Mexico City, May 29 (IANS/EFE): Archaeologists discovered eight temporary camps in the Sierra del Mayor mountains, in the Mexican state of Baja California, that date from 400 to 7,000 years ago, the National Anthropology and History Institute, or INAH, said.

In the camps associated with the Cocopah culture were found hundreds of animal bones, some from extinct species, ceramics, stoneware, and places where iron oxide was mined to make pigment for murals and body painting.

The discovery took place in the rocky recesses of the Sierra del Mayor south of Mexicali, capital of Baja California, after three years of explorations with the collaboration of the Cocopah Indians.

Some of the camps were occupied by people the researchers call "indigenous archaeological Cocopahs", who lived between 400 and 2,000 years ago, while others from about 7,000 years ago belonged to nomadic groups that preceded the Cocopah, the INAH said.

Further sites exist in other parts of the Baja California peninsula, but this is the first to be discovered in Cocopah territory on the Sierra del Mayor, the INAH said. EFE