#caxcans

This paper aims to illustrate research that is being done by Mexican archeologists into the history of armed combat in the New World. It does that by focusing on conflict between Spanish forces and native peoples of central Mexico particularly the Caxcans, or Caxcanes. When the Spaniards arrived in the south of the state of Zacatecas in 1530, they questioned the indigenous people—using translators who spoke both Nahuatl and Spanish— about precious metals, such as gold and silver. In answer to their question, the locals replied “caxcane, caxcane,” which in Nahuatl signifies “there is none.” (Acuña 1988: 300). To the Spanish, the people became known as the Caxcans.

In some of the structures around the Two Altar Plaza and on the surface level of the site, they have found seven burials that could have belonged to the last inhabitants of the site, between 1200 AD and the first decades of the XVI century, Caxcan settlements according to historical sources. Read more.