[Illustration: FIG. 38.--Pottery vase from Teotihuacan.] [Illustration: _PLATE XV._ _British Museum_ MEXICO 1. SPEAR-THROWER, _ATLATL_ TARASCAN 2–6. POTTERY FROM GUADALAJARA ZAPOTEC 7–9. FUNERARY VASES, FROM OAXACA (Scale: 1, ⅙th; 2–9, ⅛th)] 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 is 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 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.