the Thompsons—enthusiastic listeners, generous supporters, and steadfast friends;

Also dedicated to the memory of Luís Javier Galván Villegas, whose early excavations at Tabachines
and elsewhere provided an archaeological foundation for today’s investigators.
 vii

Acknowledgments

A project of this breadth and scale often has many roots and this one is no exception. For the first editor (Beekman), work-
ing in West Mexico did not mean working on shaft tombs and figures, and I had in fact been reluctant to engage with either
for many years. I was focused on understanding the chronology and sociopolitical system in central Jalisco. It was clear that
past approaches had been led far afield by their very failure to ground their interpretations in the archaeological data. It was
working with Melissa Logan on her M.A. thesis at the University of Colorado Denver that made me reconsider the utility of
the vast museum collections of figures from western Mexico. I then had the opportunity to concentrate on the figures while
a Fellow in residence with the Sainsbury Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in 2009. I am very grateful to both
Melissa and to the excellent people at the SRU, particularly Steven Hooper, George Lau, and Patricia Hewitt. My co-editor on
this project has also maintained a relentless grip on me since graduate school, inviting me to be involved in a workshop at
the Denver Museum of Natural History (now Nature and Science) when I hadn’t even finished my dissertation. I appreciate all
of you very much. I would like to thank Anthony DeLuca and Nichole Abbott for their work on the figure database, which will
make additional appearances in future publications. Thanks to Kristie Hollon for her work on getting my GIS map project files
in order once again. Inclusion of Adela Breton’s photo of the “excavation” of the Hacienda Guadalupe is thanks to Sue Giles
of the Bristol Museum. A long overdue thank you goes to Roger Colten, who helped with access to Stanley Long’s collection
at the Fowler Museum ages ago.

For the second editor (Pickering), interest in north and western Mexico began in the 1970s as a student working with
J. Charles Kelly as a professor, and Phil Weigand and Joe Mountjoy as graduate students. That experience led to work
and wonderful interactions with Betty Bell, Otto Schöndube, and a very young Javier Galván. At that time, my focus was on
mortuary behavior and human osteology as a result of working with Jane Buikstra and James Brown through Northwestern
University’s archaeology program at Kampsville, Illinois. Exposure to the shaft tombs and the ceramic figure traditions of
the region was an offshoot of human osteological studies conducted in collaborations with M. Teresa Cabrero, Lorenza
López Mestas, and Jorge Ramos de la Vega. Through their tutelage and insights, western Mexico became a fascinating
environment in which the past was not so far removed from the present. Ancient cultures, the conquest of Mexico, the Span-
ish colonial period, and Mexico’s history since Independence created a fabric of great complexity and fascination.

This volume is part of a larger project that began with a focus on museum collection research to address significant
questions regarding possibilities of re-contextualizing ancient figures through detailed internal and external examinations.
To better understand the figures, I (Pickering) wanted to take a more forensic approach to the study of the figures to build
on the work of previous scholars. While at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, I had the good fortune to attract the
interest of Ephraim Cuevas, who volunteered his time and talents to research that led to the current examination proto-
col. As a retired lab scientist, he brought his considerable experience and skills to bear on the process of exploring these
ancient figures. Thanks are due to Roger Johnson, M.D., who proposed the idea of using a medical endoscope (not the one
he used on patients) to look inside hollow ceramic figures to see if that view would add any new information. The value of
internal examination became clear, very quickly. Upon retirement, Dr. Johnson donated his endoscopic equipment to the
Gilcrease Museum, thus allowing that examination to become a regular feature of analysis. Steve Whittington, former direc-
tor of the Hudson Museum at the University of Maine, Orono, and Gretchen Faulkner, current director of the same museum,
facilitated the first major collection examination. Ms. Faulkner has graciously approved loans from the Hudson Museum to
the Gilcrease exhibition that spawned this volume.

We also thank all of the authors for their contributions: Jill A. Rhodes, Joseph B. Mountjoy, Brigitte Faugère, Veronique
Darras, Marcos T. Zavaleta Lucido, Rosa María Flores Ramírez, Laura Almendros López, Rafael Platas Ruiz, Mads S.
Jørgensen, Kong F. Cheong, Benjamin Turkel, Jennifer Pirtle, Frédérique Servain-Riviale, Rebecca R. Stone, and Lauren
Wilson Norwood. Any edited volume of this size is complicated and requires good communication and timely actions on
everyone’s part. Thanks to the diligence and responsiveness of every author, the project progressed very smoothly. For all of
their work and enthusiastic cooperation the editors are very grateful.

Production of a book also requires many hands. There are no words good enough to thank Cheryl Smallwood-
Roberts for her herculean efforts on the book and the exhibition, all with overlapping deadlines and needs. Cheryl
designed the book and managed the book’s production, including working with the printer, the editors, and the
authors, as well as obtaining permissions for images. It is fair to say that this book could not have been done without
her. Thanks also go to Michelle Maxwell for her administrative support with author contracts. Diana Jensen copy-edited
all of the papers for which we are very grateful. Thanks are due to Robert S. Cross for his photographic skills.

We would particularly like to extend our appreciation to the anonymous peer reviewers, who provided useful feedback for
the authors and editors alike.

Finally, we’d like to thank the Thompsons, without whose support this volume would not have been possible.
Figure 1. Location of the valley of Acámbaro, Guanajuato.
Map: Archives of the Chupícuaro Project.
 Shaft tombs
in Chupícuaro’s
funerary practices:
Architectural and
ritual contexts

Brigitte Faugère
Universitè de Paris 1 - Panthéon-Sorbonne

Veronique Darras
Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS)

As early as the 1920s and in the first references to the Chupícuaro culture, the exis-
tence of tombs containing a great variety of funerary objects was apparent in the Acám-
baro valley (Mena and Aguirre 1927; Palacios 1926: Figure 1). However, despite the exca-
vation of some 396 graves in the 1940s (Estrada Balmori 1949; Estrada Balmori and Piña
Chan 1948; Porter 1956; Porter Weaver 1969; Rubín de la Borbolla 1948), the existence of
shaft tombs has been documented there only recently (Darras and Faugère 2004, 2005a,
2010). The recognition of this type of funerary architecture in this region of north-central
Mexico, located between the epicenters of the Teuchitlán tradition and the Basin of Mexico
(Figure 1), make it possible to rethink the place of Chupícuaro in the Mesoamerican Forma-
tive and particularly its links with Western Mexico. However, the corpus of Chupícuaro shaft
tombs remains limited, since only four tombs have shown such a design. They have their
place within a suite of varied funerary practices, within which diverse forms of pit tombs
are found. In this article our specific ambition is to make an overall assessment of Chupíc-
uaro funerary practices and put the shaft tombs in the context of the practices of the late
Chupícuaro phase (400-100 B.C.) by relying on the recent data from the Chupícuaro proj-
ect of the CEMCA (Centre d’Études Mexicaines et Centraméricaines - Centre for Mexican
and Central American Studies). This project, which began in 1998, has resulted in the dis-
covery of twenty-three burials, of which seventeen belong to the late Chupícuaro phase,
five to the transition between the early and late Chupícuaro phases and one to the Mixtlán
phase (A.D. 0-250/450). These data were acquired in good conditions of stratigraphic and
chronological control and enable us to complete prior knowledge, make an overall assess-
ment, and attempt to understand the reasons that led the Chupícuaro groups to bury their
dead in tombs that were so varied in architectural terms.

Funerary practices in Chupícuaro

I n 1925 Enrique Juan Palacios, commissioned by the Dirección de Arqueología after

