Plazuelas

Plazuelas is a prehispanic archaeological site located just north of San Juan el Alto, some 2.7 kilometers (1.57 mi.) north of federal highway 90 (Pénjamo-Guadalajara), and about 11 kilometers (6.8 mi.) west of the city of Pénjamo in the state of Guanajuato, Mexico. The site is open to the public; it is dominated by a large, rectangular plaza with several pyramidal structures and platforms, along with a massive ball court. To the north of the structures is a field of boulders with thousands of glyphs carved into them.

The original settlement was considerably larger, with a large, circular structure called El Cajete marking its eastern extent.

According to INAH, site remains and evidence confirms the influence of many cultures merging on this site, although it is not certainly known who constructed this city, INAH believes the hunter-gatherer Chichimecas inhabited the Bajio region at the end of the postclassical period, and that many other sedentary cultures lived here before, but these cultures are not mentioned nor identified.

Plazuelas (600-900 CE) is located in the same Municipality as the Barajas (archaeological site) (? – 1000 CE) and some 46 kilometers (28.6 mi.) west of Peralta (100 – 900 CE), and share similar settlement mesoamerican classical period, hence it is possible that these three cities shared constructors, inhabitants, religion, governments and traded as part of a common “Bajio Tradition”.

Very little is known about these societies inhabiting the Bajio Region, they are thought to have been members of hunter-gatherer, fishing Chichimec groups, it is now known that these places were trading confluence routes between central Mexico with northern and western Mesoamerica.

Over 1400 years ago, in addition to Plazuelas, there were other five known important cities in the region; San Bartolome (Tzchté), San Miguel Viejo, Tepozán, Loza Los Padres and Peralta (Mesoamerican site). Circular structures confirm the Tradition constant ancient relations with other civilizations. Circular structures are common across prehispanic Mesoamerica.