Palacio de Ocomo

The Palacio de Ocomo is the archaeological zone that takes up a large part of the village of Oconahua, in the municipality of Etzatlán, close to Jalisco's border with Nayarit. It is considered a tecpan, a pre-Hispanic palace or seat of government, and it is the most monumental building of its kind known in western Mexico: about 125 m on each side and some 6 m high at its tallest point. The villagers never built houses on top of it, so the complex survived almost whole, with the streets of the village wrapped around it.

The structure grew out of four platforms that were originally separate and ended up enclosing an inner patio. The whole has the shape of a half-closed U, with an outer forecourt of about 70 by 50 m and a raised plaza of 180 by 50 m on the north side. Archaeologist Eric Cach suggested it was built in three, perhaps four, stages, roughly between AD 600 and 700. Pottery from the dig places it in the El Grillo phase, between the 5th and 10th centuries AD; around 600 the palace was greatly enlarged, and after 900 it went into decline. That timeline makes it a key site for understanding the Epiclassic across much of Jalisco.

Phil Weigand first saw it in 1958 and recorded and mapped it, but digging only began in 2009, led by Sean Montgomery Smith Márquez and Samuel Mateo Guadarrama. Besides the palace, the team studied Residential Unit 1, three buildings set around a patio, and many small houses round about, which point to the site being the centre of a neighbourhood. Some of the walls have been consolidated, and their mortared stone corners stand out clearly above the grass. The project was carried out with the villagers, and it led to Oconahua's community museum, which is devoted to the local dances.