La Soledad de Maciel

Xihuacan is a Mesoamerican archeological site located on the Costa Grande of the Mexican state of Guerrero, near the small town of La Soledad de Maciel, and the larger towns of Zihuatanejo and Petatlán. While pieces had been found at the site earlier, including the King of La Chole stele and Mesoamerican ball court rings, formal excavations were only recently begun. The site had been occupied for over 3,000 years and by three cultures, with contact with other Mesoamerican cultures such as the Teotihuacan and Olmec. Explored areas include what may be the largest Mesoamerican ball court, a 1-hectare (2.5-acre) pyramidal base and a hill with petroglyphs and a probable sacrifice stone. According to residents, pieces had been found in the area since the 1930s, including some of the most important but formal excavations were begun only in the late part of the first decade of the 2000s, when authorities began to acquire lands for the archeologic exploration. One of these pieces is a stele discovered in 1944 called the King of La Chole, who was a venerated figure. Today, this piece is at the local church. The feet of the stele were in a private home but were returned to the site for its new museum. The rings of the ball court were taken to the city of Petatlán, along with a circular stone representing the goddess of the Earth, Tlaltecutli but have now been returned to the museum at th

Archaeological site data from Wikidata (CC0). Summary from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA).