Barajas (archaeological site) facts for kids

Barajas is an archaeological site in Pénjamo, Guanajuato, Mexico. It's a huge area with about 15 well-preserved ancient sites. These sites were built on a small volcanic mountain range in a region called the Bajío.

Discovering Barajas

Long ago, the land north of the Lerma River was likely home to groups of people who hunted and gathered food. They moved around a lot. Later, people who built the Barajas sites probably settled down here. Their way of life and how their society was set up were similar to other ancient cultures in Mesoamerica. Experts believe the site was left empty around the year 1000 CE.

During the first 1000 years CE, Mesoamerica was a very busy place. People lived in settled communities, even in the drier northern parts of Mexico. But around 1000 CE, for reasons we don't fully know, these settled groups left the region. The land went back to being mostly used by nomadic hunter-gatherers. This change affected all of Mesoamerica. We know from old stories and pictures that many groups migrated from the North for 500 years before the Spanish arrived. Some important groups like the Toltec, Aztec, and Purépecha are thought to have come from the North. Barajas might have been a stop along the way for these traveling groups.

Scientists like Pedro Armillas and Braniff have studied Northern Mexico for a long time. More recently, French archaeologists did research in Barajas in 1998, 1999, and 2000.

When People Lived Here

Recent studies show that people lived in the Barajas area during a time called the Epiclassical period (from 650 to 950 CE). During this time, the people were settled farmers. They became an important community in the Bajío region. It's thought that these settled groups started living here even earlier, around the Mid-Classical period (450–650 CE). Most of the sites were abandoned by the late 10th century. This happened across many northern Mesoamerican sites. Some clues suggest that hunters from the later Postclassical period, possibly Purépecha people, visited the sites sometimes.

How They Lived and Organized Society

When the Barajas area was at its busiest, hundreds of buildings of different types and sizes were constructed. The builders used flat stones called andesite slabs, which were easy to find nearby. They used these slabs to build their religious places and their homes.

Scientists noticed that buildings on nearby hills looked very similar. This means that all the sites in the area were part of one big, connected community.

The housing areas tell us a lot about daily life during the Epiclassical period. Most people lived in rectangular houses. These houses often had several rooms inside. They had tall slab walls built on a raised platform, and their roofs were made of materials that would decay over time, like wood or thatch. Between the houses were open spaces, often shaped by terraces. These areas were probably used for farming. The homes of the leaders were larger and more complex than the other houses.

The Barajas Sites

The Barajas area includes about 15 different ancient sites. Some of the most important ones are:

Nogales

"Nogales" was probably the main religious and community center. It has the biggest and most complex buildings. Archaeologists dug up structures A1, A2, and A3. They found five layers of different occupations, which helped them figure out the timeline of the site.

This site was first found in the early 1980s. The people who built Nogales created a kind of fortress in the north of what would later become the Protohistoric Purépecha Kingdom. The way Nogales was built suggests people lived there during the Epiclassical and early Postclassical periods (700–1000 CE). Some experts think Nogales might be connected to another site called San Antonio from Carupo in Michoacán. This is because some buildings at San Antonio are similar to the impressive buildings of the Chalchihuites culture. This similarity made archaeologists wonder about the identity of the people who lived in the Barajas area.

Group A Nogales Structures A1 and A2 were likely homes.

Group B Nogales had non-domestic buildings. A small altar (B4) was found in the middle of a ceremonial area. This area also had three impressive pyramid-like structures.

Group G Nogales, G9 was studied to learn about how people buried their dead and what the populations were like. Structure G9 gave interesting information. It was a small artificial terrace with the damaged remains of a tile building. Inside the terrace, archaeologists found burials from the Barajas phase. They found the remains of five people in a small area. The best-preserved burial was an adult woman. She was buried lying on her back with her legs straight. She was buried with the bones of another adult (likely moved from somewhere else) and many valuable items. These items included ten ceramic pots, a decoration made of small seashell pearls found at her waist, and a special plug shaped like a token.

Yácata El Angel

Structure H2 has large buildings with many rooms and divisions. These were built around inner courtyards. They were usually connected to a building with a central open space, which was probably used for meetings and funerals. Sometimes, they had a closed courtyard.

Group C Yácata El Ángel included a patio and related items.

El Moro

Group D El Moro had many small wells built from slabs, which were used a lot.

Casas Tapadas

Group A Casas Tapadas: Archaeologists dug up two small parts of buildings here. They were probably homes. An underground structure was also found.

Los Toriles

Some studies focused on Los Toriles, which was a defensive site. Part of its wall and a door were repaired.

Timeline of Barajas

Archaeologists have divided the time people lived at Barajas into different phases:

• Nogales Phase: From about 450–500 CE to 750 CE.
• Barajas Phase: From 750 CE to 950 CE.
• Early Postclassical: From 950 CE to 1100 CE.
• Late Postclassical: From 1400 CE to 1521 CE.

Early research at Barajas and the surrounding areas has given us a good idea of when people lived in this part of the Lerma Valley. First, the findings confirm that the main time people lived at Barajas was between 750 and 950 CE. This fits into the Epiclassical period.

The studies also show that people lived here before and after the main Barajas phase, though in smaller numbers. The Barajas phase was very important but also quite short. This makes scientists wonder why so many people suddenly appeared. It doesn't seem like the population just grew naturally from the groups already there. It's more likely that a large group of people migrated and settled in this area, which might have been empty before. This migration could have been from people living nearby, who decided to move or combine their communities. It might also be part of bigger movements of people, especially since some pottery found here looks like types from the Altos de Jalisco region. Both ideas—local movement and wider migration—could be true at the same time.

See also

In Spanish: Barajas (sitio arqueológico) para niños