It is possible that links established by Teotihuacán were with local rulers of ceremonial centers, of the mentioned network, or through alliances with regional intermediaries, or by small Teotihuacán merchants groups, living in these centers, that ensured the various products flow, such as minerals, salt, shells, quills, obsidian, and peyote, among others.īetween 7 AD, La Quemada did not participate as a network member, but as the dominant trade location at the regional level, it began to compete with other neighbouring sites. La Quemada, Las Ventanas El Ixtepete, major settlements in the "Altos de Jalisco", and northern Guanajuato, formed a trade network linked to Teotihuacán (350-700 AD), that extended from northern Zacatecas to the Valley of Mexico. Archeological investigations since the 1980s determined that La Quemada developed between 3 AD (Classical and early Postclassical periods) and that it was contemporaneous of the Chalchihuites culture, characterized from the first century of our era, by intense mining activity. This speculation originated the belief La Quemada is the mythical place called "The Seven Caves". Francisco Javier Clavijero, in 1780, associated this site with Chicomoztoc, where the Aztecs remained for nine years during their voyage to Anahuac. In 1615, Fray Juan de Torquemada identified La Quemada as one of the places visited by the Aztecs during their migration from the north to the Mexico central plateau, and where older people and children were left behind. It has been proposed that this place could be either the legendary Chicomostoc, a Caxcan site, a Teotihuacán fortress, a Purépecha centre, a fort against Chichimeca intruders, a Toltec trading post, or simply consequence of independent development and a city of all the native groups established north of the Río Grande de Santiago. Given the distance between La Quemada and the centre of Mesoamerica, this archeological zone has been subject of different interpretations on the part of historians and archeologists, who have attempted to associate it with different cultures.
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