"La del estribo": The Formative funerary goblets from Tetimpa, Puebla, Mexico

Summary

A Mexican slang expression, "la del estribo" (one for the stirrup) refers to the extra glass before departing, the one that you take to continue your path. In many cultures, social drinking reinforces the collective fabric: to seal an accord, to pledge peace, or to celebrate the start or the end of an event. As death is the most crucial instance that both signals closure and new beginnings, today, as in the past, funerals often include libations. In the village of Tetimpa, some beverage was fitting for the last journey, since several of over a hundred burials have goblets. Their content is unknown, but as each house had, besides ollas for water, amphorae similar to those later used in Cholula for pulque, it might have been this or another fermented brew. Here we explore two aspects of the goblets: a) Do they show a modal distribution reflecting a unit of measurement?; and b) Is the volume of liquid they represent related to the deceased’s importance as estimated by the mortuary expenditure (e.g., kind of deposit, specific location, "value" of the other offerings) or with the family’s prominence as judged by residential investment (e.g., acreage, building dimensions and construction quality)?

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20922