Urn

Effigy vessels such as this one were placed in groups of four or five in tombs in the Zapotec (Be'ena'a) capital of Monte Albán, Oaxaca. The seated ancestor figure emerges from the cylindrical body of this urn masked and dressed to represent Cocijo, the Zapotec god of lightning. He wears the god’s primary identifier, a large buccal mask with three protruding fangs. The spiral-shaped elements incised to either side of his eyes might represent tattoos or scarification.

The vessel was modeled in a fine gray clay and decorated with pigments after firing. The figure is suggested, rather than fully formed, by individual body parts and items of elaborate regalia that appear to emerge from the vessel’s simple cylindrical form, completely obscuring it when viewed from the front.

The figure’s regalia includes earflares, a wide pectoral with hieroglyphic elements, and a loincloth fastened with five u-shaped elements and an elaborate headdress that dominates the composition. A crown of feathers protrudes upward from a diadem that includes an ornament with a quincunx of circular adornments. Mold-made medallions attached to the diadem form the top portions of feathered tassels that hang from either side of the headdress over the figure’s shoulders. The abstract shapes on the wide pectoral may be hieroglyphic symbols in the largely undeciphered Zapotec script.

It was once thought that the figures adorning Zapotec urns represented deities. There is, however, no evidence that these urns ever held human remains, and scholars now believe that they represent ancestors of the tomb’s main occupants dressed to impersonate the gods, and that their presence in graves was a way to connect with the deities through the ancestors. The tombs were visited repeatedly over many generations as the focus for ancestor worship. Offerings of burning incense, fresh blood, chocolate, and fermented pulque were made to entreat the ancestors to intercede favorably in human affairs.

Urns similar to this one, made exclusively by the Be’ena’a people, have been found outside the central Zapotec heartland in Oaxaca, and as far away as Teotihuacan, 500 kilometers to the north in the central highlands. Along with Zapotec-style burials, they were one sign that the Teotihuacan barrio of Tlailotlacan housed Zapotec immigrants and their descendants. The continued production over several centuries of Zapotec-style ceramics made with local materials indicates their importance as cultural markers and the barrio’s inhabitants’ ongoing desire to maintain their native traditions as a marker of ethnic identity.

Patricia J. Sarro, 2024  

Further Reading

Blanton, Richard E., Gary W. Feinman, Stephen A. Kowalewski, and Linda M. Nicholas. Ancient Oaxaca: The Monte Albán State. Cambridge University Press, 1999.

Caso, Alfonso.　Exploraciones en Oaxaca: Quinta y sexta temporadas 1936–1937. Publicación (Pan American Institute of Geography. Tacubaya, Mexico: Impreso en la Editorial "Cvltvra", 1938.

Caso, Alfonso, Ignacio Bernal, and Jorge R. Acosta. La cerámica de Monte Albán. INAH Memoria No. 13, 1967.

Caso, Alfonso, and Ignacio Bernal. Urnas de Oaxaca. INAH Memoria No. 2, 1952.

Easby, Elizabeth Kennedy, and John F. Scott. Before Cortes: Sculpture of Middle America. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Cat. 157, 1970.

Feinman, Gary M. A Diachronic Perspective on the Prehispanic Ceramic Tradition in the Valley of Oaxaca. In Ceramics of Ancient America: Multidisciplinary Approaches, Yumi Park Huntington, Dean E. Arnold, and Johanna Minich, eds. University Press of Florida, 2018.

Flannery, Kent and Joyce Marcus. ,i>The Cloud People. Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations. Academic Press, 1983.

Joyce, Arthur A. Sacred Space and Social Relations in the Valley of Oaxaca. In Mesoamerican Archaeology: Theory and Practice, Julia A. Hendon and Rosemary A. Joyce, eds., pp. 192-216. Blackwell, 2004.

LaGamma, Alisa, Joanne Pillsbury, Yaëlle Biro, and James Doyle. "Recent Acquisitions: A Selection: 2014–2016."　The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin　(Fall 2016), p. 17.

Marcus, Joyce. “Teotihuacán Visitors on Monte Albán Monuments and Murals.” In The Cloud People: Divergent Evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec Civilizations, edited by Kent V. Flannery and Joyce Marcus, 175–181. New York: Academic Press, 1983.

Marcus, Joyce. Zapotec Monuments and Political History. Memoirs of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, No. 61, 2020

Robles García, Nelly M., ed. Sociedad y patrimonio arqueológico en el valle de Oaxaca : memoria de la Segunda Mesa Redonda de Monte Albán. INAH, 2002.

Sellen, Adam T.　Catalogue of Zapotec Effigy Vessels. Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies, Inc., 2005, Kerr 1, http://research.famsi.org/zapotec/zapotec_list.php?_allSearch=kerr&hold_search=&tab=zapotec&title=Zapotec+Effigy+Vessels.

Sellen, Adam T. El Cielo Compartido. Unversidad Nacional Autónoma de Mexico, 2007.

Sellen, Adam T. Storm God Impersonators from Ancient Oaxaca. Ancient Mesoamerica 13 (2022), 3-19.

Spence, M. Tlailotlacan, a Zapotec enclave in Teotihuacan. In Art, Ideology, and the City of Teotihuacan, edited by J. C. Berlo, pp. 59-88. Dumbarton Oaks, Washington DC., 1992.