Mexican Archæology/Chapter 7

by Thomas Athol Joyce

 

CHAPTER VII—MEXICO: ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS AND POTTERY

NOW that a sketch has been given of the beliefs and mode of life of the Ancient Mexicans, it is necessary to deal in some measure with the remains of their culture scattered over the country. As far as architecture is concerned, the greater proportion of ruined buildings must be considered to have been either temples or structures associated in some way with religion, and perhaps government. The Mexicans gave of their best to the gods, and though the corvée system enabled large numbers of men to be employed at one time on works of considerable magnitude, the rulers seem to have spent more care on the buildings erected for the service of their deities than on their own habitations. The peculiar feature of Mexican architecture lies in the fact that every building of importance was erected upon a substructure, terrace or truncated pyramid, which, though essentially secondary in importance to the building or buildings with which it was crowned, yet represented a vast amount of labour, many hundred times greater than that expended on the superstructure. This feature has been unfortunate, in a sense, for Mexican archæology, since the pyramidal mounds, once the superimposed buildings have disappeared, present a superficial analogy to the pyramids of Egypt. There can however be no real comparison, the Egyptian pyramid represented a building in itself, while the Mexican was in essence a mere accessory. The foundation-mounds must be distinguished from the mounds of the northern Pueblo region, which are formed for the most part of the debris of buildings which have fallen into decay. True foundation-mounds are rarely found north of a line drawn, roughly, from La Quemada in Zacatecas to the Gulf of Mexico in the region of the Panuco valley; but south of it, right down to Honduras, they are a characteristic feature of architecture. There was a large number of temple pyramids, of varied dimensions, in Tenochtitlan (Sahagun gives a long list), but two were of outstanding importance, one in Tenochtitlan proper, the other in the suburb of Tlaltelolco. Both were so utterly destroyed by the Spaniards that it is not easy at the present time to fix their exact position. The most recent, and most successful, attempt to work out the details of the great Mexican temple from all sources, literary and archæological, is that of Maudslay, to which reference can be made by those wishing for more minute particulars (see also Fig. 12; p. 87). The pyramid, or teocalli, stood at the eastern end of a large court, about 300 by 350 yards, surrounded by a wall on which were carved snakes. It was built in five tiers, of earth and stones faced with masonry; the base measured something over 100 yards, and the upper surface over 70 yards square. A flight of more than 100 steps on the west side gave access to the summit, and on the eastern edge of the latter were two shrines, each of two storeys, built, as seems most probable, chiefly of wood. These two shrines were dedicated respectively to Uitzilopochtli (towards the south) and Tlaloc (towards the north), and faced west, but the priests and worshippers would face east, the direction of the rising sun, and there is reason to believe that the equinox was calculated by observing the rising of the sun between the two shrines. In front of the latter was the sacrificial stone, and below, in the court, a number of other temples, priestly residences, and other ceremonial buildings, including a tlaxtli-court and the tzompantli, or frame upon which were erected the

MEXICO
Mounds at San Juan Teotihuacan seen from the "Pryramid of the Moon"

skulls of sacrificial victims. The other temples in the court included one to Tezcatlipoca, one in circular form to Quetzalcoatl, and one to the planet Venus (Tlauizcalpantecutli), whose image was painted on a pillar in the shrine. The Tlaltelolco temple was similar, though a little larger, and supported two shrines dedicated, the one to Uitzilopochtli and the other to Tezcatlipoca. Larger than either of these imposing buildings was the teocalli of Quetzalcoatl at Cholula. This still exists, though in sadly mutilated form; the length of its base was calculated by Humboldt as nearly 440 metres. For an example of an ordinary Mexican shrine, as exemplified in ruins, it is necessary to go outside what is strictly Aztec territory. Near Cuernavaca,in the Tlalhuica district, among rocky peaks towering above the valley, is the temple of Tepoztlan (Pl. XIV, 2), dedicated probably to one of the octli-gods (Tepoztecatl). 'This region formed one of the early Mexican conquests and the temple bears the name of the Mexican king Auitzotl and the date of his death. Seen from the east, the building appears to be a three-tiered pyramid, the upper tier in reality being the back of the shrine. The walls are of porous volcanic stone set in mortar, and the roof was similarly constructed. The shrine is a simple rectangular building with an inner chamber (of the type Fig. 76, 4; p-327), and the interior is ornamented with carvings. The front wall is pierced by three doorways, separated by quadrangular pillars, which are in reality sections of the wall. In front, on the lower terrace, is a quadrangular "altar," probably corresponding to the quauhxicalli at Mexico. Another, and somewhat similar temple, also apparently of Aztec origin, is found at Teayo, near Tuxpan in the Huaxtec country. This is a three-tiered pyramid, about forty feet high, faced with sandstone blocks over which a coat of stucco has been laid. At the top is a simple quadrangular shrine (of the type Fig. 76, 1), with stuccoed and frescoed interior, standing on a low terrace. The stairway is on the west side, and the worshippers therefore faced east, as in the case of the temples already mentioned. This, we are told, was the proper orientation for Mexican temples of the first importance. But of far greater interest and importance than these two small temples are the extensive remains at Teotihuacan, close to Mexico, a site intimately connected with the Toltec and mentioned in Mexican myth as the scene of the rising of the historical sun. At the present day this site presents the appearance of a conglomeration of mounds varying greatly in size and spread over so large an area that their bulk is difficult to realize. 'The two principal features are two vast pyramids, from the smaller of which runs a depressed road, two to three hundred feet wide, past the other for a distance of nearly two miles in a straight line. This road is interrupted by several low embankments and small pyramids, and bordered by a large number of mounds arranged in series. At the southern end of the road and to the east is a complex of mounds, arranged in a square and including a pyramid of some size. The photograph figured on Pl. XII is taken from the summit of the lesser of the two great pyramids, usually called the "pyramid of the moon," and looks down the sunk roadway, called the "road of the dead." The greater pyramid, or "pyramid of the sun," appears in the centre of the picture, but the complex of mounds towards the southern end of the road is barely visible. The "pyramid of the sun" measures about 700 feet along the base, and the sides rise at an angle of 45 degrees to a platform about 100 feet square. Both it and the surrounding mounds are composed of masses of local earth and stone and adobe (unbaked clay). It was originally faced with roughly dressed stone and received a final coat of stucco. Beneath the outer facing a second

1

 

2

 

MEXICO

1. Temple at Xochicalco, restored (after holmes)

2. Temple at Xochicalco, present condition

has been discovered at some depth, and it may be that several such were constructed during the process of building in order to give solidity to the mass; but it is more likely that the outer layer represents an addition to the original building. Other evidence of phases in construction have been discovered in some of the mounds, in cases where an entire building has been filled solid in order to support a later edifice above it. Growth by accretion of this nature was a feature of many of the Maya sites, as will be seen later. It is probable that this mighty pyramid was approached by a stairway on its western face from the "path of the dead." The general assemblage of the lesser mounds seems to exhibit more evidence of design than many Mexican ruins, and the whole site bears the stamp of considerable antiquity as well as long-continued occupation. In particular is to be noticed a tendency to group the mounds round quadrangular courts, a tendency which, as will be seen later, is characteristic of the Zapotec area. The district from early times bore the reputation of a burial-ground of great sanctity, and the lesser mounds were at first believed to be burial-tumuli (whence the name "path of the dead" given to the sunk roadway). Excavation however, as far as carried out, seems to prove that the greater number supported buildings of a residential nature, many of them of an unusually complex ground-plan. The walls were of lava fragments and adobe, dressed with mortar. The roofs of the larger apartments were supported on pillars, probably of wood, of which the rectangular bases, similar in construction to the walls, have been found. Stone-carving is practically non-existent, probably for the same reason that there are no well-dressed stone facings, viz. unsuitability of local material; but the interiors were ornamented with frescoes in beautiful colours in which plant motives play an important part.

The ruins most nearly resembling those at Teotihuacan are found at Monte Alban in Zapotec territory, on a lofty ridge overlooking the city of Oaxaca. Holmes describes the appearance of the site as it struck him when he had climbed the long ascent from the latter city as follows: "The surface was not covered with scattered and obscure piles of ruins as I had expected, but the whole mountain had been remodelled by the hand of man until not a trace of natural contour remained. There was a vast system of level courts enclosed by successive terraces, and bordered by pyramids upon pyramids. Even the sides of the mountain descended in a succession of terraces, and the whole crest, separated by the hazy atmosphere from the dimly seen valleys more than a thousand feet below, and isolated completely from the blue range beyond, seemed suspended in mid-air." The quadrangular assemblage of foundation-mounds round courts is even more noticeable here than at Teotihuacan, though the limitations of the available building space rendered the arrangement less free on the whole. Most of the mounds seem to have been faced with quartzite blocks, barely dressed at all owing to the hard nature of the stone, and carved ornament is not very common. Few traces of buildings have been discovered, but excavation is by no means complete; however,the foundations of at least one structure with a complex arrangement of chambers have been laid bare, and it is earnestly to be hoped that some properly qualified archæologist may be entrusted with the task of thorough investigation. Monte Alban is further remarkable for the presence of sculptured grave-slabs and pillars bearing designs and inscriptions in a peculiar style (similar to Fig. 15; p. 106). Many Mexican day-signs can be recognized, but some of the glyphs are enclosed in "cartouches" of Maya style (to anticipate), and are accompanied by numerals in which five is expressed by a bar, another Maya characteristic.

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2

ZAPOTEC
1. Interior of Chamber at Mitla, Oaxaca (see plate xv)
MEXICO
2. Temple at Tepoztlan

Carvings in similar style are found at other sites in the Zapotec area. Not unlike Monte Alban are the better preserved ruins at Quiengola, near Tehuantepec, and here the quadrangular arrangement of foundation mounds round courts takes a very definite form. Some of these mounds are in the form of three-tiered pyramids (Fig. 32, b), others of long terraces supporting buildings divided into a succession of simple chambers, each opening on the terrace, and occasionally enclosing a small shrine (Fig. 32, a). The latter bear a striking resemblance to Maya buildings, as will be seen later

Fig. 32.—Plans of remains at Quiengola, Oaxaca.

