Travel Guide Ranas Y Toluquilla

The small archaeological areas of Ranas and Toluquilla, a few kilometres apart, are located around the village of San Joaquin, in a landscape of wooded mountains with a temperate climate. They exploited cinnabar (mercury sulphide) and almabar (iron oxide) mines which they traded; these ores, which allow the creation of red dyes, were used by the Olmecs, Mayas and Teotihuacanos to cover the bodies of their leaders, but also to paint buildings or to decorate ceramics that were used as offerings. The origin of these settlements is still mysterious: throughout their long history, they maintained commercial and cultural relations with the cultures of the Gulf of Mexico and the Huastecs as well as with the civilizations of the central Altiplano. The site of Toluquilla seems to have had a longer life (occupied from 300 to 1400 CE), reaching its peak in the classical period (600-900 CE). Ranas is thought to have been inhabited from around 400 to 1300 AD, and then occupied by Chichimec groups until the Spanish conquest.