Not so Far from Paquim

Archaeologists are slowly peeling back the mysteries surrounding the Casas Grandes culture of Mexico, although most of that work has focused on the principal site of Paquim and its immediate vicinity. In this volume, Jane Kelley and her colleagues probe the southern edge of the Casas Grandes culture areaan area little explored by archaeologists until now. The book provides the first solid foundation for research on prehistoric west-central Chihuahua. Readers will find descriptions of the southern branch of the pottery-making, village dwelling farmers of the Casas Grandes culture and learn that, as Paquim became the most complex site in the region, the southern Casas Grandes people mostly held back from the Paquim revolution. The studies presented here confer a more nuanced understanding of the tremendous diversity within one of the regions great prehistoric cultures, an area that extends unbroken from deep in Mexico north to central Utah.