The state of Durango, Mexico, is situated almost in the middle of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Nearly the entire state is rocky and mountainous and there are fairly large areas which are almost inaccessible though there are numerous fertile valleys which serve to produce the grain and herbage for the cattle which are important in the economy of the state. In the mountains and in the valleys may be found abundant evidence of the activities of man over what was likely a rather long period of time; there is evidence of what appear to be several rather diverse cultures though relatively little archaeological study has been made of these cultures thus far.

In the mountains in the vicinity of Mezquital some 50 miles to the south of the city of Durango are numerous caves and rockshelters. It was in one of these caves that the writer discovered a bowl (Fig. 61) which conceivably may have been an “ancestor” of true pottery.