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Alta Vista, o Chalchihuites, is a mesoamerican archaeological site near the municipality of Chalchihuites in the Mexican state of Zacatecas, in the northwest of Mexico. It is located the west of Cerro Sombrerete in the northwestern corner of the Durango state, it is believed that the site was a cultural oasis that was occupied more or less continuously from AD 100 to AD 1400. The site is within the “Sierra de Chalchihuites” – from the Nahuatl word chalchíhuitl, the name means “precious Stone”, where the Chalchihuites-Chichimec culture was established. The Altavista name is due to a ranch that existed in the vicinity, at the time when archaeologist Manuel Gamio visited the area. There are opinions that this ceremonial center was developed by the súchil branch of the Chalchihuites culture. It is related to the Chalchihuites culture that flourished during the mesoamerican classical period, it had a social and political structure; had a hieroglyphical writing system. And constructed formal cities and ceremonial centers, as they had urbanization techniques, a numbering system, astronomy, and other important knowledge. These people were known as Chalchihuites, found sufficient elements to favor their social, economic and military life, thus decided to settle here. AltaVista was a control center for the turquoise trade route, originating in the oasis-American mines of New Mexico. Population decayed towards the year 800 CE, following a disastrous dry spell that ruined farming in the Mexican semi desert. Altavista flourishing is estimated towards years 400 to 650 CE; e.g., in the classical period, the Chalchihuites cultural and ceremonial center represents the maximum northern expansion of Mesoamerica. This culture spread on the corridor of the eastern flanks of the Sierra Madre Occidental, from west of the State of Zacatecas to Durango, between 100 and 1250 CE., approximately. It is considered a border culture or "culture of transition", according to archaeologist Manuel Gamio classification of mesoamerican sedentary groups and hunter-gatherer Chichimec groups that inhabited the arid northern plateau. ==Site History== In 1908 Manuel Gamio performed the first scientific excavations in northern Mexico. In Alta Vista he explored the zone now known as the Columns Hall and the annexed stairway; he also made preliminary investigations of the “caverns” in the region, which he considered defensive refuges.〔Gamio, Manuel. 1908〕 The site was not investigated anymore until 1971, when J. Charles Kelley initiated an extensive excavation of the site. The knowledge of the Chalchihuites site and culture that today is available, is due to the 30 years of studies made by Kelley and associates in the region of the Zacatecas and Durango States. According to Kelley, the Alta Vista ceremonial center was a designed and built between 450-470 CE. It has been demonstrated that it was not randomly drawn and constructed, but based on a precise location and directions from the Chapín hill, which is a plateau located seven kilometers to the southwest of the ceremonial center where two circle-cross petroglyphs were found, resembling those found at Teotihuacan. From those stone-glyphs, during the summer solstice a sun alignment is projected onto a summit that arises in the Colorado River, known as Picacho Mountain. The Peak, as well, is related to the Labyrinth of the archaeological site of Alta Vista.〔〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Altavista (Zacatecas)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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