episodes of looting, explored a hill southwest of the former village of Chupícuaro.
In his report the following year he described the abundance of human remains and cer-
amics scattered over the surface and deduced the existence of a probable pre-Hispanic
40 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment
cemetery (Palacios 1926). As the first
scientist to visit the region of Chupícuaro,
he also had the chance to observe graves
that were still intact, since he noted that
ceramic vessels were placed preferentially
at the deceased’s feet and head. The first
excavations were carried out the following
year by two archaeologists, Ramon Mena
and Porfirio Aguirre, who unearthed two
individual burials with bodies lying supine
in oval pits delimited by stones, and one
urn burial (Mena and Aguirre 1927). At the
time the ceramic vessels placed next to
the deceased’s head were interpreted as
belonging to the Tarascan civilization.
Not until 1945 did new research be-
gin under the direction of Daniel Rubín
de la Borbolla, with rescue archaeology
organized by the National Institute of An-
thropology and History (INAH), due to the
construction of the Solís dam (Rubín de la
Borbolla 1945). The data from these exca-
vations, mainly published by Muriel Por-
ter (1956 and 1969), would long remain
the unique and indispensable reference
for the Chupícuaro culture. After a surface
survey and test-pit campaign, the excava-
tions focused on the site of El Rayo where
388 graves were excavated; another burial
was located at El Infiernito and, lastly, an
urn burial near the village of Munguia (Es-
trada Balmori 1949; Estrada Balmori and
Piña Chan 1948; Porter 1956, Porter Weav-
er 1969). Thus knowledge about Chupíc-
uaro funerary practices seemed to be well
established, even if the excavation tech-
niques and the general context did not al-
low precise and exhaustive statements. The
explorations were almost exclusively in the
form of pits and trenches, which limited the
horizontal understanding of the remains,
and in particular, their relation to possible
architectural structures that only appear in
short sections in the reports published by
Porter (1956). Moreover, while the depths
are noted systematically, the stratigraphic
contexts are not considered; the density of
the burials and, in certain sectors, their su-
perposition, certainly also made it difficult
to define the burial pits and clearly identify
the techniques used in the architecture of
the tombs.
These first excavations mention that
most of the burials are located at an av-
erage depth of two meters and they are
sometimes accompanied by carved stones
that, according to the authors, were used
as markers (Estrada Balmori 1949). In most
cases they were individual primary buri-
als in simple pits frequently—but not sys-
tematically—accompanied by furnishings.
Secondary burials were also found, as well
as partial burials probably rearranged by
subsequent deposits, deposits of skulls
of adults and/or children isolated or in
groups and, lastly, a few urn burials (two
examples) reserved for the immature (Por-
ter 1956). Furthermore, the data show that
the burials do not observe any preferential
orientation and that the bodies are most-
ly laid out at length, mainly on their backs.
Besides the presence of stones as possible
markers, clay hearths—square or rectangu-
lar in form—are repeatedly found near the
bodies and seem to be associated with
mortuary practices (Porter 1956). Lastly,
complete dog burials are also found fre-
quently and can even be accompanied by
offerings. However, it is difficult to deter-
mine whether these animals were placed
in the pits with humans and whether in this
case they can be considered as compan-
ions; nonetheless, the data published by
Porter (1956) may well indicate that at least
some of these animals were deposited in
funerary spaces in their own right and with
no direct association with a human.
In most cases, various categories of
objects accompanied the body of the de-
ceased. The ceramic vessels—extremely
varied in their forms and decorative tech-
niques—are the most common objects, but
ornaments such as earrings or necklaces,
probably the deceased’s personal effects,
are also often found. In addition, certain
tombs contained stone or bone tools,
grinding stones, musical instruments, and
clay figurines. These last were deposited
isolated or in groups, and in the latter case
are most often placed together in a ceramic
 Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s funerary practices: Architectural and ritual contexts
vessel (Porter Weaver 1969; Faugère forth-
coming). Among the most exceptional but
difficult to assess objects, we can mention
that the tops of skulls were cut when the
bone was fresh, separated from the rest
of the skull and painted with red pigment.
At this point, it is worth recalling that the
secondary burials, those with parts of the
skeleton missing or on the contrary with
supernumerary bones, the deposits of iso-
lated skulls—with or without the jaw—are all
evidence of the Chupícuaro groups’ pro-
pensity to manipulate and reassemble the
bones of their dead.
In recent years, to this important as-
semblage from the excavations in the
1940s, a new corpus has been added from
burials at four sites in the valley: La Tronera
(JR24), Cuizillo de Don Fidel (TR6), Cuizillo
del Mezquital-Los Azules (JR 74), and San
Cayetano (AC48). In spite of their reduced
number (twenty-two) these burials from
the Early and Late Chupícuaro phases are
interesting; the excavation methods have
provided an optimal record and the buri-
als come from various sites in varied sec-
tors of the valley, in the east, center, and
west-center respectively. The description
of these burials appears in Table 1 at the
end of this chapter.
Shaft tombs within funerary
architecture
Of the twenty-two burials listed as part
of the Chupícuaro project only seven-
teen have a clearly identifiable morphol-
ogy. They are dated to the late Chupícua-
ro phase (400-100/50 B.C.). These are pit
graves coming in four types: simple pit,
covered with stones, in a niche, and with
a shaft. In sites JR24 and JR74, they were
found inside circular structures consisting
of a simple alignment of stone—or next to
them. In the site TR6, on the other hand,
they show no direct connection with spe-
cific structures even if spatial correlations
can be established with certain construc-
tions. In the very great majority of cases
these burials are associated with hearths—
whether they are circular or quadrangu-
41
lar arrangements made with clay slabs or
simple combustion zones characterized by
layers or hollows of ash and charcoal.
The simple pit tombs
This is the most common practice in
Chupícuaro. These pits most often corre-
spond to primary deposits containing the
remains of a single individual (doubts ex-
ist for Burial 9 with two individuals but for
which the archaeological context does not
allow us to determine whether they are dis-
tinct burials or a dual burial). They show no
special preparation and are dug in natural
(forest soil) or anthropic sediments (prior
occupation levels). They generally have an
oval shape and dimensions corresponding
to the funerary deposit.
A total of nine pit tombs meet these
criteria. Four of them held immature indi-
viduals (newborns, young children, or ad-
olescents), while the others correspond to
adults (see Table 1). Among the pits con-
taining newborn and young children, three
are oriented north-south; as for the tombs
of adolescents and adults, they are orient-
ed east-west with deviations of up to 30°.
The deceased rested on their backs with
their upper and lower limbs stretched out,
or more rarely were half flexed. For these
adolescent and adult cases, the head could
be oriented to either the east or the west
and was generally facing up. Those pits for
which it has been possible to identify the
layer into which they were dug (subsequent
rearrangements to the funerary spaces and
looting often prevent the pits’ original top
layers from being observed) are of varying
depths. While the pits with the remains of
immature individuals are rarely larger than
0.15 m, the others can be up to 0.5 m. In
most cases, their restricted volume leaves
little space for depositing accompanying
funerary objects. These objects, mainly ce-
ramic vessels, vary in number (from one to
four) and are placed randomly by the sides
of the head or lower limbs, sometimes par-
tially above. In one case a metate, or grind-
ing stone, was placed in the pit while it was
being filled. The nine examples show that
42 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment
they were pits that had been filled in and
not meant to be reopened.
The stone covered pit tombs
Only two pit tombs correspond to this
type. They were found in the site JR24 and
present both similarities and differences.
They correspond to primary deposits con-
taining the remains of a single individual.
Both tombs were dug into the forest soil
consisting of black clay sediment. The first
is a pit grave covered by flagstones all
along its length (Burial 6, Figures 2 and
3). Dug with care, the pit reaches a depth
of 0.5 m, the flat bottom being formed by
the tepetate or hardpan substrate. The de-
ceased rested there on its back with its low-
er and upper limbs stretched out along-
side the body. The skull probably rested
on a wooden structure. A single ceramic
vessel was between the feet as well as a
bone punch, its point covered in cinnabar.
The pit was completely filled in; a thin lay-
er of ash mixed with charcoal sealed its
upper part. The entire feature was then
covered with a total of eleven rectangular
andesite flagstones of which the largest on
average measures 0.6 x 0.4 x 0.1 m.
The second case (Burial 3) is a little
different (Figures 4 and 5). About 0.5 m
deep, its flat bottom had a body supine with
arms and legs extended. The funerary fur-
niture (four vessels) was distributed around
the head and on the body’s left side. A
metate was also placed upside-down in
the pit while it was being filled in. The pit
was filled before being covered on its west
half with a total of eight carbonate stones—
three flagstones and five irregular stones
of varying dimensions. The flagstones, one
of large size (0.58 x 0.46 x 0.10 m), were
placed inside the pit and were not long
enough to really be used as a covering. In-
dependent of taphonomic processes, cer-
tain stones seem to have been grouped
together and fitted intentionally within the
fill to form a coherent whole (a covering?)
that may have been meant to mark the
site. The east sector of the upper part of
the pit was covered with a thin layer of ash.
In both cases the clavicles and rib
cage of the buried individual underwent
a strong bilateral constriction suggesting
that the bodies had been sheathed in a
wrapping of perishable materials (per-
haps a petate, or reed mat). Both burials
were oriented east-west and date from the
same phase. It is probable that their stone
coverings—one carefully constructed, the
other more roughly—were exposed to the
open air and served as spatial markers.
The niche tomb
This type of tomb has only been doc-
umented once, on the site JR24 (Figures 6
and 7). The pre-Hispanic rearrangements
make it impossible to have an idea of the
niche’s morphology and initial volume,
as only the lower part is still accessible.
Nonetheless, the data available show an
oblique opening was dug in the sediment
and was later enlarged to form a deep cav-
ity in the form of the niche. This niche, oval
in shape, must initially have measured 1.20
x 0.90 m and more than 0.65 m high. It was
oriented east-west. Its floor, on which a pri-
mary deposit corresponding to the body
of a child 4 to 6 years old rested, had an
irregular topography, more or less round-
ed, located beneath the opening. The low-
er part of the walls was recto-divergent.
The body had been deposited first, head
towards the east, and placed against the
base of the south wall, supine with the low-
er limbs semi-flexed. The volume of the
niche seems to have been quite restrict-
ed and did not allow an equal distribution
of the funerary furnishings: eleven items
were grouped at the entry to the niche on
the right side of the primary deposit, and
some must have been piled on one anoth-
er. The opening was then sealed by one
large vertical flagstone (0.60 x 0.45 x 0.18
m) and another of more modest dimen-
sions (0.26 x 0.24 x 0.08 m), found in the
upper part of the niche. The excavation
brought to light hollow spaces, suggest-
ing the niche was not filled in before be-
ing closed.
Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s funerary practices: Architectural and ritual contexts 43

Figure 2, upper.
JR24 Burial 6 – plans.
Drawings: V. Darras,
F. Bagot (burial).
Illustration: S. Eliès.

Figure 3, lower.
JR24 Burial 6 – section.
Hypothetical reconstruc-
tion.
Drawings: V. Darras.
Illustration: S. Eliès.
44 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment

Figure 4, upper.
JR24 Burial 3 – plans.
Drawings: R. Cruz,
V. Darras, F. Bagot (burial).
Illustration: S. Eliès.