 

A.	Court with terrace supporting buildings.
B.	Pyramid with Temple.

(compare Figs. 76, b, and 77; pp. 327 and 329). Adobe was used in large quantities in these buildings, and clay as mortar, and certain groups of structures are found which are decidedly complex in arrangement. At Tlacolula, a site rather similar to Quiengola, cyclopean masonry is found, and at Xoxo in the same district we have mounds built of earthy material with frequent horizontal layers of mortar, a peculiarity also seen at Tlacolula at Monte Alban, and again at Cholula, a city closely associated with Toltec culture. In the same district are found sculptured slabs in a style similar to those of Monte Alban, and in both regions occur stone heads, usually so flattened as to present an axe-like appearance, with a projection at the back for insetting in a wall (Fig. 33, c).

The characteristic Oaxaca slabs, with their dates in mixed Mexican and Maya style, have their parallel in the carvings on what must have been an extremely beautiful temple at Xochicalco in the Tlalhuica region. This ruin, though in the same district as the Aztec temple of

Fig. 33.—a. Stone slab from near Xochicalco.
b. Pottery beaker, bearing the date 2. xochitl Zapotec.
c. Stone head, Oaxaca.

Tepoztlan, is of an entirely different type and the style of its rich ornamentation bears a close resemblance to the remains at Tulan, one of the Toltec cities. Its present condition is shown on Pl. XIII together with a restoration by Holmes. It is only fair to state that this distinguished archaeologist has since modified his ideas regarding its original form, and it should be said that the pillars dividing the doorway would almost certainly have had perpendicular faces. With this exception and with the further exception of some doubt attaching to the exact form of the roof, the picture gives a very good idea of what the temple must have been. The substructure, with the noticeable "batter" of its walls and projecting cornice, is over four yards high, of rubble faced with andesite; the carving represents great undulating snakes, between the coils of which are human figures, and glyphs in the style of those of Oaxaca described above. Originally the details of sculpture were emphasized by coloured Fig. 34.-Plan of a court and buildings at Mitla. The building to the right is shown on Pl. XV. stucco and therefore appeared far less complicated than in a photograph. In this building again the stairway was on the west side.

To return to Oaxaca, the most important group of ruins awaits consideration. These are at Mitla, the sacred Zapotec city, and are distinguished by many peculiarities which render them almost unique. Here the quadrangular arrangement of buildings round courts attains its most definite form. In two cases one of these buildings, on the east side, is a pyramid, and therefore presumably approached, as usual, from the west. The rest consist of long low buildings upon terraces, opening as a rule only upon the court which they surround, though in two cases one such building gives access at the back to another court, entirely enclosed by similar buildings, which has no other entrance (Fig. 34). The material is rubble, faced with trachyte blocks set in mortar; the wall-surfaces are broken by sunk panels filled with the mosaic geometrical ornament which gives this site a character of its own (Pls. XIV, 1, and XV). Each block constituting the mosaic bears on its face in relief some detail entering into the design, but the blocks are not uniform, and each therefore was cut and fitted to its particular place, a method entailing enormous labour, especially when it is realized that over eighty thousand were employed in the ornamentation of one quadrangle alone. The blocks taper somewhat at the back, so that they were set in the mortar as a tooth in the gum, a feature seen also in Maya buildings. The designs are obviously based on the textile art, and find their closest parallel in some of the coastal buildings of Peru (though similar mosaics have been found at Tlacolula, also in Zapotec territory). Stucco was not used here for moulded ornament, though it was employed for finishing defective points in the facing. Traces of red colour are found on the mosaic panels. The durable yet comparatively soft trachyte found in the neighbouring hills afforded the Zapotec builder far more tractable material than at other sites; the result was that large masses of stone were used in construction, such as lintels from ten to twenty feet long and weighing from ten to fifteen tons, as well as cylindrical pillars used to support the roof in the broader buildings. Indications show that the roof consisted of logs, probably covered with canes supporting a layer of masonry and cement. The quarries of the ancient builders have been discovered in the hills, together with the rude stone picks by means of which they hewed out the blocks, and, as Holmes writes, "the feats of engineering necessary to transport masses of stone many tons in weight down a thousand feet of precipitous mountain-face, accomplished by these stone-age quarry-men, would be regarded as important undertakings, even by our

ZAPOTEC
Ruins at Mitla, Oaxaca: partly restored

enterprising engineers of to-day." It is an interesting fact that numbers of stone flakes and cores are found in the mortar of the constructed buildings, and it is possible that these may have been used in the final dressing of the stone on the spot. In one of the buildings a fresco in red and white has been discovered on the cornice. This is in a style rather resembling certain Oaxacan and Cholulan pottery, and bears also an analogy to certain frescoes in British Honduras (compare Figs. 79; and 80; pp. 335 and 336). Various mythological Fig. 35.—Portion of a fresco at Mitla; figure of the god Mixcoatl.
(After Seler) figures are represented, including Mixcoatl (Fig. 35) and his double-headed deer, and it would seem probable that they have been added at a date considerably later than the construction of the buildings. Of the use of the buildings Burgoa gives particulars, assigning one group to the king, another to the priests, and so forth. But as he speaks of upper storeys, of which no traces are apparent, his account can hardly be considered sufficiently trustworthy to be given in detail. The same author writes also of extensive subterranean chambers, but with the exception of two cruciform souterrains of comparatively small dimensions, nothing of that nature has yet been discovered.

