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From Above: Mexico

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  • From Above: Mexico

Archaeological Park at Sunset

Paquimé, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, 1996  |  55.5 x 65.5 x 1.75  |  $2,800

Visit this Place

Paquimé, (also known as Casas Grandes) is a major multistoried adobe pueblo in northern Chihuahua, Mexico. Reaching its apex during the 13th – 15th centuries, the Casas Grandes culture at Paquimé thrived on agriculture and trade. Paquimé has been designated a World Heritage site by UNESCO. This view is to the southeast at sunset across the Rio Casas Grandes valley.

Paquimé at Sunset, © Adriel Heisey
Paquimé at Sunset, © Adriel Heisey

So, if we start talking about landscape as the interaction between communities and their environments, then we also recognize that the landscape has many layers across physical spaces, as well as over time. Then archaeologists can begin to recognize that the dialogue of past isn’t just ours to tell.

—Kurt Anschuetz, anthropologist
Rio Grande Foundation for Communities and Cultural Landscapes

 

Archaeological Park with Unexcavated Mounds

Paquimé, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, 1996  |  55.5 x 65.5 x 1.75  |  $2,800

Visit this Place

The massive site of Casas Grandes, also known as Paquimé, has undergone major excavations and stabilization, although almost half of the site remains unexcavated. (Note the uneven earthen mounds along the right side of the stabilized portion of the site). This view is to the north, with the Rio Casas Grandes valley at upper right, and the modern village of Casas Grandes at upper left.

Archaeological Park with Unexcavated Mounds, © Adriel Heisey
Archaeological Park with Unexcavated Mounds, © Adriel Heisey

When I visit sites I think about community, how different my life is in relation to how people once lived. Ancient people lived in a community. I value that because it’s so different from my life today where I don’t even know my neighbors.

—Patrick D. Lyons, Associate Director
Arizona State Museum

Excavated Spiral-walled Compound

Summit area, Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico, 1996  |  55.5 x 65.5 x 1.75  |  $2,800

Low overhead view of “El Caracol” or “The Snail,” the spiral-walled unroofed structure on one of the summit flats of Cerro de Trincheras.

Excavated Spiral-walled Compound, © Adriel Heisey
Excavated Spiral-walled Compound, © Adriel Heisey

 

Reconstructed Cardinally Oriented Mounds

Mound of the Cross, Paquimé, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, 1996  |  33.5 x 39 x 0.875  |  $975

Visit this Place

Low overhead view of the reconstructed cardinal cross mounds at Paquimé, pueblo ruins at Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico. Although its exact function is unknown, it is one of numerous examples of public ritual architecture at the site. Bottom of frame is east.

Reconstructed Cardinally Oriented Mounds, © Adriel Heisey
Reconstructed Cardinally Oriented Mounds, © Adriel Heisey

I am always somewhat excited, I always like being on an archaeological site. It is a visceral feeling of being some place where someone was before—a place of value.

—Jeffrey Altschul, archaeologist and president of Statistical Research, Inc.

 

Roomblocks with Reconstructed Adobe Walls

Central Complex, Paquimé, Casas Grandes, Chihuahua, Mexico, 2000  |  43 x 53.5 x 1.75  |  $1,950

Visit this Place

Overhead view of the reconstructed and stabilized adobe pueblo ruins of Paquimé in northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The remains of macaw breeding pens are clearly visible in the center of this image. Bottom of frame is east.

Room Blocks with Reconstructed Adobe Walls, © Adriel Heisey
Room Blocks with Reconstructed Adobe Walls, © Adriel Heisey

 

Severe Erosion in Archaeological Landscape (Detail)

Along the Río Boquillas, Sonora, Mexico, 1996  |  55.5 x 65.5 x 1.75  |  $2,800

La Playa archaeological site in Sonora, Mexico, where features and artifacts cover ten square kilometers along the margins of the Río Boquillas. The majority of the site dates to the Early Agricultural period (1500 BC to AD 200). Surface erosion is severe and extensive.

Severe Erosion in Archaeological Landscape (Detail), © Adriel Heisey
Severe Erosion in Archaeological Landscape (Detail), © Adriel Heisey

Severe Erosion in Archaeological Landscape

Along the Rio Boquillas, Sonora, Mexico, 1996  |  55.5 x 65.5 x 1.75  |  $2,800

Severe Erosion in Archaeological Landscape, © Adriel Heisey
Severe Erosion in Archaeological Landscape, © Adriel Heisey

 

Stone Terraces on Cerro at Sunset

Cerro Juanaqueña, Janos, Chihuahua, Mexico, 2000  |  32.125 x 39 x 0.875  |  $975

An Early Agricultural period site dating to approximately 1150 BC in the Chihuahuan Desert. A series of terraces built into the sides and top of a 140-meter-high basalt hill provided living space for the prehistoric inhabitants. View is to the west-northwest at sunset, with the fields of the Rio Casas Grandes valley below the hill.

Stone Terraces on Cerro at Sunset, © Adriel Heisey
Stone Terraces on Cerro at Sunset, © Adriel Heisey

The biggest interest in archaeology for me—although it’s all interesting—is how the land used to be, so we can maintain it for future generations. We’re modern people, yes, but we’re also trying to live off the land. And if you live off the land, you have to appreciate it or otherwise you might as well sell-off. We appreciate the land—all the five generations of my family and the Native Americans before us.

—Andrew Smallhouse, rancher and farmer
Redington, Arizona

Stone Terraces on Summit with Livestock

Cerro Vidal, Chihuahua, Mexico, 2000  |  43 x 53.5 x 1.75  |  $1,950

Cerro Vidal in northern Chihuahua, Mexico. The pattern of concentric rock walls ringing the summit of low volcanic hills, or cerros, is characteristic of trincheras archaeological features found in the Rio Casas Grandes region. The white dots in this photo are grazing livestock.

Stone Terraces on Summit with Livestock, © Adriel Heisey
Stone Terraces on Summit with Livestock, © Adriel Heisey

I would say that archaeology is like music and the arts in the sense that the ultimate fate of man does not rest on archaeology. It’s an enriching experience. It tells us about the past as a species and maybe specific times and places. It shows what we’ve done to get where we are today. It offers people a chance to know the past in different terms—it’s not religion or a simple history book. It is an issue of enrichment.

—Bruce Huckell, senior research coordinator
Maxwell Museum of Anthropology

 

Volcanic Hill with Terraces under Rainbow

Cerro de Trincheras, Sonora, Mexico, 1996  |  55.5 x 65.5 x 1.75  |  $2,800

A monsoon rain shower descends on Cerro de Trincheras as evening sunlight floods in from the west. In this view to the southeast, no modern structures are visible, while the prehistoric stone terraces visibly striate the flanks of the main hill. Dated to between AD 1300 and 1500, as many as 2,000 people may have lived at this site at one time.

Volcanic Hill with Terraces under Rainbow, © Adriel Heisey
Volcanic Hill with Terraces under Rainbow, © Adriel Heisey

I remember a survey I was doing in Mexico, and all of a sudden there was this church in the middle of a cornfield. Only portions of it were left, but you could see the altar and the ceiling behind it. The walls were beautifully painted in a blue and covered with stars. And it immediately struck me how fragile the past is, and how easily it disappears into the future, even when you live with it. And it struck me how the past is ever present in most places…

—Teresita Majewski, director, History Department, Statistical Research, Inc.

 

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  • Culture Trincheras

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