Figure 5, lower.
JR24 Burial 3 – sections.
Hypothetical reconstruc-
tion.
Drawings: R. Cruz,
V. Darras.
Illustration: S. Eliès.

The shaft tombs giving access to a very small mortuary

The shaft tombs were documented
four times on the same site of TR6 (Dar-
ras and Faugère 2004, 2005a, 2010). Each
enclosed, as did the other burials of the
Chupícuaro project, a primary deposit
corresponding to the remains of a single
individual. These tombs make use of a
composite pit construction system involv-
ing the excavation of a rectangular shaft of
varying depth with rounded corners and
shaped with one to three steps—the whole
chamber (Figures 8 to 10). The access shaft
is oriented to the cardinal points, its length
following the east-west axis, and the pit
containing the funerary deposit always lies
towards the west, by following the same
axis and continuing from the shaft. The
bottom of the shaft is always on the same
level as the chamber and is part of the lat-
ter. The steps can be on the south (one
case) or north side (three cases). In the cas-
es studied, the bodies lay on the tepetate,
 Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s funerary practices: Architectural and ritual contexts
the vault above being dug into the black
clay of the forest’s soil. The floor plan of the
chamber is either oval or oblong, and its di-
mensions are sufficient for a single individ-
ual with its furnishings. The height is also
reduced (between 0.40 and 0.50 m) and
its section is still oval. The bodies are laid
on their backs with their upper and lower
limbs stretched out, with the head either
to the west (three cases) or east (one case).
Certain features in the bones’ disposition
suggest, as has already been remarked,
45
Figure 6, upper.
JR24 Burial 2 – plans.
Drawings: V. Darras,
F. Bagot (burial).
Illustration: S. Eliès.
Figure 7, lower. Burial
2 – section. Hypothetical
reconstruction: the roof of
the tomb was collapsed.
Drawing: V. Darras.
Illustration: S. Eliès.
the effects of bilateral constraint owing to
either the narrowness of the pits or a wrap-
ping made from perishable and relatively
rigid materials (perhaps a petate mat). The
discreet but regular presence of red pig-
ment, around and sometimes on the prima-
ry deposit, may indicate this wrapping was
painted. As for the accompanying funerary
furnishings, they were distributed accord-
ing to their numbers and the space avail-
able. They appear to have been arranged
on either side of the head, the thorax
46 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment
and lower limbs, and on the chest itself
when the funerary cavity was high enough
to allow it. Thus, this variety in the spatial
arrangements shows certain furnishings
could have been placed before the body
was deposited and others right at the end
before the chamber was closed.
In one case, the tomb was reopened
and emptied of most of its contents (Buri-
al 14; Figure 10). Owing to the small size
of the mortuary cavity, the retrieval of the
bones and probable funerary furnishings
entailed the partial destruction of its west
part and wrecked the access shaft. These
modifications were followed by the tomb’s
partial reconstruction with a new step and
the filling in of the opening made to re-
trieve the upper part of the skeleton. This
reconstruction work seems to reflect a de-
sire to reuse the mortuary space for anoth-
er individual, even if it finally remained va-
cant.
These shaft tombs’ mortuary chambers
were not filled, unlike the access shaft,
which was filled with a mixture of brown
clay silt and tepetate.
The accompanying funerary objects:
do the shaft tombs show a specific
pattern?
If, in the Chupícuaro burials, the bodies
of the deceased are frequently accompa-
nied by objects, can patterns in the funer-
ary furnishings be found which may help
us understand why certain members of so-
ciety came to be buried in tombs with such
a special morphology? Obviously, the ex-
tremely low number of shaft tombs only al-
lows a rough analysis that will have to be re-
assessed in the future. The first observation
from the examination of Table 1 concerns
the number of accompanying objects. The
shaft tombs contain the most objects—five
ceramic vessels at least—whereas the sim-
ple pit deposits only contain one to three
vessels (Figures 11 and 12). It should be
noted that the richest grave, with ten ce-
ramic vessels, is for an immature individual
buried in a niche pit whose shape is quite
similar to that of the shaft tombs. This ob-
servation leads us to suggest that either
these tombs were made to bury persons
who held a different social status in their
lifetime or that the funerary rituals and/or
requirements the deceased may have had
for their afterlife were distinct.
On the other hand, among the exam-
ples available, no real difference in the
quality of the vessels deposited is percep-
tible. For example, Tomb 17 contained five
jars: all monochrome, although of very
fine workmanship. As for the other shaft
tombs, they enclosed a more varied com-
bination of vessels, probably owing to a
greater quantity of accompanying objects
and possibly to distinct functions. Thus, the
discovery of charrales fish remains still pre-
served in a boat-shaped vessel in Burial 2
might suggest a connection between the
vessel’s form and its contents. Would this
suggest the shaft tombs or niche burials
contained more varied foodstuffs than the
others?
Two of the shaft tombs contain mono-
chrome bird-shaped vessels, which in the
present state of knowledge cannot be
considered to be significant. On the other
hand, the anthropomorphic effigy vessels
in our corpus are always associated with
immature individuals, whatever the mor-
phology of the burials. This observation
echoes the accounts of looters in the past
who noted that the hollow polychrome
statuettes were always associated with
small-sized bones, which leads us to make
a link between these two types of objects
in the funerary context. Nonetheless, the
examination of Porter’s corpus tends to
reduce the significance of this interpreta-
tion. The burials of certain adults can also
contain anthropomorphic effigy vessels
(for example her graves 77, 107, 222, 273,
and 276) and some are also found in what
Porter described as burials for dogs. All the
same, we have to be sure that these graves
are really of adults and not subadults (the
only categories referred to by Porter are
“adult” and “child”), and also be certain
these vessels were really associated with
these individuals. What is certain is that the
Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s funerary practices: Architectural and ritual contexts 47

Figure 8, upper.
TR6 Burial 12 – plan and
section.
Drawing: V. Darras and
J. C. Equihua.
Illustration: V. Darras.

Figure 9, lower.
TR6 Burial 12 – entrance of
the shaft.
Photo: Archives of the
Chupícuaro Project.
48 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment
Figure 10.
TR6 Burial 14 – plan and
section.
Drawings and illustrations:
V. Darras
only hollow statuette (Porter 1956: 559)
was found in the presence of the remains
of an immature individual (grave 218) and
that the other child burials do not system-
atically yield anthropomorphic effigy ves-
sels. Lastly, these pots show traces of wear,
like the others—which indicates they had
an earlier cycle of use before being placed
in the tombs to accompany the deceased
in the afterlife, and that in no way were they
specifically funerary objects.
Discussion
In our present state of knowledge, shaft
tombs are still rare in Chupícuaro and our
sample is limited to a single site, TR6. We
shall include the niche grave from site JR24
in the discussion, as we consider the inten-
tions behind them to have been close. On
the chronological level the two 14C dates
combined with the stratigraphic data, as
well as the homogeneity of the construc-
tion system and the stylistic characteristics
of the furnishings, enable the various spec-
imens to be dated to the late Chupícuaro
phase (Darras and Faugère 2005b). The
intervals of the two calibrated dates ob-
tained with ChronoModel (Chronological
modeling software based on Bayesian Sta-
tistics), one between 363-193 B.C. (Buri-
al 17) and the other one between 342-50
B.C. (Burial 10), do not allow us to tighten
up the period in which they occur. This was
also during the period in which the funer-
ary practices seem to have been the most
varied. Indeed, the seventeen tombs of the
late Chupícuaro phase for which the mor-
phology can be observed are divided into
four types of tombs. So, to understand the
shaft tombs’ place in the Chupícuaro fu-
nerary system, it is important to assess the
role of the chronological and social factors
in this diversity. But as far as the first point
is concerned, it is impossible, given the
problems for calibrating the dates for the
late Preclassic, to assess the chronologi-
cal position of each burial more precisely
based on the 14C dates. If all of the funerary
deposits had been spread over a period of
two centuries out (which, all in all, is quite
improbable), it would be legitimate to ex-
pect evolution in grave morphologies.
Therefore the use of shaft tombs might
correspond to a narrower period on the
order of two or three generations. On the
other hand, if the primary deposits were
produced in a shorter interval of time it
would be more reasonable to explain this
diversity with social factors. This last point
has to be examined from two perspec-
tives: in the first place, does the diversity
of the funerary arrangements reflect a spe-
 Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s funerary practices: Architectural and ritual contexts 49

Figure 11, upper.

TR6 Burial 10 – the burial
with the funerary furniture
(reconstruction with
Photoshop).
Photo: Archives of the
Chupícuaro Project.

cific social and cultural organization? Are Figure 12, lower.

