La Ferrería

La Ferrería is an archaeological site located 7 kilometers south of the city of Durango, in the Mexican state of Durango, at the “Cerro de La Ferrería”, on the side of the Tunal River. In the surrounding region mainly are Mesquite and Aloe, the fauna comprises hares, rabbits, foxes, coyotes, squirrel and lizards. The first inhabitants of this region were Nahua, nomads from the North of the continent, two thousand years ago. During the postclassical period the city was occupied by Zacatecas people and their contemporaries tepehuanos, from the southeast of the Guadiana Valley up to “Nombre de Dios”. La Ferrería was first inhabited by a group that basically subsisted from farming corn, beans and squash, and were hunter-gatherers to complete their diet; because of its proximity to the Tunal river, it is assumed that hunting and fishing were common activities. It has been detected that the site was occupied several times between 875 and 1450 CE. The site includes archaeological finds such as: circular ritual spaces, bird bones and stone rings, that provide indications of ties with cultures of the American southwest and especially with Paquimé, which could hypothetically mean or suggest a fusion between late northern Mesoamerican cultures and the American southwest.