The “Baja Abajo” on Bajareque at Los Guachimontones

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From the Underworld to the Heavens: Expanding the Study of Central Jalisco’s Past" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Small, hard, orange, and usually featureless. Bajareque, or fired daub, is part of the material culture recovered during excavations. Occasionally, a piece will stand out having impressions of cane or thatch and be regarded as a curiosity. Bajareque is often not found in any substantial quantities to warrant closer scrutiny due to its formation under specific circumstances, often the burning of a perishable building covered in daub. At Los Guachimontones, the situation is different. Despite not having desert conditions like at Paquime, a substantial amount of bajareque was recovered by PAT from the years 1999 to 2010. An initial analysis targeting artifact bags containing the greatest weight of bajareque revealed surprising results to its recovered contexts, its various forms, and its composition. These results lend new insights into how the guachimontones were constructed and the use of domestic knowledge bases for public construction projects.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• From the Underworld to the Heavens: Expanding the Study of Central Jalisco’s Past

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 50737