TR6 Burial 12 – the burial
these arrangements particular markers of
with the funerary furniture.
social identities, whether ante- or postmor- Photo: Archives of the
tem? Or, might this diversity reflect simple Chupícuaro Project.
idiosyncrasies in the practices of the vari-
ous Chupícuaro social groups?
On the cultural level first of all, the pres-
ence of this type of burial in a sector as far
to the east as the Bajío of Guanajuato could
be explained by population dynamics. On
the level of morphology and dimensions
the Chupícuaro shaft tombs are close to
those of Jalisco and Colima and roughly
contemporaneous in both regions—even
if in the latter part of the chronological in-
terval—with the western shaft tombs begin-
ning to become common circa 200 B.C.
(Acosta and Uruñuela Ladrón de Guevara
2005; Beekman 2006; Beekman and Gal-
ván 2006; Galván Villegas 1991; López
Mestas and Ramos de la Vega 2006; Kelly
1978; Valdez et al. 2006; Weigand 2000).
As the excavation of shafts remained rare
in Chupícuaro, whereas it was common
in the western area, the existence of priv-
ileged relationships between this site and
a more western locale might be suggest-
ed. For example, might it be envisaged
50 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment
that the persons buried in the shaft tombs
wanted to reproduce a concept of funerary
structure widespread in the western area
because that was where they came from?
Only the isotopic analyses of the bones
could give the answer to this question—al-
though it has to be emphasized that, in this
case, the affirmation of a cultural identity in
death would seem to have been limited to
the tomb’s morphology: no difference can
be found in the funerary furnishings in the
burials that have been excavated; on the
contrary, they are perfectly homogeneous.
The issue of the social identities and
differences in status—whether in life and/
or death—of the people buried in the shaft
tombs seems a most interesting line of re-
search to us. The quantity of accompany-
ing funerary objects in our corpus is clearly
greater in the shaft tombs than in the other
burials, which might indicate a special sta-
tus on a social level. We have mentioned
above the possibility that the abundance of
vessels may reflect a wider variety of food-
stuffs or other perishable products accom-
panying the deceased—possibly meaning
that the latter had a special social status
in life. To buttress this idea, the health and
nutrition indicators observed on the bones
of the niche grave (Burial 2) show the child
had gone through five stress episodes
from which it had recovered (Barrientos
Juárez 2012:157). These successive recov-
eries may have resulted from special care
owing to a privileged social status (better
access to treatment and certain kinds of
food?), although they may also have been
due to independent biological processes
(Barrientos Juárez 2012:186). Nonethe-
less, if we refer to Porter’s corpus again it
would seem that while a majority of prima-
ry graves of adults have between two and
five vessels, those containing more are just
as common. Unfortunately, the excavation
conditions used at that time do not allow
us to determine whether these well-fur-
nished tombs had an access shaft.
The comparison of the TR6 shaft tombs
with those with flagstones in JR24 can also
provide food for thought: an instance of
the latter burial type, Burial 6, was also dug
into the forest floor and the body was in
contact with the tepetate. Moreover, cer-
tain elements seem to distinguish both
these types of burials from the others: the
care taken in arranging them—whether
with a shaft or with a flagstone covering,
and the nature and/or the quantities of
furnishings—might suggest the existence
of a differentiation in the status of the de-
ceased. Furthermore, if we accept the idea
of a relative synchrony in the funerary de-
posits in sites JR24 and TR6, the possibility
that a diversity of practices were linked to
specific local cultural characteristics and a
certain flexibility in how the morphology
of the pit burials was managed must not
be ruled out. Adaptation to pedological
constraints is an argument that has to be
discussed: the shaft tombs were dug into
compact clay-silt sediment that was undis-
turbed and quite thick. These pedological
conditions are not found together every-
where in the Acámbaro Valley. Moreover,
the research work carried out in this valley
has shown that the funerary deposits were
always affected within settlements and not
outside them, precisely where subsequent
occupations resulted in alterations, ero-
sion, and accumulation of anthropic de-
posits. Accordingly, the concentration or
packing of funerary deposits in a confined
area may not have favored the use of shaft
tombs, which would be best preserved in
undisturbed sediments.
The fact that the tombs, whatever their
type, are always grouped within the res-
idential/public settlements is important.
In other areas, such as the shaft tombs of
Tabachines in the Atemajac Valley, Jalisco,
burials appear to be located in similar con-
texts: while some cemeteries are located
far outside the main concentration of pub-
lic architecture, the majority are directly
connected with residential settlements or
public architecture (Beekman and Galván
2006:268). Lastly, it is not impossible that
this difference corresponds to religious as-
pects and/or rituals, reflecting for example
a special destiny in the underworld, or that
 Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s funerary practices: Architectural and ritual contexts
it is associated rather with specific ritual
practices.
The practical consequences related to
the form of the shaft tombs also have to
be mentioned. Their morphology allows a
mortuary chamber to be built that remains
free of soil; the shaft is the component
that is completely filled in. In this case, the
function of the shaft becomes evident: to
contrive a means of keeping the mortuary
cavity empty while filling in its access. On a
practical level the tomb would have been
capable of being reopened, with access
to the contents of the burial cavity simply
by digging out the shaft. The example of
Burial 14 in our corpus is unmistakable ev-
idence of this practice of reopening with
the aim of recovering the bones (and per-
haps the objects of accompaniment). Por-
ter’s documentation (1969) underlines the
recurrent character of the alterations to
graves, in particular the presence of par-
tial burials or supernumerary bones, which
reinforces the idea that manipulations of
bones were common. Is it possible, then,
to imagine that the shaft tomb was created
to make it easier to retrieve the contents
of the burial cavity? However, this hypoth-
esis comes up against several obstacles.
In Chupícuaro the shaft and cavity are dug
into sediments with the bottom sitting on
top of the tepetate. The shaft is fragile, de-
spite being partially dug into a compact
and untouched sediment, and the cavity is
extremely small and of difficult access. In
order to retrieve the bones from Burial 14
the shaft had to be partially destroyed, be-
fore being repaired, perhaps to make the
tomb reusable.
Finally, we shall invoke the symbolic as-
pects. The shaft gives access to a cavity of
which the base is excavated into a whitish
tepetate, whereas the vault is dug through
dark brown compacted soil. We have al-
ready mentioned that the contrast in col-
or may have been deliberate and perhaps
intentional to have the body lie on the te-
petate—at one and the same time porous,
hard, and white (Darras and Faugère 2010),
unlike others who were buried in a brown
51
matrix. But ought these differences in ma-
terials to be regarded rather as simple
technical constraints—the tepetate being
more difficult to dig into? In the end, the
morphology of the shaft tombs is a refer-
ence to the idea of a journey into the womb
of the earth, the opposite to the journey of
birth, thus referring to the cycle of life and
death (Furst 1966; Hernández Díaz 2013).
These elements might help confirm a dis-
tinct destiny in the underworld for those in-
dividuals buried in shaft tombs.
The identification of shaft tombs in Ch-
upícuaro only reinforces the great diversity
in the ways the dead were buried during
the late Formative. Porter’s very substantial
corpus already makes it possible to docu-
ment the existence of double, collective,
partial, and urn burials, and seemingly
quite extended zones of cremation. In the
present state of research the impossibility
of defining the chronology more precisely
does not allow for an optimal understand-
ing of this diversity. The data available do,
however, allow a stimulating discussion of
the issue of social structures and rituals in
Chupícuaro societies.
1
Hollow polychrome statuettes and anthropomor-
phic polychrome effigy pots share the process of
manufacture, decorative techniques, colors used,
and iconography. There is a continuum between
them.
52 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment

Chrono-
Access shaft (length Morphology of the funerary cavity (length x Cal.1 sigma Cal. 2 sigma Orientation of the
Burial Site Burial type 14C datings stratigraphy and Identification Taphonomic processes Orientation
x width x depth) width x height) (Chronomodel) (Chronomodel) head *
chrono-typology

Head to the east

Subcircular form with a slab at the entrance. 0.98 Child (4-6 Incomplete: alterations by later
2 JR 24 Niche tomb _ _ Late Chupícuaro E/W and facing to the al
x 0.90 x unknown m years) occupations
south

Pit grave
Oval pit with three slabs and five big stones in Head to the east
3 JR 24 with stone _ _ Late Chupícuaro Adult Female E/W
the west part of the pit. 1.94 x 0.95 x 0.55 m and head facing up
roof
Incomplete: alterations by
Small pit adjusted to the funerary deposit. Head to the south
4 JR 24 Pit grave _ _ Late Chupícuaro Child (0-1 year) reopening the funerary space to N/S al
Approximate dimensions: 0.60 x 0.30 x 0.08 m and facing up
put another grave
Small pit adjusted to the funerary deposit, Incomplete: alterations by Head to the north
5 JR 24 Pit grave _ partially destroyed by later deposits. Dimensions _ Late Chupícuaro Child (0-1 year) reopening the funerary space to N/S and facing to the al
unknown. put another grave east
Pit grave
Oval pit covered by 11 slabs. 1.95 x 0.84 x 0.55 [charcoal] 2280 +- 395-259 BC 399-210 BC Head to the west
6 JR 24 with stone _ Late Chupícuaro Adult Male E/W al
m 30 (65.3%) (95.2%) and facing up
roof
Head to the east
and facing to the
7 JR 24 Pit grave _ Oval pit. 1.75 x 0.64 x 0.24 m _ Late Chupícuaro Subadult Male E/W north (taphonomic al
processes
highlighted)
Head to the east
and facing to the
8 JR 24 Pit grave _ Oval pit. Dimensions unknown. _ Late Chupícuaro Adult Male E/W north (taphonomic
processes
highlighted))
Head to the west
and facing to the
397-116 BC
9a JR 24 Pit grave _ Oval pit. 1.80 x 0.49 x 0.26 m [bone] 2220+-60 370-206 (65.1%) Late Chupícuaro Adult Female NE/SW north (taphonomic al
(95%)
processes
highlighted)

