Qualla: Guachimontones https://qualla.com/guachimontones en-us © 2026 Bendyline Mon, 20 Jul 2026 10:21:09 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/9/e/w/j/guachimontones-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Guachimontones https://qualla.com/guachimontones Guachimontones: Introduction https://qualla.com/guachimontones/ Photo credit Tlatollotl, CC BY-SA 4.0. For almost seventy years, archaeologists walked right past them. The circular stepped structures in the hills above the town of Teuchitlan, Jalisco, bore no resemblance to the rectangular pyramids that defined Mesoamerican archaeology, and so they went unrecognized. It was not until 1974 that Phil Weigand and Joseph Mountjoy published the first descriptions of these bulls-eye-shaped buildings, overturning the academic consensus that West Mexico had contributed nothing monumental to pre-Columbian civilization. Los Guachimontones, the largest of several dozen Teuchitlan Culture sites in the Tequila Valleys, dates from roughly 300 BCE to 450 CE and is now part of the Agave Landscape and Ancient Industrial Facilities of Tequila UNESCO World Heritage Site. The circular forms, unique in Mesoamerica, may represent artificial mountains, solar symbols, or stages for the volador pole ceremony. What they certainly represent is a civilization that has been drastically underestimated.

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Image: Tlatollotl | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/e/w/j/guachimontones-wp/9ewj-guachimontones-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Guachimontones: Circles in the Hills https://qualla.com/guachimontones/ Photo credit Tlatollotl, CC BY-SA 4.0. A guachimonton is unlike any other Mesoamerican building. The basic structure consists of a circular patio platform that forms the base, a ring-shaped banquette built on top of it, a central altar in the middle, and an even number of rectangular platforms arranged around the banq...

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Image: Tlatollotl | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/e/w/j/guachimontones-wp/9ewj-guachimontones-circles-in-the-hills.mp3 0:06 2 full Guachimontones: Feasts, Chiefs, and 112,000 Days of Labor https://qualla.com/guachimontones/ Photo credit Tlatollotl, CC BY-SA 4.0. The political structure of the Teuchitlan Culture has been debated for decades. One model proposes a segmentary state, with competing chiefdoms that cooperated in defense of the valleys but traded and clashed with each other. Chiefs maintained power not through coercion but throu...

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Image: Tlatollotl | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/e/w/j/guachimontones-wp/9ewj-guachimontones-feasts-chiefs-and-112-000-days-of-labor.mp3 0:06 3 full Guachimontones: Ancestors Below, the Sun Above https://qualla.com/guachimontones/ Photo credit Pollencio, CC BY-SA 3.0. The Teuchitlan Culture participated in the Western Mexico shaft tomb tradition, burying some individuals deep underground in chambered tombs accompanied by ceramic vessels, figurines, shell ornaments, conch trumpets, and jadeite. Ceramic models recovered from these tombs depict m...

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Image: Pollencio | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/e/w/j/guachimontones-wp/9ewj-guachimontones-ancestors-below-the-sun-above.mp3 0:06 4 full Guachimontones: Red Paint on White Clay https://qualla.com/guachimontones/ Photo credit Rengarajang, CC BY-SA 3.0. The artistic output of Los Guachimontones centered on ceramics, shell, and obsidian. The most distinctive pottery style is Oconahua Red-on-White, characterized by geometric red patterns painted on a white background. Serpent motifs appear frequently, linking the local artistic tr...

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Image: Rengarajang | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Sun, 22 Mar 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/9/e/w/j/guachimontones-wp/9ewj-guachimontones-red-paint-on-white-clay.mp3 0:06 5 full