The Aztatlán tradition of northwest Mesoamerica (AD 850/900–1350+) is one of the most understudied and enigmatic cultural developments in the Americas. This volume presents a spectrum of interdisciplinary research into Aztatlán societies, combining innovative archaeological methods with historical and ethnographic investigations. The results offer significant revelations about west Mexico’s critical role in over a millennium of cultural interaction between Indigenous societies in northwest and northeast Mexico, the Greater U.S. Southwest, Mesoamerica, lower Central America, and beyond.

Volume contributors show how those responsible for the Aztatlán tradition were direct ancestors of diverse Indigenous peoples such as the Náayeri (Cora), Wixárika (Huichol), O’dam (Tepehuan), Caz’ Ahmo (Caxcan), Yoeme (Yaqui), Yoreme (Mayo), and others who continue to reside across the former Aztatlán region and its frontiers. The prosperity of the Aztatlán tradition was achieved through long-distance networks that fostered the development of new ritual economies and integrated peoples in Greater Mesoamerica with those in the U.S. Southwest/Mexican Northwest.

Michael D. Mathiowetz is a research specialist at the Getty Research Institute in Los Angeles. He has published widely in Kiva, Journal of the Southwest, Journal of Archaeological Research, British Archaeological Reports, Dumbarton Oaks, El Colegio de Michoacán, and others.

John M. D. Pohl’s background in archaeology, art history, and media have taken him from feature film and television production to serving as a curator, writer, and designer for major museum exhibitions including “Sorcerers of the Fifth Heaven: Art and Ritual in Ancient Southern Mexico” for Princeton University and “Children of the Plumed Serpent: The Legacy of Quetzalcoatl in Ancient Mexico” for the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Dallas Museum of Art.