Mexican archaeologists Jorge Ramos and Lorenza López excavated an unlooted shaft tomb at Huitzilapa, Jalisco in 1993, recovering the complete contents of an elite burial. The tomb lay beneath a platform within a residential-ceremonial site and contained the skeletons of six members of a powerful chiefly lineage, four males and two females. From evidence on the bones, physical anthropologist Robert Pickering suggests that five individuals were closely related, and one female probably was related by marriage. Tomb contents included large Arenal style figures, food and liquid containers, decorated conch shells, jewelry of shell and precious stones, spindle whorls, spear-thrower parts, grinding stones, and the remains of fabric.

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