Acknowledgments – The excavations at La Joya, and the analysis of the archaeological materials, have been carried out since 2004 with permission of the Consejo de Arqueología del Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), and with gratefully acknowledged funding of the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (Instituto de Investigaciones Antropológicas and Dirección General de Asuntos del Personal Académico grants PAPIIT IN305503 (2004-2006), PASPA (2006-2007), PAPIIT IN405009 (2009-2011), IN300812 (2012-2014), IN400816 (2016-2018), and IN400921 (2021-2023); FAMSI (Grant 07021, 2007), Dumbarton Oaks Research Grant (2007-2008), CONACyT FI 90636 (2009) and CB254328 (2016-2021). I am grateful to Dr. Cherra Wyllie for the proofreading, and to the two anonymous reviewers, whose recommendations allowed me to improve and enrich the article. Any remaining errors are mine.
1The way people think about and perceive their reality has recently become a major topic of interest in social research, with one approach through the analysis of ritual behavior. In the last two decades, Mesoamerican archaeologists have explored two subjects in particular for this purpose: clay figurines and caches. Clay figurines are important because of their potential for understanding social representation and domestic ritual (e.g. Lesure 2011; Halperin 2014; Halperin et al. 2009; Marcus 2019; Rice 2019; Guernsey 2020; Faugère and Beekman [eds.] 2020; Gallegos Gómora and Horcajada Campos 2023). For these same reasons, there has also been an increase in the studies of caches understood as ritual deposits (e.g. Boteler [ed.] 1998; López Luján 2005; López Luján et al. 2012; Broda 2013; Dehouve 2013; Aimers, Hoggarth and Awe 2020; Joyce and Johnson [eds.] 2022). Interestingly, research on construction caches only exceptionally report the presence of clay figurines. The originality of Central Veracruz cultures lies in the fact that clay figurines not only appear in their usual contexts of middens and fills (as well as in burials, although very rarely), but also are recurrently found in formal deposits like construction caches, in contrast to other Mesoamerican societies. This is the case for various types of figurines, which probably depict different entities, but appear in the same contexts. If one considered Central Veracruz a peripheral culture, as did William Sanders (Sanders 1971, p. 549-552; Webster and Sanders 2001, p. 64), it might appear “normal” for commoner religious practices to occur in all types of building-related activities. However, contrary to this view, the status and prestige of the central Gulf lowlands can be seen in the adoption of interlaced scrolls style, ballgame paraphernalia (especially yokes), and ritual decapitations throughout Classic period Mesoamerica (Daneels 2008a, 2015). Another consideration is that the region was also a major player in economics, as a producer of cotton (Stark, Heller, and Ohnersorgen 1998), and probably cacao, salt, rubber, feathers, and other tropical resources (Daneels 2008d). These characteristics, coupled with a four-tiered settlement pattern, point to the existence of a culturally well-integrated mosaic of state-level political entities, albeit of small scale, that Montmollin called micro-states (Daneels 2016). Additionally, Central Veracruz construction offerings include human sacrifice in numbers that can only be compared to Teotihuacan, and surpass anything reported for the Oaxaca Valley or Maya area (Daneels 2017). Thus, Central Veracruz society cannot be easily relegated into a category of isolated backwater villagers or peripheral secondary developments. Recently, Stark and Stoner (2022) have balanced our understanding of the principles of governance in the area, based on Blanton et al.’s (1996) dual processual model, evaluating evidence of settlement patterns, architecture, agricultural intensification, and ideology (sculpture, ritual), arriving at the conclusion that both authoritarian and collective principles were active.
