A state in northeastern Mexico on the Gulf of Mexico with a series of caves having evidence of incipient agriculture in the Infernillo Phase. The earliest period had crude pebble tools (preprojectile points) and overlain by the Lerma Phase c 7000 BC which had projectile points similar to those of the Old Cordilleran tradition. Desert Culture materials have been found associated with the earliest known cultivated plants in the New World. Here, in the Infernillo phase, it appears that native American squash, peppers, and perhaps beans were being cultivated as early as 6500 BC. Manos and metates are found in increasing numbers in later phases, as well as flexed, wrapped burials. An early cereal, the foxtail millet, was probably domesticated around 4000 BC in Tamaulipas, but it was superseded by primitive maize, c 3000-2200 BC, during the La Perra phase.