Mexican archæology : $b an introduction to the archæology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish AmericaJoyce, Thomas Athol
History
Mexican archæology : $b an introduction to the archæology of the Mexican and Mayan civilizations of pre-Spanish America
Joyce, Thomas Athol
Mayas -- Antiquities; Mexico -- Antiquities
a burnished red slip and painted with black and white linear designs
also in slip (Fig. 36, 2). 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, 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. IX, 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,
is 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.
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