The quadrangular grouping of buildings round courts recalls at once the statement of Sahagun respecting the pre-Aztec temples at Tulan. One of these, he writes, was composed of four buildings, that to the east being ornamented with gold, that to the north with red jasper and red shells, that to the west with turquoise, and that to the south with silver and white shells. The other temple was similar, save that the interior decoration of the buildings was of feathers, yellow, red, blue and white respectively. If.the tradition is founded on fact, we may safely conclude that the buildings were arranged round a court, and the colours of their ornamentation suggest that this arrangement was connected with the regard paid by the Mexicans generally to the world directions (see p. 78)

Passing further north, the remains of pyramids and terraces have been found at Placeres del Oro in Guerrero; these are built of natural or roughly-worked boulders, but they have not yet been excavated and it is impossible to say yet what may be their arrangement or what class of buildings they may have supported. The peculiar stone slabs found there (Fig. 16; p. 107) have been mentioned, which bear a certain resemblance to one found in the neighbourhood of Xochicalco (Fig. 33,4; p. 176), which itself appears to be related to those from Oaxaca (Fig. 15; p. 106). The Placeres del Oro slabs, however, are almost more like certain Peruvian work than anything else, and full excavation of this extremely interesting site is highly desirable; it is worthy of note that the latter slabs bear no glyphs. At Pazcuaro in Michoacan we hear of a three-tiered pyramid of flat stones piled together without mortar, the corners being formed of unworked blocks; but in 'Tarascan territory are found foundation-mounds of a specialized type, consisting of a terrace from the centre of which a spur projects at right angles, terminating in a circular platform. These are known by the name yacata, the term applied locally to Michoacan temples, and photographs seem to show horizontal layers of cement in their construction as in the Tlacolula buildings. On the evidence of manuscripts the temple buildings in this district seem to have been of a tower-like nature. Two varieties are shown, one on a square foundation, the other on a circular ground-plan and sometimes with a peculiar domed roof. Further north still, at La Quemada in Zacatecas, occurs an extremely interesting group of ruins, built along a lofty ridge. These remains, the most northerly yet discovered bearing a distinctly "Mexican" character, cover an extensive area and display considerable complexity. The flanks of the hills forming the ridge are built up steeply with terraced walls, and the summits are artificially levelled and broadened with terraces. The lower works seem to be of a defensive nature, and the more important buildings above consist of an intricate series of foundation-mounds, sunk courts, and occasional pyramids. From the summit radiates a system of stuccoed roads, most of which terminate in small pyramids lower down. The quadrangular arrangement of the more important structures is very noticeable, and one of the larger halls evidently possessed a roof supported on large circular pillars, built, like the walls and terraces, of unsquared stone blocks set in earth mixed with grass. The Spaniards found the ruins uninhabited, and the surrounding agricultural and hunting population of Zacatec stated that the inhabitants had migrated in the direction of Mexico after a drought lasting several years.

With the exception of the pyramid at Teayo, described above, which seems to be an Aztec ruin, the architectural remains of the Huaxtec and Totonac appear in certain respects to resemble rather those of the Maya, their linguistic relations to the south. At the same time it is advisable to make some mention of them in this place, firstly because the coastal region in this direction had been subjected for some time to Aztec influences, and secondly because Aztec pottery cannot be adequately described without reference to the ceramic art of the Huaxtec and Totonac. Foundation-mounds occur throughout the whole region from the mouth of the Panuco to Vera Cruz, and afford a splendid field to future explorers. The Panuco district shows abundant traces of settlement from very early times; the mounds are of earth, sometimes faced with cut stone, but traces of walls are rare throughout the whole of the Huaxtec region. In the Cerro de Nahuatlan, the pyramids are again of earth or rubble, faced with more or less regularly squared sandstone blocks; some are circular in ground-plan, and the corners of the rectangular ruins are often formed of well worked monoliths. At Papantla is a remarkable pyramid, faced with cut stone, the distinguishing feature of which is constituted by a series of niches, which may at some time have contained images. 'This is figured on Pl. XVI, and further description is unnecessary, though it may be said that niches of this character may be found to be a characteristic of Totonac architecture.

In the neighbourhood of Cempoala a very interesting series of ruins is to be found. 'These consist of mounds on which traces of buildings remain, and which, owing to the lack of stone suitable for building in the district, are constructed of a core of water-worn stones set in concrete with good concrete facing. The highly polished concrete facing of Totonac buildings attracted the notice of the Spaniards, who thought at first that they were ornamented with silver plates. The mounds are either of the normal step-pyramid type, or are built in two very distinct tiers, each with a separate balustraded stairway, of the types Fig. 73, c and e; p. 321. Both are erected on slightly-raised artificial bases, and the buildings found on the summits are rather more complicated than the simple shrines believed to be characteristic of the Aztec temples. In this respect they bear a closer resemblance to certain of the Maya remains which will be described later. One of these

 

