stitch, interlocking loop, and simple stitch baskets built 
on a bundle foundation, small tear-drop, triangular and 
corner-notched dart points, rabbit sticks, leather hu- 
arches, and other objects, mullers and manos, a twined 
woven robe, decorated mats with woven borders, as well 
as a wide variety of different kinds of string, and more 
general artifacts give this culture a distinctive aspect. 
Mesa de Guaje is very similar to the previous culture, 
but most of the nets and baskets have been replaced by 
plain weave cotton fabrics and plain black and brown 
pottery. Scrapers and flint tools are very rare; straight- 
stemmed points occur for the first time, as do manos and 
metates made of volcanic tufa, obsidian blades, clay 
disks, atlat] bunts and knotless netting. The Mesa de 
Guaje people definitely lived in villages. In terms of 
nutrition, probably more than half of their food was 
derived from agricultural products, the rest from wild 
plants. Corn is the main product and much of it shows 
teosinte introgression; actual grains of teosinte were 
found. In addition to beans (two varieties), gourds, 
squash, pumpkin, amaranths, peppers, cotton and sun- 
flower seeds were present. 
The next phase, called La Florida, was recognized in 
the survey, but did not occur in the caves. It is typical 
of the Late Formative of Mexico, with hand-modelled 
figurines, stemmed points, corner-notched points, pris- 
matic blades, pottery bowls with tripod feet and stone- 
faced pyramids around plazas. 
The following culture, Palmillas, represents the cul- 
tural apogee of the region. Furthermore, it represents 
the period of greatest diversity in agriculture. The great- 
est variability of pumpkins occurred at this time, as well 
as of gourds, warty squash (Cucurbita moschata) and 
walnut squash (Cucurbita mivta). A number of races of 
maize are present together with grains of teosinte. Three 
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