16 Facts About Casas Grandes

Casas Grandes is a prehistoric archaeological site in the northern Mexican state of Chihuahua.

Casas Grandes has been designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site under the purview of INAH and a "Pueblo Magico" since 2015.

Casas Grandes is one of the largest and most complex Mogollon culture sites in the region.

Casas Grandes is regarded as one of the most significant Mogollon archaeological zones in the northwestern Mexico region, linking it to other sites in Arizona and New Mexico in the United States, and exhibiting the expanse of the Mogollon sphere of influence.

Casas Grandes complex is located in a wide, fertile valley on the Casas Grandes or San Miguel River, 56 kilometres south of Janos and 240 kilometres northwest of the state capital, the city of Chihuahua.

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Archaeologists believe that the area directly controlled by Casas Grandes was relatively small, extending out about 30 kilometres from the city.

Casas Grandes pottery has a white or reddish surface, with ornamentation in blue, red, brown, or black.

Casas Grandes pottery was traded among prehistoric peoples as far north as present-day New Mexico and Arizona and throughout northern Mexico.

At the time of the Spanish Conquest, the district of Casas Grandes was studded with artificial mounds, from which looters took numerous stone axes, metates or corn-grinders, and earthenware pottery vessels of various kinds.

Casas Grandes had ballcourts, though they were relatively small compared to other major sites.

Major collection of Casas Grandes pottery is currently held by the Museum of Peoples and Cultures at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.

Casas Grandes' ruins are similar to neighboring ruins near Gila and Salinas in New Mexico, as well as Arizona and Colorado.

Artisans of Casas Grandes depicted a wide range of behaviors and beliefs from rules about social behavior to ritual activities and the supernatural .

The effigies depicted the way in which the Casas Grandes people thought social life should be implemented based on gender differences and provide insight on the simple aspects of society.

The archaeologist Charles C Di Peso advanced the theory that Casas Grandes was a backwater until about 1200 CE when pochteca from the Aztec empire or other Mesoamerican states to the south turned it into a major trading center.

The third theory is that Casas Grandes is purely a local creation, a community that grew over time to dominate its region and adopted some religious and social customs from the civilizations of Mesoamerica.