Prehistoric Caves of Yagul and Mitla in the Central Valley of Oaxaca

The property lies on the northern slopes of the Tlacolula valley in Oaxaca, southern Mexico, and consists of two pre-Hispanic archaeological complexes and a series of prehistoric caves and rock shelters. Some of the shelters hold archaeological and rock-art evidence of the move from nomadic hunting and gathering to early farming.

In Guilá Naquitz Cave, 5 km northwest of Mitla, squash-family seeds about 10,000 years old were found, which UNESCO describes as the earliest known evidence of domesticated plants on the continent. People used the cave between about 10,750 and 8,900 years ago and again between about 1,300 and 500 years ago, and the early occupants stayed only from August to around December. Maize cobs from the same cave date to about 5,400 years ago and are counted as the earliest documented evidence of maize domestication.

Yagul was first occupied around 500–100 BC, and most of its visible remains date from 1250–1521, when it was the capital of a city-state. Just before the Spanish Conquest it had more than 6,000 inhabitants, who were afterwards moved to nearby Tlacolula. Yagul was excavated in the 1950s and 1960s by Ignacio Bernal and John Paddock, and the property was inscribed as a World Heritage site in 2010.