During our cave reconnaissance in 2016, two rockshelters were located outside of the town of Chiepetlan, in the municipality of Tlapa, in a narrow and deep barranca of the headwaters of the Zizitla River called Barranca Cacalotepexi. The goal of the excavation was to find deposits of the Archaic period to help us understand the Neolithic transition of Mesoamerica from the Archaic to the Formative periods. We decided to excavate Barranca Cacalotepexi in July 2016, given its strategic position in the region and its rock art. Cacalotepexi 2, the larger of the two, exhibited significant erosion and looting, while Cacalotepexi 1, measuring 18 m in length by 4.8m in depth and 2.1m in height, had a well-defined space with deposits that could be excavated.
