Paquimé - Casas Grandes, Chihuahua
By Richard Ferguson
© 2004 Richard Ferguson

His Bio

Paquimé, sometimes called Casas Grandes, is probably the most important ruin in Northern Mexico.  It was the center of trade and activity for a large area during it's peak.  The period of maximum construction is variously dated 1060 to 1340, or 1250 to 1340.  Paquimé was burned around 1340.  The ruins are near the modern town of Nuevo Casas Grandes, Chihuahua.

In many respects, Paquimé was a kind of hybrid or link between the cultures of Mesoamerica, in the center of Mexico, and the pueblo culture of the Anasazi, from the four corners area of Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah.

From the Pueblo culture, the similarities include the T-shaped doors, as well as the stone disks under the ceiling support columns.  One interesting fact is that Chaco Canyon, Aztec and Paquimé are all aligned very accurately, relative to each other, on north-south axis.  That is, they share the same longitude, with an error of a couple of miles, over a distance of more than 400 miles!  The heights of the culture in the three places were sequential, with Chaco first, Aztec next, and Paquimé last.  At their peak, each of these communities was by far the largest community for hundreds of miles.  The archeologist Stephen Lekson builds on the similarities between the three sites to argue that the north-south alignment was not a coincidence, but had a ceremonial significance for the ruling elite, who moved from one site to the next. . . .

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