La Quemada

La Quemada is an archeological site [1]. It is located in the Villanueva Municipality, in the state of Zacatecas, about 56 km south of the city of Zacatecas on Fed 54 Zacatecas–Guadalajara, in Mexico [1]. Francisco Javier Clavijero, in 1780, associated this site with Chicomoztoc [1]. This speculation originated the belief La Quemada is the mythical place called "The Seven Caves" [1]. Archeological investigations since the 1980s determined that La Quemada developed between 300 and 1200 AD and that it was contemporaneous of the Chalchihuites culture, characterized from the first century of our era, by intense mining activity [1]. On the south and southeastern sides is a high concentration of ceremonial constructions, some of which are complexes made up of sunken patio platforms and altar-pyramid [1]. All architectonic elements of La Quemada were constructed with rhyolite slabs, extracted from the hill located northeast of the Votive Pyramid [1].