[2][6] During prehispanic times, the region covered by the modern-day state of Colima was seat of various ethnic groups which flourished in western Mexico.

Capacha, before 1500 BCE had burials that include beautiful ceramic "bules" and vases with "Stirrup” handle, certain type figurines and metates.

Capacha was contemporary of other important regional cultural developments, such as El Opeño, Michoacán, and the first Tlatilco phase in the Valley Mexico.

The geographical spread of ceramic Capacha parts covers the Pacific coast, between the states of Sinaloa in the north, and Guerrero in south.

Have been dated to around 1600 BCE, hence they predate de Olmec culture development, with main centers in the Gulf of Mexico coast and flourished some centuries later.

This native settlement was more evolved than the Capacha site, they produced finer pottery, also made stone sculpture and buried their dead in "shaft tombs", very characteristic of the region.

In the mid-20th century a step pyramid was found; at the beginning of the 1990s, discovered esplanades, temples, squares and a ballgame court: architectural evidence of a culture that had reached a high degree of evolution.

[10] Construction was normally made by digging on tepetate, with a depth varying depending on the soil hardness; sometimes with steps or a vertical circular duct, with a diameter of 1.20 to 1.40 m, used to reach one, two or three small chambers, resembling a baker's oven, where the offerings were placed next to the deceased.

[10] Offerings could include ceramics with different motifs; men or women in some activity, and testimony of their kind of life (e.g. hunters, musicians, farmers with their belongings and clothing).

[16] Their Nahual represented a trip mate to the underworld -- the death God that guides the soul through the nine torrents that separate the deceased from heaven.

[10] The disappearance of this funerary tradition, established a change in deity worship, this probably led to the construction of ceremonial centers and plazas, as a result of the arrival of migrants from highlands groups.

This is considered, because from the Armeria Phase (500-1000 CE) ceramics features changed and defensive constructions and representations of highland Gods, like Tláloc and Huehueteotl appeared.

Recent studies have found common elements with countries as far away as Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, it is inferred that there was some type of contact perhaps by ocean navigation.