Long-term excavations at two large La Quemada hinterland habitation sites provide data for developing population estimates based on ethnographic studies. Calculations based in part on ratio constants of roofed floor area to excavated space are applied to 183 habitation sites in the valley measured in 1974. These data reveal not only the range of population in the immediate valley, but also in major population aggregates around La Quemada during the period of major occupation (ca. A.D. 700). The mean population within the La Quemada core area is estimated as 6,867 (between 4,578 and 9,155) individuals, with an average population density of 38 persons per km2. Population density within three of the largest nearby settlement aggregates ranges around a mean of 209, 136, and 117 individuals respectively per square kilometer.

A total of 51 obsidian samples from archaeological sites in western Mexico (La Quemada, Totoate, Las Ventanas, Laguna San Marcos) and from the Tequila source area were analyzed chemically by direct-current plasma atomic emission spectrometry (DCP) and instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) in an effort to identify the sources of the archaeological obsidian by step-wise discriminant analysis of the data. Surprisingly, only 3 of the 39 archaeological samples (2 from Laguna San Marcos and 1 from Las Ventanas) could be correlated with a Volcán Tequila source (Teuchitlan). Four other groups of archaeological obsidian were recognized. The largest, Group Y, was found to be derived from the La Lobera source located near the Jalisco–Zacatecas border. This source accounted for 12% of La Quemada obsidian and a higher proportion for Las Ventanas and Totoate. Source locations for the remaining three groups could not be determined from the existing chemical data base. These results could indicate that a minimum of interaction took place between La Quemada and the Teuchitlan cultural tradition. It shows that one focus of La Quemada's trade endeavors was in the Río Bolaños/Tlaltenango valleys. This study also indicates that organized obsidian trade between the Mexican core and its outer periphery was probably not a factor between a.d. 400 and 800.

The massively fortified ceremonial center of La Quemada on the northern mesoamerican frontier has long been thought to date primarily to the Postclassic period. New evidence now supports the contention that La Quemada's florescence was earlier and perhaps longer than previously recognized. Four lines of evidence support this conclusion: (1) reevaluation of Armillas’ published 14C dates, (2) regional survey data, (3) new 14C dates from excavations on a large village site near La Quemada, and (4) recent chronological refinements in the Chalchihuites area for identifying the temporal position of tradewares. Several implications of this are discussed in terms of mesoamerican core-periphery relations.