TOTONAC
Temple at Papantla, Vera Cruz

buildings consists of a series of chambers, like the buildings at Quiengola described above (Fig. 32, a; p. 175), though on a smaller scale; another consists of a shrine standing free within an exterior building. Other similarities to Oaxaca remains include the presence of pillars to support a roof, found in a building in the neighbourhood, and again on a foundation-mound at San Isidro, immediately south of Misantla; and also numbers of heads, but in this case of clay, which appear to have been inset in the walls. At Texolo are mounds some of which are of earth alone, and these are occasionally arranged in a double row to enclose a court. Stone facing however is not unknown in this district. Of architectural remains as a whole it may be said that the Aztec buildings show a tendency to simplicity and exhibit on the whole fewer traces of arrangement on a large and comprehensive plan, such as may be observed at Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan itself, as far as actual buildings are concerned, has many points in common with Tulan, and in its general arrangement shows a considerable similarity to Monte Alban. The last-named site is obviously closely connected with other remains in Oaxaca; and Xochicalco, from its decoration, has similar affinities, affinities which extend to the pre-Aztec remains of the valley. Mitla stands practically by itself as far as artistic ornamentation is concerned, though the arrangement of the buildings is quite Oaxacan in character. The Totonac ruins display a certain affinity with the ruins at Quiengola, though this affinity cannot be said to be direct. The true relation between the two will be more apparent after the Maya remains have been considered. It is unsafe to draw any conclusion from structural points alone, since so much depended upon the presence in the neighbourhood of suitable materials; it was, for instance, the presence of trachyte in the Mitla region which enabled its builders to make use of large masses of stone, and provided the long lintels which distinguish this group of ruins. Where suitable stone was lacking, the deficiency was usually supplied by cement, and much use was made of the latter to correct irregularities in construction, though its employment appears to have been more frequent in Oaxaca and the Totonac region than elsewhere.

The art of pottery was highly developed amongst all the tribes hitherto mentioned, in spite of the facts that the use of the potter's wheel was unknown, and that the method of firing was very primitive. No kilns were constructed, but the pots were fired by means of wood fuel in the open air, perhaps in a hole in the ground. The quality of the potting varies considerably according to locality, but the finer examples, such as the ware from Cholula and the Totonac district, exhibit a very high standard of paste, form and technique, though the potters of this region of America cannot boast such consummate mastery over their material as the early inhabitants of the Peruvian coast. The fact, that in the later years prior to the conquest pottery had become an article of trade and tribute, led to a wide dispersal of local types from centres of manufacture which had acquired a reputation for skill in the art; and considerable borrowing of forms and ornament had resulted. At the same time, provided that the possibility of importation be not overlooked, the pottery remains afford much valuable evidence as to the interrelation of the tribes and the early history of the country. The coordination of this evidence is however only just at its commencement; careful excavations with due regard to the stratification of remains have been made at a few points in the valley, and the results have proved of such importance that similar researches throughout the whole of Mexico and Central America are most earnestly desired by all students of American archæology. In the valley of Mexico the local ware manufactured under the Aztec régime is easily recognizable. Fragments of coarse undecorated vessels are found, which appear to have been made by the simple expedient of plastering a basket over with clay and then firing, the basket being destroyed in the process. But the most characteristic ware falls into two main varieties. The first is moulded of an orange or reddish yellow clay,

Fig. 36.—Mexican pottery forms (see also Pls. XVII-XIX).
1-3. Valley of Mexico.4. Oaxaca.
5-9. Island of Sacrificios.
(British Museum)

fairly well baked, but often showing a dark line down the middle of a fracture; the walls of the vessels are very thin, and the surfaces carefully smoothed, though not highly burnished. The commonest forms are shallow tripod bowls (Fig. 36, 3), standing cups and jugs with handles, and the ornament consists of small geometrical designs in black (Fig. 37). Moulded ornament is not common, though gadrooned bodies are occasionally found; incised decoration is confined to the utilitarian process of scoring the bottoms of bowls for use as graters in the preparation of peppersauce (chilmolli)) and applied ornament is practically non-existent. Miniature tripod bowls with smooth bottoms are found, used to support the revolving spindle in the operation of spinning, and incense-spoons were also manufactured in this ware. The second main type consists chiefly of hour-glass shaped standing cups, of reddish, softer paste, with thicker walls coated with a burnished red slip and painted with black and white linear designs also in slip (Fig. 36, 2).

Fig. 37.—Designs from Mexican pottery; late valley type.