9b JR 24 Unknown _ Unknown _ Late Chupícuaro Child (0-1 year) Alterations by looting N/S Unknown al

1.37 x 0.65 x 0.60 m. Oval cavity: 2.10 x 0.50 (at level of feet)-0.80 (at 342-50 BC Head to the west
10 TR 6 Shaft tomb [bone] 2120+/-30 194-108 (65.1%) Late Chupícuaro Adult Male E/W
One step. level of shoulders) x 0.40-0.50 m. (95.1%) and facing up
403-235 BC Early/Late Head to the north
11 TR 6 Pit grave _ Oval pit. 1.52 x 0.55 m [bone] 2330+/-25 397-376 (65.5%) Adult Female N/S
(95.1%) Chupícuaro and facing up
1.15 x 0.65 x 1.10 m. Head to the west
12 TR 6 Shaft tomb Oval cavity. 1.90 x 0.80 x 0.45-0.60 m _ Late Chupícuaro Adult Male E/W
Two steps. and facing up
Head to the SW
Child (2-3
13 TR 6 Pit grave _ Not visible _ Late Chupícuaro NE/SW and facing
years)
unknown
1.10 x 0.80 x 1.36 m.
14 TR 6 Shaft tomb Oval cavity. 1.70 x 0.50 x 0.40-0.50 m _ Late Chupícuaro Empty due to removal of bones E/W Unknown
Three steps.
Head to the west
15 TR 6 Pit grave _ Oval pit. 0.63 x 0.28 x 0.15 m _ Late Chupícuaro Child (0-1 year) N/S
and facing up
Head to the west
374-200 BC Incomplete: modern plowing
16 TR 6 Unknown _ Oblong pit. Dimensions unknown [bone] 2210 +/-30 357-206 (65.4%) Late Chupícuaro Adult Male E/W and facing
(95.1%) alterations.
unknown
Unknown x 0.65 x 363-193 BC Head to the east C
17 TR 6 Shaft tomb Oval cavity. 1.95 x 0.85 x 0.50 m [bone] 2195 +/-25 353-203 (65.2%) Late Chupícuaro Adult Female E-W
0.76 m. One step. (95.2%) and facing up
Head to the west
18 JR 74 Pit grave _ Oval pit. 1.87 x 0.58 m [bone] 2110 +/-35 180-61 (65.4%) 343-43 BC (95%) Late Chupícuaro Adult Female Incomplete. E/W and facing to the
north

19 JR 74 Unknown _ Not visible _ Late Chupícuaro Legs, child Unknown Unknown

Head to the east

395-209 BC
20 JR 74 Unknown _ Not visible [bone] 2260 +/-30 388-235 (65.3%) Late Chupícuaro Adult Male NE/SW and facing to the
(95.1%)
north
Head to the west
Child +/- 5
21 JR 74 Unknown _ Not visible _ Late Chupícuaro NE/SW and facing
years
unknown

22 JR 74 Unknown _ Not visible _ Late Chupícuaro Skull, child Unknown Unknown

Head to the west

Child (0-1
23 AC 48 Pit grave _ Oval pit. 1.30 x 0.68 m _ Late Chupícuaro E/W? and facing to the
years)
north

Table 1. Descriptive data of the burials from JR24, TR6, and JR74.
 Shaft tombs in Chupícuaro’s funerary practices: Architectural and ritual contexts 53

Orientation of the
sses Orientation Associated structure Furnishings
head *

10 brown vessels and one painted stone grouped at the entrance of the tomb, on the right side of the body: one
Head to the east Circular structure (4.50 m diameter) delimited by a stone
by later monochrome anthropomorphic bowl ("Old Fire God"), two small mammiform tripod vessels, one jar, two cylinder
E/W and facing to the alignment, with several circular hearths made with packed clay
vessels, two miniature jars, one small conical red and black tripod vessel. Two small balls of chalk deposited on the left
south or simple fire depressions
side of the body. One collar with shell beads. One mask in red and white paint.
One spider leg tripod red on buff vessel and one small brown mammiform tripod vessel placed on the
Head to the east
E/W Located outside the circular structure right side of the body, near shoulder. One small mammiform tripod red/black on buff vessel on the left
and head facing up
side near elbow, one brown jar near left knee. One metate on the left side.
ons by Circular structure (4.50 m diameter) delimited by a stone
Head to the south
space to N/S alignment, with several circular hearths made with packed clay One ball of chalk close to the left hand
and facing up
e or simple fire depressions
ons by Head to the north Circular structure (4.50 m diameter) delimited by a stone
space to N/S and facing to the alignment, with several circular hearths made with packed clay One ball of chalk under skull
e east or simple fire depressions
Circular structure (4.50 m diameter) delimited by a stone
Head to the west
E/W alignment, with several circular hearths made with packed clay One spider leg tripod red on buff vessel and one bone awl between feet
and facing up
or simple fire depressions
Head to the east
and facing to the Circular structure (4.50 m diameter) delimited by a stone
E/W north (taphonomic alignment, with several circular hearths made with packed clay One anthropomorphic black and red on beige effigy close to the right tibia
processes or simple fire depressions
highlighted)
Head to the east
and facing to the
E/W north (taphonomic Located outside the circular structure. One brown cylinder vessel and one brown bowl on the left side of the body, close to the tibia.
processes
highlighted))
Head to the west
and facing to the Circular structure (4.50 m diameter) delimited by a stone
Two brown monochrome vessels placed on the right shoulder, one metate in the fill of the pit. One
NE/SW north (taphonomic alignment, with several circular hearths made with packed clay
small red on beige jar located at the extremity of right foot could be attributed to burial 9b.
processes or simple fire depressions
highlighted)
Circular structure (4.50 m diameter) delimited by a stone
One polychrome anthropomorphic effigy vessel close to the left shoulder. One ball of chalk close to the
ing N/S Unknown alignment, with several circular hearths made with packed clay
fibula.
or simple fire depressions
Head to the west 9 brown monochrome composite vessels; 1 brown aviforme effigy vessel; 1 brown and red on buff
E/W
and facing up vessel; 1 red, white and black vessel, placed.
Head to the north
N/S One orange negative on natural vessel deposited on the left side of skull.
and facing up
Head to the west Five brown monochrome vessels, one brown aviforme effigy, one polychrome pedestal vessel, all
E/W
and facing up placed on the torso.
Head to the SW
NE/SW and facing One necklace with perforated shells around the neck.
unknown

of bones E/W Unknown Circular platform with stairs. Two rock crystal fragments (tomb emptied)

Head to the west

N/S None
and facing up
Head to the west
plowing
E/W and facing Two brown monochrome composite vessels placed close to the feet (tomb altered by agriculture).
unknown
Head to the east Circular hearth made with packed clay. Circular platform with Five brown monochrome composite vessels: three placed on the right side of head and chest, two at the
E-W
and facing up stairs. extremity of the right feet. One deer bone tool and one obsidian scraper between thighs.
Head to the west
E/W and facing to the Unknown Two black on red vessels (1 at head, 1 at feet), 1 green stone axe between the legs, stone beads.
north

Unknown Unknown Stone round funerary structure with central hearth none

Head to the east

NE/SW and facing to the Stone round funerary structure with central hearth Three vessels near head: two bichrome, one monochrome jar
north
Head to the west
NE/SW and facing Stone round funerary structure with central hearth Two vessels near the head: One bichrome, one Brown and Red on Buff
unknown

Unknown Unknown Stone round funerary structure with central hearth One bichrome vessel

Head to the west

E/W? and facing to the Unknown One monochrome jar (at head), set of figurines around miniature ceramic effigy (at feet), shell necklace
north

*Facing orientation is not always pertinent because of the taphonomic processes. When the data are problematic,
we estimated it.
212 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment

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226 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment

Contributors

Laura Almendros López has a licenciatura degree in archaeology from the Universitat de Barcelona,
specializing in Prehistory. She has made her professional life in Mexico, where she has worked since 1999.
She worked first in the Bajío region of Querétaro and Guanajuato, and later in different areas of San Luis
Potosí. However, since 2004 she has been a Research Professor with the Centro of the Instituto Nacio-
nal de Antropología e Historia in Colima, where she has worked mainly with Formative contexts in that
state. In addition to salvage and rescue projects, and support of the daily work of the INAH, she has been
focused on the period of the first agricultural groups in the state with the project Occupational Continuity
in Formative Colima. The main objective of this project is to define the culture and chronology of human
groups that inhabited the valley of Colima during the Formative period and the transition to successive
periods. She is currently working on a Ph.D. in Prehistoric Archaeology at the Universitat Autónoma de
Barcelona.

Christopher S. Beekman completed his doctoral work in 1996 at Vanderbilt University, where the archae-
ology students were studying better-known areas of Mesoamerica like Oaxaca or Guatemala. Having
decided that he was more interested in less well-known regions, he headed off to western Mexico for his
dissertation work. His research has focused on the social and political organization in central Jalisco. Field-
work has played a major role in his research to understand how labor was organized, and how different
groups had their own construction techniques. He has excavated at small sites in the La Venta region, a
small, fortified center at Llano Grande, and the regionally important town of Navajas. He is currently work-
ing to analyze the materials excavated by other archaeologists at the largest site of Los Guachimontones.
He teaches at the University of Colorado Denver.

