La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project (LQ-MVAP)

Summary

For over 15 years, Mexican and American archaeologists and students have dug ancient ruins, walked the high desert landscape, and worked in laboratories to understand the rise and fall of La Quemada, Zacatecas. We want to know why societies become complex, developing social hierarchies with specialized economic, political, and religious roles for their members. Why do civilizations expand? Northern Mexico's ancient past is an ideal context for studying these questions. During the period A.D. 400-1500, La Quemada and several other monumental ceremonial centers arose and collapsed in the region, coinciding with a geographic expansion and retraction of the cultural patterns of Mesoamerica. La Quemada (A.D. 500-900) is a monumental fortress and ceremonial center; its ruins include colonnaded halls, ball courts, causeways, grand staircases, and ordinary houses. Agricultural terrace systems and villages dot the surrounding valley. Archaeologists have proposed that La Quemada was a trading outpost on the turquoise trail to the American Southwest, or the castle of a central Mexican feudal lord who came to take advantage of improved climatic conditions, or a fortress to protect central Mexico from incursions from this northern territory, or a way station for marauding tribes who ultimately became the Mexica (Aztecs). Project members, in contrast, believe that the local indigenous populations played a large role in La Quemada's transformation. We have conducted seven seasons of excavation and numerous studies of sites, artifacts, and excavated materials to evaluate these propositions. The work continues with specialized analyses of polished stone mirrors, cut marks on human skeletons, animal bones, as well ethnoarchaeological, linguistic, and paleoenvironmental analysis. A comprehensive monograph on the excavations and analyses is in preparation. While the earlier explanations for cycles of social complexity in the region emphasized conquest and domination by foreign forces, the new evidence indicates that La Quemada grew as local religious leaders attracted followers and assumed regional importance. In doing so, they interacted with other similar actors across great distances, adopting and inventing key Mesoamerican practices, including ancestor veneration, monument-building, warfare, crafting, feasting, and long-distance exchange.

Cite this Record

La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project (LQ-MVAP). ( tDAR id: 11) ; doi:10.6067/XCV8Q52R1X

Keywords

Material
Bone • Building Materials • Ceramic • Chipped Stone • Dating Sample • Fauna • Ground Stone • Human Remains • Macrobotanical • Mineral • Pollen • Shell • Wood

Site Name
El Potrerito • La Quemada • Malpaso Valley

Site Type
Ancient Church / Religious Structure • Ancient Communal / Public Structure • Archaeological Feature • Artifact Scatter • Ball Court • Building Substructure • Burial Pit • Causeway • Church / Religious Structure • Domestic Structure or Architectural Complex • Domestic Structures • Encampment • Funerary and Burial Structures or Features • Hamlet / Village • Hearth • House • House Mound • Midden • Mound / Earthwork • Non-Domestic Structures • Ossuary • Palace • Platform Mound • Plaza • Pyramid • Resource Extraction / Production / Transportation Structure or Features • Room Block / Compound / Pueblo • Settlements • Sheet Midden • Stairway • Temple • Terrace • Tomb • Town / City • Trash Midden Show More

Investigation Types
Architectural Documentation • Architectural Survey • Bioarchaeological Research • Collections Research • Data Recovery / Excavation • Environment Research • Ethnographic Research • Ethnohistoric Research • Geophysical Survey • Heritage Management • Methodology, Theory, or Synthesis • Reconnaissance / Survey • Records Search / Inventory Checking • Research Design / Data Recovery Plan • Site Evaluation / Testing • Systematic Survey

General
AMS Radiocarbon Dating • Archaeobotanical Analysis • Archaeomagnetic Dating • Bioarchaeology/Skeletal Analysis • Built Environment • Built Landscapes • Ceramic Figurine • Ceramic Petrography • Ceramic Production and Exchange • Charcoal Analysis • Chronological Seriation • Climate Change • Collective Action • Craft Production • Craft Specialization • Economic Specialization • Electron Microprobe Analysis • Ethnographic Analogy • Faunal Analysis • Figurines, West Mexico • Food Processing • Food Production • Groundstone & Lithic Analysis • Human-Environmental Interactions • Instrumental Neutron Activation Analysis • Isotope Analysis • Long-Distance Exchange Networks • Macrobotanical Analysis • Monumentality • Northern expansion of Mesoamerica • Obsidian Source Analysis • Resilience and Sustainability • ritual practice • Social Complexity • Social Identification • Social Status Show More

Geographic Keywords
Frontera Septentrional • Malpaso Valley • Mesoamerica • Mesoamerica: Northern • Mesoamerica: Western • Mesoamerican Northern Periphery • Northern Mesoamerica • North West Mexico • Occidente • West Mexico

Temporal Keywords
Epiclassic • Epi-Classic

Temporal Coverage

Calendar Date: 450 to 1000

Spatial Coverage

min long: -102.879; min lat: 22.41 ; max long: -102.796; max lat: 22.491 ;

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Andrea Torvinen

Principal Investigator(s): Ben Nelson; Andrea Torvinen

Sponsor(s): Arizona State Universtity

Source Collections

The LQ-MVAP collections are housed in the ASU Archaeology Laboratory in Zacatecas, Mexico until December 2025. Thereafter, the collections will be transferred to the Museo Regional de Guadalupe.

Resources Inside this Project (Viewing 1-15 of 15)

Documents

  1. Burial Excavations in Plaza 1 of Los Pilarillos, Zacatecas, Mexico, 1997 Season (1998)
  2. Creating a Digital Reference Collection for the La Quemada-Malpaso Valley Archaeological Project (2024)
  3. El Potrerito Midden 1 Coring Field Notes (1998)
  4. Informe parcial del Proyecto Valle de Malpaso La Quemada Temporada 1992 (1993)
  5. Informe Parcial del Proyecto Valle del Malpaso La Quemada Temporada 1995 (1997)
  6. Informe parcial del Proyecto Valley de Malpaso-La Quemada Temporada 1993 (1995)
  7. Informe tecnico parcial del Proyecto Valle del Malpaso La Quemada Temporada 1997-98 (2002)
  8. Nelson et al. - Trabajos conducidos por La State University of New York dentro del Proyecto La Quemada 1989-90 (1992)
  9. Preliminary Report of SUNY-Buffalo Investigations at La Quemada, Zacatecas, 1987 and 1988 Seasons (1989)
  10. Project Bibliography (2008)
  11. Trabajos conducidos por la State University of New York dentro del Proyecto La Quemada 1989-90 (1992)

Datasets

  1. Groundstone Image Dataset (2025)
  2. Malpaso Database (2008)
  3. Polished Stone Image Dataset (2025)
  4. Spindle Whorl Dataset (2026)