Less common are bowls of greyish paste with burnished red and yellow slip coating, on which are well-drawn curvilinear patterns in black, or bowls of grey ware with a very highly burnished yellow slip with a matt design in slip of similar colour. Characteristic, too, of this district are two-handled censers, heavy and solid in construction, of grey clay with a black burnished surface, or of reddish clay with a burnished red slip (Fig. 36, 1). Besides vessels, pottery figurines are found in great numbers, in the form of various gods, warriors, miniature temples, and so forth (Pl. IX, 2-6). These are in a hard red ware or a very soft pale cream clay; some are solid, while others are hollow and form rattles or whistles; most of these figurines were evidently made in moulds. Excavations have shown that the valley type of pottery occurs only in the surface layers, and is therefore comparatively recent and represents a period of short duration; beneath it, and extending to a considerable depth, are found fragments of a ware which is especially associated with the ruined city of Teotihuacan. The most characteristic form belonging to this period is a circular bowl with vertical, or almost vertical, sides supported on three feet, either flat or of the cascabel type (Fig. 38). These vases are usually coated with a burnished red, yellow, Fig. 38.—Pottery vase from Teotihuacan. brown or black slip, and are either plain or are ornamented with bold incised curvilinear patterns, or human and animal masks moulded in relief. Impressed designs were also applied by means of stamps. Flat shallow bowls of this ware are also found, and graceful vases with everted lip, but the finest specimens are covered with polychrome ornament of a peculiar technique. The design is engraved in the outer slip, and the background cut away, leaving the former standing out against the matt colour of the paste; in some cases the intaglio portions have received a coating of cinnabar or vermilion, and in the most beautiful examples the excised portions have been filled with slip of various colours, rendering the finished vase a kind of polychrome champ-levé in clay, a vivid blue-green being the most prominent colour. Vases are also found with a design produced by the alternation of matt and burnished surfaces. A peculiar feature of Teotihuacan is constituted by the innumerable small pottery heads which are found there (Pl. 1X, 3). These are in a hard reddish clay, and appear to have been made by hand and not in moulds. Many are without attributes, and among the others only the god Tlaloc can be identified with certainty. One class of head is shown with a turban-like head-dress, which, as will be seen later, 1s characteristic of the Maya (e.g. Fig. 81; p. 339); a figure with similar head-dress usually forms the support of the circular pattern of censer characteristic of this Teotihuacan culture.

Mixed with the lowest layers of fragments of this type, are ruder remains of a different character. This pottery is yellow or red and often unburnished, though a red or white slip is sometimes found; it 1s thick and not so well baked, and moulded rims are common. The ornament consists in bands or knobs in relief, and in series of incised lines or circles. Vase-feet are found in numbers, and occasionally handles, often in the form of a human hand. Pottery figurines are frequent, but of a type different from those of the superior cultures; they are hand-made, with applied details, the heads are long, the waists narrow and the thighs exaggerated. For the most part they are represented in the nude, and red and white paint is used as ornament. 'The close correspondence which these remains bear to those of the Tarascans (Pl. XVII, 2-6) described below, seems to prove that before the blossoming of the "Toltec" culture, the valley was peopled by tribes similar in ethnography to the inhabitants of Michoacan. With regard to the relative positions of these three types of remains, it should be mentioned that at Azcapotzalco the earliest and coarsest occupied a stratum of 2°10 metres and it must be concluded that the culture which they represent was of some considerable duration; while their overlapping with the superimposed Teotihuacan types, indicates a gradual change from the one to the other. The Teotihuacan stratum was found to be no

 

MEXICO
1.	Spear-thrower, ATLATL
TARASCAN
2—6.	Pottery from Guadalajara
ZAPOTEC
7—9.	Funerary vases, from Oaxaca
(Scale: 1, 1/6th: 2—9, 1/8th)

less than 3°25 metres in thickness, representing an even longer period; while the "valley" type occurs on the surface and to a depth only of 0-40 metres, and shows no overlapping with the remains below, thus indicating an abrupt transition.

The Tarascan remains (Pl. XVII, 2-6) which are found in numbers from Lake Pazcuaro to Lake Chapala, bear a close resemblance to the fragments from the lowest strata of the valley. The paste is usually well-mixed, but not so well fired as the Aztec and Teotihuacan ware, and constantly shows at a fracture a dark line at the core, the properly baked portion being in the main a greyish buff. A burnished red slip is often employed, with pattern in white, the latter being frequently furnished with an incised outline. The most common shapes are vases and bowls with three solid or cascabel feet, the latter enclosing rattles, vases with moulded bodies or in human or animal form, and plain vases with rounded bases, a feature uncommon throughout the rest of the area which forms the subject of this section. Bowls with incised bottoms, to serve as graters, are common, and the incised lines are sometimes arranged swastika-wise, a feature found again in Cuicatlan pottery. Miniature tripod bowls to use in connection with the spindle also occur, and the painted ornament of these and larger vessels shows a tendency to asymmetry. In the Tarascan area, extending far to the north, are found occasional vases in the clay "champ-levé" described above, together with traces of the brilliant blue-green ornament. Figurines of all sizes are common in this area, often covered with a red slip and painted black and white. Many of these represent men and women engaged in their ordinary occupations, and illustrate well the shoulder-cloaks, large ear-rings and head-bands worn by this people. Some are flat and solid, others hollow, but most show elongated heads, and often exaggerated thighs and slender waists. We must now consider the finest pottery in Mexico,viz. the ware characteristic of Cholula and Tlaxcala, which seems to bear certain relations to that of Oaxaca on the one hand, and, though less obviously, to that of the Totonac region on the other. The fact that Cholula was recognized as the leading centre of pottery manufacture and exported its wares in considerable quantity in times preceding and up to the conquest, Fig. 39.—Polychrome pottery vase; Tlaxcalan or Cholulan style, found in Mexico city.
(After Seler) renders the distinction between local types difficult, especially as the Totonac region seems to have been affected by Mexican conquest, and to have furnished tribute in pots. The typical ware of Cholula and Tlaxcala is hard and reddish, very well-mixed and fired, and rarely shows a dark line in the centre of a fracture. Forms include standing-bowls and -cups, tripod bowls and vases, handled jugs, plates and bowls with a slightly flattened base. Footed beakers also occur, but I am inclined to regard this form as one adopted from the Totonac. The vases are usually covered with an even and highly burnished red or yellow slip, on which are painted designs in a variety of colours, red, yellow, white, grey and black (Pl. IX, 1, and Figs. 39 and 40). Geometrical and textile patterns are common, and also figures and emblems of gods and men, animals and plants. The treatment is often bold and free, and though at times the designs suffer from over-conventionalization, they are always highly decorative. Relief ornament is occasionally seen in the shape of in Mexico city. nimal heads (Fig. 40) or small pierced handles, and the designs are sometimes furnished with an engraved outline, though I believe both these features to be characteristic rather of Totonac art. The legs of tripod bowls, which are found in numbers, are usually moulded in the form of grotesque faces, or the heads of birds, beasts and snakes. Peculiar to Tlaxcala are interesting vases of black ware in the form of a Tlaloc face or figure, the details of which are applied. The

