Disruption or Continuity?: Iconography on portable objects in Classic to Epiclassic Jalisco and Zacatecas

Summary

This study investigates the rarely studied iconography of Pseudo-Cloisonné vessels from Jalisco and Zacatecas through a comparison with earlier portable imagery. Recent interpretations of the shaft tomb figures of the Formative/Classic periods have begun to interpret their religious and political content and contextualize them archaeologically. But imagery in western Mexico takes a radical new turn in the Epiclassic period (AD 500-900), when the most elaborate iconography is found on the complex Pseudo-Cloisonné ceramics. The manufacture of Pseudo-Cloisonné begins with a pre-existing vessel, to which is applied a thick gray slip. Cells are next cut through this new surface to create an image, and lastly brightly colored pigments are applied to fill each of the cells using an adhesive. The vessel is not fired once the decoration is complete and is very fragile, and few vessels have ever been published in their entirety. The complex iconography on these vessels includes depictions of people, eagles, serpents, and abstract symbols. This study compares the themes present in these two forms of portable imagery, to help understand the changes that took place in the transition to the Epiclassic in Jalisco and Zacatecas.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage