Yacatas of the Tierra Caliente, 

 Michoacan, Mexico 



By George H. Pepper 



N the winter of 1904, while journeying in Michoacan, Mex- 

 ico, the writer explored certain yacatas, 1 or mounds, in the 

 IlltlllliS! southwestern part of that state. These earthworks are 

 'SHJal situated on an old indigo plantation at San Antonio, 

 twelve miles west of Apatzingan. At that time the plan- 



tation was controlled by a company, and it was on the courteous 

 invitation of one of the owners, Mr Cobb, that the investigation was 

 made possible. 



Owing to the fact that the rainy season continued until the middle 

 of December, a general investigation of the region was impracticable. 

 Excavation was carried on in two mounds. The first proved to have 

 had an old Spanish sugar-mill on its crest, the foundations for the 

 machinery extending to a depth of six feet beneath the present sur- 

 face. When this intrusive element was encountered, the work was 

 transferred to another mound a few hundred feet from it, but owing 

 to adverse conditions only a portion of the second mound was exca- 

 vated. The explorations were not extensive enough to warrant defi- 

 nite conclusions respecting the structure of the mounds as a group, 

 nor the relative positions of the burials in the mounds that were 

 opened. The writer wishes merely to place on record the fact that 

 certain of these mounds were used for burial purposes and to show 

 the types of pottery that are found in the earthworks in this particu- 

 lar part of the Tarascan country. 



So far as can be learned, no archeological work had been con- 

 ducted in this region prior to our visit. Dr Carl Lumholtz traversed 

 the territory west of Apatzingan and collected certain archeological 

 specimens which are described in his Unknoivn Mexico, issued in 1902. 

 Dr Nicolas Leon, Eduardo Ruiz, Dr D. Jose Guadalupe Romero, and 

 various other writers have published general accounts of the region, 



'This name is commonly applied to the mounds of the region. Eduardo Ruiz (Michoacan: 

 Paisajes, Tradiciones, y Leyendes, Mexico, 1891, p. 46), quoting Humboldt, says: "Yacatani 

 signifies, in Tarascan, 'to heap up stones with mud'; yacata is the substantive derivative of this 

 verb." He also states that the cupidity of the conquistadores destroyed many of these old 

 monuments. Dr Nicolas Leon (Anales del Museo Michoacano, Morelia, 1889, p. 27) gives the 

 same derivation 



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