Fig. 40.—Polychrome pottery vase from Tlaxcala.
(After Seler)

scroll-work which constitutes a feature of the painted art bears a close analogy to the Xochicalco designs, and it is not surprising to find similar pottery in Oaxaca. It is quite true that Cholulan pottery may have found its way in some quantity to the last-named region, by the great trade-route which ran from Teotitlan to Oaxaca, but I am inclined to think that much at least of it must have been manufactured locally, especially as a certain form of tripod vase (Fig. 36, 4; p. 185) seems peculiar to this country. Most remarkable of the finds in the Oaxaca district is that of pottery designs which any archæologist unaware of their real provenance would attribute unhesitatingly to the Peruvian coast. One of these is illustrated in Fig. 41, and a glance will show how it differs entirely from anything Mexican, and yet is absolutely identical with one of the patterns most commonly found on the polychrome tapestries of the Truxillo district of Peru. A peculiar class of Zapotec pottery may be mentioned here, consisting of figure vases of coarse red-brown or black ware, usually very brittle, found in tombs (Pl. XVII, 7-9). These seem to have been made solely for funerary

Fig. 41.—Design on a vase from Cuicatlan, Oaxaca.
(After Seler)

purposes, since the figure element has been developed so as almost to eliminate the vase portion. The figures are represented as sitting or standing; they wear mantles with capes, and head-dresses in the form of a monster's jaws with feather plumes. Many of them are shown with a peculiar mouth-mask, rather resembling the mouth-mask worn by the wind-god in Mexico and Guatemala, and also by certain figures on vases from Nasca in Peru; and occasionally the figure represents a bat. Many of them show traces of red paint, and the faces are very skilfully modelled. On the whole they are more Mayan than Mexican in appearance.

From Monte Alban and Xoxo come pottery fragments of rather thick ware, ornamented with broad red stripes on a red or yellow ground, somewhat similar to certain fragments from Teotihuacan; and elsewhere in the Zapotec country are found beakers with designs incised in outline and the background cut away (Fig. 33, b; p. 176), similar in technique, though not in art, to beakers from the island of Sacrificios described below (e.g. Pl. XVIII, 10).

Quantities of pottery heads have been discovered in Cholula, similar to those of Teotihuacan, though rather coarser in paste, and ornamented in some cases with blue, red and white slip. Polychrome figurines in much the same style have been found at Teotitlan del Camino.

To turn now to the Totonac region; the island of Sacrificios off Vera Cruz has produced a store of pottery which is in no respect inferior to that of Cholula with the exception that fewer colours are employed in ornament and the surface is not highly burnished. The paste is either pale red, grey or cream, admirably mixed and fired, and the shapes exhibit considerable variety (Fig. 36, 5-9, and Pls. XVIII and XIX). Especially characteristic are footed beakers and vases, tripod bowls with cylindrical or cascabel feet containing rattles, standing-bowls, bowls with slightly flattened bases, and plates. Handles are not common, but a type of vase with single long projecting handle seems confined to this area. Ornament is most commonly applied in the form of slip, white, cream, red (more than one shade), yellow, brown and black. In the most characteristic specimens the designs, monsters or formal patterns, are painted in thick white slip, and usually outlined with red or brown, or, especially in the case of plates, in deep orange on a brown background or vice versa. Engraved ornament is far more common in Totonac pottery than Cholulan; sometimes the engraving merely follows the outline of a painted design, sometimes it constitutes the sole ornament. In more elaborate specimens the entire background is cut away, or an intaglio design produced which is filled with. a coloured slip. Fragments of the "champ-levé" ware, with its blue-green filling, have also been found. Moulded ornament again is very common, ranging from the mere gadrooning of a vase-body (Fig. 36, 5) to animal heads in relief, with the other details painted in slip on the sides of the vase (Pl. XIX). The vases with a bird's (or beast's) head in relief, and the details of the body incised, as figured on Pl. XVIII, 2, are very characteristic, and are, further, of particular interest since they, as well as vases in other forms, are often found to be coated with a leaden-coloured glaze hard enough to resist the point of a knife. This is of course an accidental earth-glaze, produced in firing by the action of the smoke or heat on the surface of the slip. Vases, identical in form and with the same accidental glaze, have been found at Atlixco, and also in the neighbourhood of Coban in the Alta Vera Paz district of Guatemala. It seems probable that they have reached these localities as articles of trade. Many vase-feet also are moulded in the form of animal heads (Pl. XIX).

