A joint research team from UNAM and Arizona State University has uncovered evidence of the 'Vermilion Road,' a massive prehistoric trade network dedicated to the transport of cinnabar (mercury ore). By using lead isotope analysis on pigments found in Ancestral Puebloan sites, researchers traced the bright red mineral back to specific mines in the Queretaro region of Central Mexico, thousands of miles to the south.
This discovery confirms that trade between Mesoamerican civilizations and the Chaco Canyon cultures was far more organized than previously believed. The cinnabar was a high-status luxury good used for ritual burials and the decoration of prestige ceramics, suggesting a sophisticated economic link that spanned the North American continent as early as 500 BCE.