Kong F. Cheong is currently working towards a Ph.D. in Anthropology at the American University in Wash-
ington, D.C., examining data from Swahili trading cities of Manda, Takwa, and Mtwapa. His dissertation re-
search focuses on the characteristically dynamic complex adaptive systems of ancient maritime trade net-
works in the Indian Ocean. After earning a Master of Arts in Anthropology from Trent University in Ontario,
Canada, he became a yearlong Graduate Research Fellow at the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. At SFI,
he was a member of the Emergence of Complex Societies Project, studying the long-term evolution of
human societies, and sought to understand the shared underlying principles that are responsible for the
emergence of complex social, political, and economic organizations. He has both a Bachelor of Arts in
History and a Bachelor of Science in Anthropology from Kennesaw State University. Besides conducting
academic research in Belize, Kenya, and Mexico for the last 10 years, he has also worked as a professional
archaeologist at over 150 sites in the United States, ranging from Paleo-Indian to more recent historical
sites.

Véronique Darras completed her Ph.D. in Pre-Columbian Archaeology in 1991 at the University of Paris 1
Panthéon-Sorbonne. She is currently working as Research Director at the National Center for Scientific Re-
search (CNRS, Paris) and Assistant Director of the Archéologie des Amériques Laboratory (ArchAm-CNRS),
after having directed it between 2010 and 2013. Her studies on pre-Hispanic processes in west-central
Mesoamerica concern the techno-economic and social organization of craft production (obsidian and
ceramic) between the Preclassic and Postclassic Periods, and the cultural changes and lifeways during the
Preclassic period in the Lerma Valley. After conducting many years of research in the Chupícuaro area,
she is currently working in the eastern part of the Lerma alluvial plain and in the Zacapu region, where she
explores questions of mobility and rapid change, with the dual perspective on the territorial organization
of technical and economic systems.

Brigitte Faugère is a professor in Mesoamerican archaeology at the Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne.

She received her Ph.D. in 1989 and is currently the director of the Chupícuaro Archaeological Project, in
the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. Her research focuses on north central Mexico and has been concerned
successively with various stages in pre-Hispanic history: the pre-ceramic period, relations between
nomads and sedentary populations between 600 and 1200 A.D., and the formation of the Tarascan state
from 1200 A.D. Her latest work has been on the Pre-Classic period, which saw the emergence of cultures
based on agriculture and social complexity.
 Contributors 227

Rosa María Flores Ramírez has been a Professor Investigator of the Centro INAH Colima since 2010. She
has taken diverse courses, among them Immunogenetic techniques applied to molecular anthropology,
Family health and society, and The contribution of osteological investigation to knowledge of past pop-
ulations. She has taught various courses in anthropology, and contributed to publications such as “La
Costa Norte de Michoacán” en La época Prehispánica, published by British Archaeological Reports in
2002, Guerrero, una Mirada Antropológica e Histórica published by the INAH in 2007, and “Los habitantes
del Cementerio Municipal de Colima, un estudio de antropología física” in Memorias del XIV Encuentro
Iberoamericano de Valoración y Gestión de Cementerios Patrimoniales y Arte Funerario, published by the
Universidad Autónoma de México in 2013, among others.

Mads S. Jorgensen earned a B.A. and M.A. in Native American Languages and Cultures from the Uni-
versity of Copenhagen, Denmark, focusing on Mesoamerica with a strong emphasis on interdisciplinary
methods and comparative analysis. He recently completed a M.Sc. in GIS and Spatial Analysis in Archaeol-
ogy from the University College London and is currently using archaeology, epigraphy, paleography, and
spatial statistics to understand Classic period Maya courts and politics in the Southern Maya Lowlands;
examining anthropological theories on war through economic and psychological theory, as well as apply-
ing geochemistry to West Mexican ceramics. His research is primarily dictated by a particular interest in
the formation, spatial patterning, and character of past social and political complexity, and especially the
strategies employed by decision makers in creating and managing identities and “imagined” communi-
ties. Excavations include Maya sites in Belize with SARP, the Ciudadela and tunnel complex in Teotihuacán
as part of Proyecto Tlalocan, and Bronze Age settlements in Denmark. He is currently employed as a GIS
and geospatial professional.

Joseph B. Mountjoy is currently a Research Professor at the Universidad de Guadalajara, Centro Universi-
tario de la Costa in Puerto Vallarta and Level II in the Mexican National System of Researchers. He holds
a B.A. (1963) in anthropology from the University of Illinois, and a Ph.D. (1970) in anthropology with a
specialization in archaeology from Southern Illinois University. Mountjoy’s dissertation on the archaeology
of the municipality of San Blas, Nayarit focused on pre-Hispanic culture history and coastal contacts. Oth-
er archaeological fieldwork has been in the Valley of Mexico, Zacatecas, Puebla and especially in Jalisco.
West Mexican research and publications have focused temporally on the Middle Formative, Late Forma-
tive and Early Postclassic periods. Topical foci have included: coastal ecology, development of metallurgy,
expansion of Middle Formative agriculturalists, the development and spread of the Aztatlán archaeolog-
ical culture, shaft-and-chamber tomb mortuary practices, and the interpretation of petroglyphs, picto-
graphs, stone stelae, and stone sculptures

Lauren E. Wilson Norwood received her Bachelor’s of Arts in Art History in August of 2009 from the Uni-
versity of Central Arkansas (UCA) in Conway, Arkansas. While attending UCA she developed in interest
in pre-Columbian art from the Americas, particularly West Mexico. In August of 2010, Lauren continued
her education at The University of Texas at San Antonio Graduate School to study with the faculty in the
Art History department. During her master’s studies, Lauren continued her interest in pre-Columbian art,
focusing on funerary art while working closely with Dr. Elizabeth Olton. Lauren completed her Master’s
Thesis in December of 2012, on the topic of Lagunillas Style E ceramic figurines, issues of representation,
and their use in ancestor ritual. Lauren is currently living in central Arkansas, and working as an adjunct
professor of Art History at a number of institutions of higher education.

Robert P. Pickering received his Ph.D. in Physical Anthropology from Northwestern University in 1984, after
earning his BA and MA degrees in Anthropology from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale. Currently,
he serves as professor of anthropology and founding director of the Museum Science and Management
M.A. program and at the University of Tulsa. He serves as adjunct curator of anthropology at the Gil-
crease Museum. Pickering began working in northern and western Mexico as an undergraduate under
the tutelage of J. Charles Kelley. He has pursued questions pertaining to mortuary behavior and human
osteology since that time. As a museum-based anthropologist, he has been fortunate to explore a variety
of topics through research and exhibition. Pickering has authored five books and more than 60 articles for
academic and general audiences. His most recent book, Peace Medals; Negotiating Power in Early Amer-
ica, explores the tradition of granting medals to chiefs begun by English, Spanish, and French kings and
continued by American presidents. Other books include The Use of Forensic Anthropology (co-authored
with David Bachman, MD), and Seeing the White Buffalo.
228 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment

Jennifer Pirtle began her archaeological career as an undergraduate at Georgia State University, in her
hometown of Atlanta. There she studied the history and archaeology of the Southeast, in particular the
contact between the Spanish and Native Americans. Later, she was drawn west to Tulsa, Oklahoma. As
a graduate student at the University of Tulsa, she was privileged to work with the fine collections of the
Gilcrease Museum under the direction of Robert Pickering and Cheryl Smallwood-Roberts. After a sum-
mer at the museum, a part-time job turned into a thesis project. Since graduation, Ms. Pirtle continues her
adventures in archaeology back in Georgia within the realm of cultural resource management.

Rafael Platas Ruiz received his licenciatura in Anthropology with a specialization in Archaeology from the
Universidad Veracruzana, México. He is a full-time investigator of the INAH, assigned to the Centro INAH
Colima. He is the Director of a project for methodological proposals for the evaluation and update of
the Archaeological Atlas of Colima. He has done research since 1995 with projects on the pre-Hispanic
remains of agricultural fields in wetlands for the Department of Geography, University of British Colum-
bia; and on environment and agriculture in Central Veracruz for the Instituto de Investigaciones Antro-
pológicas of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He has directed various salvage and rescue
archaeological projects. His research centers on defining the burial, ceramic, and architectural systems
of the Preclassic to Classic periods in the Valle de Colima. Currently he manages a project dedicated to
the conservation and protection of cultural patrimony through the registration of sites. His work has been
disseminated in various publications.

Jill A. Rhodes focuses her research on the Bioarchaeology of West Mexico where she looks at the impact
of agricultural intensification in the Late Formative period through markers of stress such as enamel hy-
poplastic defects. She is also interested in Middle Formative Period funerary behavior. Her other research
area is in functional morphology, focused on the patterned signature that repetitive physical activity relat-
ed to weapon use has on the architecture and strength of the upper limb.

Frédérique Servain-Riviale holds a Ph.D. in Pre-Colombian Archaeology from the Université Paris I Pan-
théon-Sorbonne. Her thesis covers the ceramic anthropomorphic funerary figures from West Mexico to
which she still dedicates her research. She is now responsible for collections documentation at the Musée
du Quai Branly and is in charge of a fellowship program for collections study. In addition, she has been
Lecturer in the École du Louvre for twelve years.