Similar vase-feet are found at Tehuantepec, at Cuicatlan, at Teotitlan and, as we have seen, at Cho-lula. Of these localities the first pair seem to stand in close relation one to the other, and also the second pair, from the fact that the Cholulan and Teotitlan vase-feet are most commonly in the form of grotesque human heads, those of Cuicatlan and Tehuantepec in the form of heads of snakes. However, the distinction is by no means absolute. As far as the Totonac region is concerned, the beast heads seem to be in the majority. Impressed patterns are found on the bottoms of bowls from Sacrificios (Pl. XVIII, 9), but these form regular designs, instead of being, as in Mexico, mere series of incised lines. Similar bowls are found at Atlixco

 

MEXICO
1.	Stone sacrificial knife; wooden handle encrusted with mosaic
TOTONAC
2-10.	Pottery from the Island of Sacrificios, Vera Cruz
(Scale: 1, 1/4th ; 2-10, 1/6th)

and at Cuicatlan, though at the latter locality they are made in black ware. An interesting characteristic of Totonac pottery ornamentation is seen in more or less naturalistic painted designs, usually in yellow and brown slip, representing animals, such as the Mexican porcupine, the coati, monkeys, snakes, bats, lizards and insects. Quantities of fragments of pottery figurines occur throughout the Totonac area. These are made of a ware inferior to that of the vases, and though the treatment of the bodies and limbs is apt to be clumsy, yet the faces are modelled with considerable skill. Many of the details are applied, such as head-dresses, sandal ties and the like; the teeth are often shown filed to a point, or even mutilated in characteristic Maya fashion. The last peculiarity emphasizes the general resemblance which these figurines bear to those of British Honduras.

The pottery of the Totonac has been investigated carefully by Strebel, who distinguishes several local types within the area. In a general work of this nature it is impossible to deal at length with minor variations, and it will be sufficient to state that the careful investigations of this archeologist seem to indicate four culture centres for the coastal region between the rivers Nautla and Papaloapan. The two first are in the north, and close together, and are associated respectively with sites at Cerro Montoso (E.N.E. of Jalapa, near the coast) and Ranchito de las Animas (immediately N.E. of the last). At the former of these the style is akin to and influenced by the neighbouring highlands and the district beyond, while the latter is probably more purely aboriginal. The two second lie to the south, one including the Rio de Cotaxla, the other extending thence to the Rio Papaloapan.

The pottery of the Huaxtec (Figs. 42-44) is peculiar from more than one point of view. The paste of the most characteristic specimens is hard and well-fired, of a pale cream colour, and the most typical shape is a handled vase with a spout, rather like a teapot (Fig. 42), with moulded and painted ornament, in red and black, on the body. The latter is frequently in the form of an animal, with a large human face modelled upon its back near the tail. Other vases in human shape, with a spouted handle and similar painted decoration were also moulded from this pale

Fig. 42.—Huaxtec pottery vase; Tanquian.
(After Seler)

clay (Fig. 43). The presence of a spout distinguishes Huaxtec pottery from Mexican, though an appendage of this nature is not unknown from the Totonac country, since the tail of the animal vase figured on Pl. XIX is pierced by a hole. Red pottery is also found in the Huaxtec country, in the form of large vases and smaller tripod bowls, often with engraved ornament on the outer surface. Grater-bowls, similar in pattern to those of the Mexican valley, but in the pale cream ware, are also found, together with many figurines and fragments of such which are not mould-made. To speak generally, the earliest type of pottery of which we have cognizance is similar in type to that manufactured later by the Tarascans. Following this came the far finer ware characteristic of Teotihuacan, the product of the Toltec culture. In pottery-making the mantle of the Toltec seems to have fallen upon the people of Cholula and Tlaxcala, districts associated with them in legend, and upon the Totonac, whose art shows certain affinities with that of Cholula. Between the ware of the Cholula-Tlaxcala region and that of the

Fig. 43.—Huaxtec pottery vase; Panuco.
(After Seler)

Mixtec-Zapotec district considerable similarity exists, a similarity which extends to the decoration of the pyramid of Xochicalco. It is usually held that the Cholulan style penetrated into Oaxaca via Teotitlan, but I do not feel certain that the reverse may not be truer, and that the real home of the highly-burnished polychrome ware may not eventually be found to lie in Oaxaca. The form of ornament does not seem to be a direct descendant of the Teotihuacan art, and there are found in the Oaxaca region certain original forms, such as the "Peruvian" designs mentioned above, as well as a tendency to elaborate textile motives as ornament (for instance, the wall-mosaics of Mitla), many of which motives constantly recur in the decoration of vases in the "Cholula" style, while they are wanting on the Teotihuacan pottery.Fig. 44.—Huaxtec pottery vase; Tampico.
(After Seler) However that maybe, Teotitlan is a site of great importance, constituting as it does a meeting-point of the three best schopls of pottery, Cholula, Oaxaca and Totonac. Further consideration of the questions involved in the study of Mexican pottery must be deferred until something has been said about the art and culture of the Maya.

TOTONAC
Pottery from the Island of Sacrificios, Vera Cruz
(Scale: 1/4th)

 

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