Capacha

Capacha Culture – Archaeological Site
Capacha culture extension Map.
Name:	Complejo Capacha
Type	Mesoamerican archaeology
Location	Colima, Colima  Mexico
Region	Mesoamerica
Coordinates	19°16′54″N 103°41′28″W / 19.28167°N 103.69111°W / 19.28167; -103.69111Coordinates: 19°16′54″N 103°41′28″W / 19.28167°N 103.69111°W / 19.28167; -103.69111
Culture	Capacha
Language	Nahuatl
Chronology	2000 to 1000 BCE
Period	Mesoamerican Preclassical, Classical, Postclassical
Apogee
INAH Web Page	Non existent

Capacha is an archaeological site located about 6 kilometers northeast of the Colima Municipality, in Colima State, Mexico. This site is the heart of the ancient Mesoamerican Capacha Culture.

The Capacha Culture peoples were located between the Jalisco Sierra Madre Occidental and the Colima Valley. Several sites in the region have relations with Capacha, such as the Embocadero II site (800 BCE) in the Mascota Valley, which has a background with the shaft tomb tradition. There is also evidence of green stone articles, Jadeite cylindrical beads and possibly Amazonite, as well as Turquoise fragments.

It is known there were close relations between Capacha and El Opeño, by the existing ceramic relationship between types red zonal and dark red/beige, as well as similarities between figurine types of both complexes.

This information is corroborated by Opeño style figurines and Capacha type ceramic found in the area of Tuxpan - Tamazula - Zapotlán; as well as in other Jalisco state places, where shaft tombs similar to El Opeño and ceramic vessels similar to Capacha were found.

In addition, the culture and Capacha had some kind of contact with cultures of the Center of Mexico, e.g. Tlatilco, between 1300 and 900 BCE, which probably had a higher level of development at that time. Beatriz Braniff and other researchers pointed the presence of a "tertium quid" in central Mexico differentiated from Olmec traditions and the center of Mexico, whose origin was the western region.

During prehispanic times, the region of the Colima state was seat of various ethnic groups which flourished in western Mexico. The region was inhabited by various Lordships (not reigns as erroneously stated by some historians) that disputed the territories. At the beginning of the 16th century, Purépecha groups dominated several regions, the Tzacoalco salt mines owned by Tecos, because of this their leader Coliman or Tlatoani Colimotl defeated them, after the salt war, the Tecos took Sayula, Zapotlán and Amula and even reached Mazamitla, becoming the predominant group.

Archaeologists recognize the origin of Mesoamerica in a "mother culture" represented by the Olmec style and culture. But in the western region no evidence has been found to date nothing that can be identified as such. Indeed, there is no evidence even of Teotihuacan (central Mesoamerican influence from the Classic period.