Rebecca R. Stone (also published under the name Rebecca Stone-Miller) holds a doctorate in the His-
tory of Art from Yale University. She has taught at the Johns Hopkins University (1987-1988) and Emory
University (1988-present), attaining the rank of Professor. Stone is also the Faculty Curator of the Art of
the Americas at Emory’s Michael C. Carlos Museum and has curated numerous exhibitions and reinstalla-
tions there, plus the 1992 Columbus Quincentennial show at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (authoring
its catalogue, To Weave for the Sun: Andean Textiles from the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston). Subsequent
publications include: Art of the Andes from Chavín to Inca (1995, 2002, 2012), Seeing with New Eyes:
Highlights of the Michael C. Carlos Museum Collection of Art of the Ancient Americas (2002), and The Jag-
uar Within: Shamanic Trance in Ancient Central and South American Art (2011). Currently she is working
on a co-authored text on the art and culture from Ecuador to Honduras for Yale University Press.

Benjamin H. Turkel completed his MSc in archaeological science at University College London in the
summer of 2014. The focus of his dissertation concerned the chemical analysis of Mexican and Southwest
American indigenous ceramics; their composition, creation, and provenance. Coming from a background
of historical and classical studies at Mount Allison University, New Brunswick, Canada, he has worked on
dig sites ranging from European colonial settlements on the American eastern seaboard to Roman impe-
rial occupation sites in Italy. Now living in Los Angeles, he is currently the lab manager and lead brewer
for a local craft brewery.

Marcos Zavaleta Lucido received his licenciatura in Archaeology from the Universidad Veracruzana with
his thesis, Matrícula de Tecomaxtlahuaca. Continuidad y permanencia del sistema tributario local de un
señorío de La Mixteca Baja durante el siglo XVI. He worked with the Centro INAH Guerrero from 2009-
2010, after which he moved to the Centro INAH Colima from 2011-2014. The project described in his
chapter was carried out during this period. He has worked with the Centro INAH Sonora since 2014. He
has carried out various salvage archaeological projects, and worked on community-level museums.
 Index 229

Index

Abadiano 5 Cerro de los Monos 88

Acámbaro valley 39 charnel house 30
acrobat 19, 100, 101, 102, 103, 104 cheek-piercing 18, 167, 168, 171
adornment 26, 149, 150, 151, 152, 155, 156, 157, Chupícuaro 8, 12, 13, 14, 16, 38, 39, 40, 41, 43, 44,
158, 160, 161, 167, 170, 171, 178, 183, 185, 194, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 51, 53, 169, 170, 171, 173,
195, 196, 197, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205 cinnabar 42–56
afterlife 46, 48, 65, 98, 99, 182, 192, 196, 203, 204, Ciudad Granja 86
205 Coahuayana 8, 166, 167, 168
Alta Vista 7 Colación 86
Ameca-Etzatlán 8, 20, 86, 89, 90, 96, 100, 104, 105 Colima 3, 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 19, 49, 55,
Ameca Gray 20 57, 62, 66, 68, 69, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 83,
ancestor rituals 204 98, 101, 128, 133, 134, 166, 168, 170, 59, 61, 63,
ancestors 10, 20, 27, 37, 68, 81, 97, 105, 169, 171, 65, 67, 69
196, 197, 198, 203, 204, 205 Colorines 20, 110, 111, 116, 120, 121, 124
animals 19, 40, 69, 82, 97, 100, 207 Comala 8, 13, 19, 56, 57, 58, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 70,
appliqué 76, 77, 166, 193 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 86, 96, 101,
Armería phase 56, 57, 67, 68, 69 104, 134, 144, 166, 168
àròyá 200, 201, 204, 205 Comala phase 13, 56, 57, 58, 64, 66, 67, 68, 69, 73,
Arroyo Seco 110, 111, 116, 120, 121, 124 75, 76, 77, 78, 79
Atemajac 50, 85, 86, 99, 110, 111, 112, 124, Comales 110
Atemajac Valley 50, 85, 86, 99, 110, 213 component analysis 115, 122
Atoyac Basin 99 Copales 168
atierros 75, 79, 80, 82 Cortéz, Hernán 2, 3
atlatl 67 cosmovision 68, 172
authenticity 10, 109, 129, 132, 133, 134, 138, 142, Cosmovision 171, 214
144, 164, 198, 209, 210 cranial modification 28, 30, 67, 68, 97, 100, 152,
avatar 189, 191, 207 155, 156, 160, 176, 193
cribra orbitalia 34, 35, 66, 67
ballgame 10, 98, 150, 159 CT csan, computed axial tomography 109, 128,
ballplayers 27, 98, 101, 103, 149, 152, 158, 159, 129, 133, 134, 135
201 203 Cuizillo de Don Fidel 41
Barius, José María 5 Cuizillo del Mezquital-Los Azules 41
bed tableau 187 cult of the dead 2, 5, 68, 90
bench 3, 25, 26, 36, 78, 101, 113, 167, 185, 187, cutaneous lesions 163, 165, 167
190, 193
bench tomb 78 Damadel 86
bloodletting 167, 168, 172 diamond 171
body modifications 150, 152, 161, 195 diseases 36, 165, 187
body painting 163, 166, 168, 169, 170, 171, 173, dog 10, 15, 19, 25, 26, 37, 40, 56, 61, 62, 66, 69, 78,
205 128, 133, 134, 135, 180, 185
bottle shaped tomb 56 Don Juan 9
Breton, Adela 5, 89, 98, 170, 181, 187, 188, duality 172, 180
Bugambilias 86, 102, 104
burned shell temper 110, 119 Early Classic 13, 24, 56, 86, 93, 97, 99, 110, 122
Early Formative 3, 12, 85
camay 189 effigies 28, 36, 155, 156, 175, 187, 189, 195, 196,
Camotas 166, 168 197, 199, 200, 203, 204, 207
Capacha 12, 74 El Arenal 4, 8, 17, 86, 87, 88, 89, 92, 93, 96, 100,
carbon 14 testing, 14C 48, 133, 140, 141 102, 103, 104, 166, 167, 169, 181, 185, 192, 201
Castañeda, Carlos 9 El Arenal Brown 8, 17, 86, 88, 96, 100, 185, 201
cemetery, cemeteries 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 23, 24, 26, El Embocadero II 12, 15, 22, 23, 24, 26, 27, 28, 29,
27, 29, 30, 35, 36, 37, 40, 50, 76, 78, 79, 86, 87, 90, 30, 35, 36
98, 102, 184, 209 El Infiernito 40
ceremonial centers 14, 86, 93, 99, 101, 208 El Opeño 3, 6, 12, 159
ceremonial plaza 55 El Pantano 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 36, 37
Cerrito de la Anona 86 El Rayo 40
230 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment

embodiment 189, 207

enamel hypoplastic defects 29, 30, 31, 32 jadeite 25, 26, 69
Endoscopy, endoscopic examination 134, 138, jaguar 26
139, 140, 147 Jalisco 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 20,
Estolanos 6, 20, 86, 89, 90, 110, 111, 116, 118, 120, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29, 49, 50, 69, 84, 85, 87, 89, 91, 92,
121, 124 93, 95, 98, 99, 100, 101, 105, 110, 123, 143, 149,
Etzatlán 4, 5, 7, 8, 20, 86, 87, 89, 90, 92, 96, 100, 166, 167, 168, 169, 170, 172, 173, 175, 176, 177,
104, 105 178, 184, 185, 209
external burials 56, 65
eyes 72, 164, 170, 171, 173, 178, 185, 190, 193, Kahlo, Frida 6, 130
196, 198, 199, 200, 205 Kislak Collection 10, 214
Kuna 182, 191
fake, faking 5, 7, 10, 21, 100, 130, 142, 209, 210,
133 La Araña 29
Father Sun 25, 36 La Bolita 29
Feathered Serpent 10 La Estancia 55
funerary archaeoentomology 138 Lagunillas 8, 98, 162, 165, 166, 167, 169, 170, 171,
funerary contexts 27, 55, 73, 76, 77, 81 172, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 201, 202, 203,
funerary hut 30 204, 205
funerary rituals 27 La Joyita 89, 90
Furst, Peter 3, 7, 8, 9, 10, 13, 19, 20, 51, 82, 98, 157, Las Cuevas 86, 87, 102, 103
181, 182, 184, 190, 193, 195, 203 Late Formative 13, 24, 29, 56, 85, 93, 97, 99, 110,
116, 122, 124, 141, 202, 208
Galván, Javier 6, 10, 11, 13, 16, 49, 50, 58, 85, 86, La Tronera 41
87, 93, 110, 190 La Venta 87, 89
gender 12, 18, 27, 34, 35, 36, 100, 102, 103, 149, Leptothrix discophora 135
150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, lineage 98, 155, 166, 168, 172, 199, 200, 203
166, 172, 176, 185, 200, 204 Llano Grande 86
gender roles 150, 157, 159, 160 looters, looting 1, 5, 6, 7, 10, 11, 35, 39, 41, 46, 56,
geneonymy 204 85, 86, 87, 88, 89, 91, 92, 98, 99, 101, 104, 109, 129,
generalized anthropomorphic portraits 202 130, 133, 135, 140, 149, 157, 176
greenstone 66 Los Guachimontones 20, 87, 88, 89, 90, 93, 100,
guachimontón 4, 5, 14, 88, 89, 92 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 116, 117, 118,
119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 127
Hacienda Guadalupe 5, 89, 98 Los Reyes Valley 24, 29
Hacienda Santa Maria 86 Los Tanques 26
hairstyles 202, 204 Lumholtz, Carl 5, 135, 173, 184
hollow figures 6, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 20, 56, 65, 66,
75, 76, 82, 85, 86, 88, 89, 90, 91, 97, 98, 99, 101, Magdalena 11, 12, 85, 86, 87
111, 122, 137, 138, 141, 156, 157, 160, 163, 164, Magdalena Lake 11, 12, 213
171, 172, 173, 209, 210 manganese 8, 10, 11, 21, 132, 135, 136, 137, 177,
Huichol 5, 8, 9, 10, 90, 158, 173, 177, 182, 214, 216 183, 197, 209
Huitzilapa 11, 14, 15, 16, 24, 27, 69, 88, 98, 102, manos 56, 58
103, 138, 155, 182, 191, 192, 200, 201, 209 Mary Pérez 86, 87
Hymenopteran 140 Mascota 12, 19, 22, 24, 26, 28, 36, 37, 98
hypoplastic defects 29, 30, 31, 32, 35 Mascota Valley 12, 22, 24, 26, 36, 37
Maya 18, 67, 93, 97, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 166,
incarnation 189, 207 171, 187, 192, 197, 199, 200, 202, 203, 204, 208
indigenismo 6 mesa 86, 191
individuality 188, 196 Mesoamerica 3, 9, 10, 11, 16, 19
initiation 166, 169, 170, 171, 172, 205 Metallogenium 135
instantiation 189, 191, 207 metates 41, 42, 56, 58, 78, 79
iron pyrite 25 Mexpan 20, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 180, 181,
ixiptla 189 182, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 190, 191,
Ixtépete 86 193
Ixtlán del Río 8, 143, 148, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, Mexpan Sculptor 20, 174, 175, 176, 177, 178, 179,
154, 155, 156, 157, 158, 159, 160, 161, 176, 184, 180, 181, 183, 184, 185, 186, 187, 188, 189, 191,
188, 205, 206 193
 Index 231

