Birds, Monkeys, and Shapes, Oh My!:Investigating Intersecting Motifs on Ceramic Vessels, Stamps, and Candeleros

Summary

Ongoing design description and analysis have revealed commonalities in the decoration of diverse ceramic artifact classes. Here we outline the specifics of these design features, focusing on depictions of monkeys and birds, geometric designs such as crosshatching and dots, and how these are used individually and in combinations. The use of similar designs on diverse pottery artifact classes suggests a commonality of accepted design elements, although there are differences between classes in design grammar. Thus, in addition to discussing the motifs themselves, we summarize our work to date on design grammar, with particular attention to the Late and Terminal Classic periods in the Middle Chamelecon area of SE Mesoamerica.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)   •
• Ceramics as Means to Ends and Means of Expression in Terminal Classic Northwestern Honduras

Keywords

Spatial Coverage