GANOT-PESCHARD ARCHAEOLOGY MUSEUM

Despite being a small museum, it is extremely interesting, it has many pre-Hispanic pieces and you can go down to a kind of cave where real corpses and fossils were found. It is a museum for children and adults. Adults pay 15 per person

The archaeological pieces gathered in this museum come from various sites in the State of Durango and since 1998, they have been exhibited in this space to promote the pride and identity of the people of Durango. Evidence of human activity from very remote times in the State of Durango is found here. Durango. The oldest ones coming from the period known as Paleo Indian are various projectile points that were used for hunting animals such as mammoths and bison about 12 thousand years ago, although there are other objects, exhibited here, that due to their characteristics seem to be earlier. Numerous remains of hunter-gatherer occupation have been found, the oldest ones are characterized by the stone materials used for hunting, such as projectile points and other tools for dismembering animals, separating skins, breaking bones and branches, among other activities. Two great moments have been identified from this stage known as archaic; the oldest made up of small places used for very short periods of time, where there are vestiges of hearths, animal bones, lithic material and rock art. The most recent stage dated about 2,500 years ago is characterized by the fact that circular constructions are found based on slabs fitted vertically to support a structure of branches, skins and mud in the manner of small shelters, even in some places the groupings of these constructions reached form the first villages (Lithic Stage Room). Later, evidence has been found of a culture with a long period of evolution called Loma San Gabriel whose first manifestations date back to about 2,500 years ago and extend to the present day, in some indigenous communities in the south of the state. The settlements are more formal with rectangular constructions of stone slabs buried vertically and inside with stone floors forming a small platform, thus making these places more durable; In addition to hunting and gathering, agriculture became an indispensable source of food, with ceramics appearing. (Loma San Gabriel Room). Around the year 200 AD, the northern expansion of the Teotihuacán culture exerted great influence by establishing a commercial exchange corridor through the Central Table and promoting the construction of important commercial and ceremonial centers such as the Alta Vista astronomical center in Zacatecas, from the so-called Chalchihuites culture, built almost on the Tropic of Cancer as an observatory of the movements of the Sun. When the Chalchihuites culture declined around the year 850 AD, its inhabitants migrated to the northeast, to the valleys of Durango, beginning a new culture that acquired its own development by having contact with the trade routes of the Pacific coasts, the southwest. of the United States and the Coahuila desert. This has recently been named after the Guadiana culture (formerly the Guadiana Branch of the Chalchihuites Culture) (Sala Cultura Chalchihuites y Cultura Guadiana). Approximately around the year 1200 AD as a consequence of the Toltec expansion towards the north and west of Mexico, there was an important displacement of settlers from the coast through the Sierra Madre Occidental, the so-called Aztatlán culture that reached most of the valleys of Durango having coexisted with the Guadiana culture until the year 1450 after Christ. (Aztatlán Culture Room). It has existed since the arrival of the first human groups in Durango and until the present time other cultural manifestations such as rock art. There are numerous caves, rock shelters or -smoothed iodras where there are paintings and engravings. (Rock Painting Room)

Nice archeological intro to the region

Really cool, but could use some maintenance.

Everything they show us is very interesting but it is very neglected, there is a lack of initiative on the part of those in charge to make this place more beautiful, it lacks many visual aids and they need to make what they expose shine more.