Middle Formative 12, 15, 23, 24, 25, 26, 28, 36, 37, provenance 109, 110, 115, 116, 122, 175, 183, 205
56, 85, 98, 159 puparia 129, 132, 135, 136, 137, 138, 139, 140,
mineral deposits, Mn 8, 11, 114, 124, 129, 135, 141, 142, 144, 145, 146
136, 137, 138, 142 pXRF 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115, 117, 119, 121,
Moche 187, 215 122, 123, 125, 127
Mother Earth 25, 36 Pyramid of the Sun 14
Munguia 40 pyramid structures 55
musical instruments 40, 62
quartz 25, 26, 30
nagual 10, 189 Quetzalcoatl 26
Nanahuatzin 166 quincunx 169, 171
Navajas 20, 90, 108, 109, 110, 111, 113, 114, 115,
116, 117, 118, 119, 120, 121, 123, 124, 125, 127, radiography 109, 133
213 recent ancestors 203
Nayarit 3, 5, 12, 13, 14, 20, 88, 98, 101, 142, 143, reconstructions 209
145, 148, 149, 153, 154, 155, 156, 162, 165, 166, rectangular platform 55
168, 170, 174, 175, 177, 178, 179, 181, 183, 184, red pigment 26, 41, 45, 67
185, 187, 189, 190, 191, 192, 193, 194, 195, 196, remote ancestors 203
205, 206 restoration 10, 66, 209
necrophagous 138, 140, 142, 145 Resumidero Arriba 89
negative-painted 185 ritual killing 191
niche tomb 42 ritual offerings 56
Rivera, Diego 6, 130
Oaxaca 196, 197, 204, 205, 214 Rodolfo Torres 7
object sacrifice 176, 191
Old Fire God 13, 150 San Andrés 88
Olmec 3, 159, 187, 196, 197, 198, 199, 201, 202, San Cayetano 41
ootheca 140, 141 San Juanito 8, 20, 86, 88, 96, 100, 101, 169, 170,
original pair 26 171, 172
Ortices 8, 13, 56, 58, 67, 70, 71, 73, 74, 75, 76, 77, San Sebastián 8, 17, 20, 86, 87, 89, 93, 96, 100, 101,
78, 79, 81, 82, 83, 96, 101, 104 104, 162, 165, 166, 167, 169, 170, 172, 173, 175,
Ortices phase 13, 56, 58, 67, 75, 77, 78, 82 180, 181, 184, 185, 192
osteoarthritis 30 Sayula 12, 85, 86, 87, 99, 212
osteopenia 32 Sayula Basin 12, 85, 86, 87, 99
Occidente 87, 129, 164, 197, 207, 211 scarification 17, 18, 104, 163, 164, 165, 166, 167,
178, 200, 201, 202, 205
Pakal 187, 200 scoliosis 30
partial burials 40, 51 secondary burial 32, 40, 64
paste (ceramic) 20, 76, 77, 110, 111, 114, 116, 118, self-sacrifice 163, 167, 168
119, 120, 121, 185, 193, 210 sensory perception 170
pellagra 26 sex 9, 19, 24, 27, 28, 29, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 58, 66,
periostitis 66, 67 67, 105, 132, 164, 165, 170, 183, 184, 187, 188,
Periplaneta australasiae 140 200, 203
petate 42, 45 shaft and pit burials 12
phorids 138, 141 shaft tombs 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15,
Pihuamo 166, 168 16, 39, 44, 46, 48, 49, 50, 51, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60, 64,
pit burials 12, 16, 20, 50, 79, 87, 93, 99 65, 66, 67, 74, 75, 77, 78, 79, 82, 85, 86, 87, 88, 89,
porotic hyperostosis 35, 66 90, 91, 92, 93, 98, 99, 100, 102, 104, 105, 110, 122,
portraits 17, 18, 19, 98, 99, 105, 150, 176, 187, 188, 129, 130, 131, 133, 135, 137, 139, 141, 143, 145,
189, 195, 197, 198, 199, 200, 202, 203, 205 147, 149, 150, 157, 158, 159, 163, 180, 181, 184,
portraiture 2, 17, 18, 97, 187, 188, 189, 192, 193, 190, 195, 207, 208, 209, 211
195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 205 shamans 20, 27, 33, 72, 98, 149, 152, 157, 159,
Postclassic 10, 17, 20, 26, 101, 110, 112, 116, 119, 160, 176, 183, 184, 190, 191, 193, 203
120, 122, 123, 124, 156, 160 slip 76, 111, 114, 120, 121, 122, 136, 138, 185, 195
pox 26 social status 28, 46, 50, 67, 100, 150, 155, 196, 201,
PP.58 86, 87 204
primary burials 29, 32, 33, 34, 36, 40, 88 solid figurines 11, 20, 25, 75, 76, 81, 82, 87, 97, 98,
primary interment 33, 34 101, 122
232 Shaft Tombs and Figures in West Mexico Society: A Reassessment

specificity 13, 18, 188 Xilotlán 166, 168

Spondylus 26 Xipe Totec 26
Starr, Frederick 5 Xolotl 10
statistical analysis v, 115, 149, 150, 151, 153, 155,
156, 157, 159, 161 Yoruba 196, 197, 199, 200, 201, 202, 205
status 12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 23, 24, 25, 27, 28, 30, 35,
36, 46, 50, 67, 79, 89, 91, 97, 98, 100, 101, 102, 103, Zacatecas 4, 7, 8, 12, 13, 14, 166, 169, 171, 172,
104, 105, 149, 150, 151, 152, 153, 155, 156, 157,
158, 159, 160, 161, 167, 177, 178, 196, 197, 201,
203, 204, 205, 207
stepped tomb 55, 56, 64, 65, 66, 68, 69

Tabachines 10, 11, 13, 16, 19, 20, 50, 86, 87, 91, 102,
103, 104, 110, 111, 116, 118, 120, 121, 124, 215,
Tabletas 110
tabular oblique 30, 31, 68
Tala-Tonalá 8, 86, 166, 169, 172
tattoo 200, 202
teixiptla 189, 190
temper 21, 89, 110, 111, 115, 119
Teotihuacán 5, 13, 14
teotl 19, 189, 191
tepetate 4, 42, 44, 46, 50, 51, 56, 58, 64, 69, 74, 76,
77, 78, 79, 80, 93
Tequila II 13, 85, 86, 88, 105, 110
Tequila III 13, 86, 105, 110
Tequila IV 13, 86, 110
Tequila valleys 12, 85, 110
Tequila Volcano 99
termination 16, 177, 191
thermoluminescence, TL 133, 135, 138, 141, 140,
142, 144
tilmatli 17, 18, 101, 104
tonalpohualli 10
Torres, Rodolfo 7
tronco-cónico 208
tumba de tiro 3, 73
tumba de tiro y boveda 3
Tuxcacuesco-Ortices 8, 82, 83, 96, 101, 104

underworld 14, 19, 26, 50, 51, 68, 69, 159, 171,
176, 190, 203, 205, 208
urn burial 40
Usmajac 84, 86, 87, 102, 103

Valdivia 191
Valle de Guadalupe 86
Volcán de Colima 14
von Winning, Hasso 9, 10, 13, 96, 98, 105, 109, 132,
133, 135, 167, 173, 175, 178, 179, 195

warrior 9, 27, 72, 77, 82, 98, 100, 101, 149, 152,
157, 158, 159,160, 165, 169, 171, 181, 182, 192,
203, 205
wawki 189
weapons 101, 104, 203
workshop 5, 7, 20, 164, 184, 185