The color, playful objects made by Chupicuaro people are in stark contrast to their often harsh environment. Archaeology shows they lived in houses of sticks and mud with clay floors. They farmed small plots of corn, beans, and squash, and hunted birds and small game. Warfare with neighboring people was almost constant. Were these clay vessels and figurines placed in graves at Chupicuaro to accompany the dead to a happier afterlife?

The symbols found on Chupicuaro objects can be detected in designs from West Mexico and the Southwestern U.S. over a span of 2000 years. Today, however, flood waters from the Solis dam cover the ancient site and Chupicuaro has sunk into mystery again.