2This article proposes that the presence of clay figurines in formal deposits indicates that common people with their own ritual practice participated in events of major political importance taking place in civic-ceremonial capitals. I will first review the case that clay figurines in Mesoamerica were originally part of the domestic sphere, emanating from family practice with deep roots in the Preclassic period (second and first millennium BCE), different in contents and expression from elite ritual. Next, I will show that in Classic period Central Veracruz (roughly first millennium CE), clay figurines are found in construction caches at every level of society, from rural homesteads to pyramids and palaces of capitals, where they are often placed in the same specific way characteristic of domestic practice, but in much larger number and sometimes associated with human sacrifice. I will use both published sources, spanning the first millennium CE, from El Tajín in the north to El Zapotal in the south, and contexts found in the excavations at the site of La Joya, a Classic period capital in the Lower Cotaxtla basin (parts of which have already been the subject of publications to which I will refer the reader for further details). I will introduce the “Dioses Narigudos,” a type of figurine that is diagnostic for a very circumscribed area, where they are found by the thousands. I will present four examples of contexts in which such figurines were found, to show many elements consistent with general Mesoamerican practice but for the presence of clay figurines. Using these lines of evidence, I will show the existence of a specific ritual behavior by the inhabitants of Classic period Central Veracruz, consisting of placing clay figurines in certain types of formal contexts, pointing out the absence of that practice among other contemporaneous cultures, drawing from recent syntheses or specific works available for Classic period Teotihuacan, Oaxaca Valley, and Maya area (areas surrounding Central Veracruz and known to have had interaction with the region). The scope of this comparative analysis will of necessity be broad but in general suggestive. Finally, I will propose that this Central Veracruz behavior is indicative of commoners’ actions in political events.
3Figurines appear in the Americas at least as early as the third millennium BCE, with examples from pre-ceramic contexts from Caral, Peru, in a construction offering (Shady and López Trujillo 1999) and Zohapilco in the Basin of Mexico, in what appears to be a domestic context (Niederberger 1976). In Preclassic Mesoamerica, they are found mainly in the domestic sphere, house floors, middens, and burials (there are abundant collections of early figurines from Central and West Mexico; see Santasilia 2019; Faugère 2020). They are interpreted as part of family cults dedicated to specific deities (akin to Roman Lares or Penates) and/or ancestors (Marcus 1998; Santasilia 2019). Rice (2019) argues from the context of figurines in early Maya ceremonial settings that they were used during community rituals as demonstrations of social coherence during incipient state formation. Marcus (2019) considers that in Mesoamerica they maintain their function through time in the household sphere, related to ancestor and/or fertility rituals. During the Classic period, figurines appear to continue as the expression of a “popular” cult, alongside elite or official state cults: they are made of a specific medium (clay), their iconography and attributes are on the whole different from state cult iconography, and the contexts in which they appear are also different. That is at least the case in Teotihuacan, where clay figurines as a rule do not show the Storm God or other beings represented in stone sculpture or mural painting, and in Central Veracruz, where figurines lack representations of ballplayers dressed in finery, as shown in stone reliefs or fine ceramic vessels. In occasional contrast, the Maya do show men and women attired the way elites are represented in stelae, and some Oaxaca figurines may include iconography parallel to that represented in urns and stone sculpture (see Scott 1994 for Teotihuacan; López Zárate 2016 for Oaxaca; Halperin 2014 for Maya).
4Mesoamerican figurines occur as grave goods, but mostly come from middens, construction fills, and rubble layers of mainly domestic or residential buildings, with often little attention paid to them because of their fragmented state (exceptions would be the studies by Jiménez Gonzales 2021, Forest et al. 2021, as examples). Another context is recognized from Teotihuacan to the Maya area: ceremonial dumps of fine and common ceramic wares and figurines, associated with plazas or special buildings. Such concentrations have been variously interpreted, and many are Late Classic in date (Aimers, Hoggarth and Awe 2020). These major Classic period civilizations, in caches associated with elite consecration events, include figurines as sumptuary objects of obsidian, greenstone, or shell figures or ornaments, along with ritual ceramic vessels, and often animal and human sacrifice (Sugiyama 2005; Sugiyama and Castro 2007; Sugiyama, Sugiyama, and Sarabia G. 2013; Begel 2020).
5This situation stands in stark contrast with what happens on the Central Gulf Coast during the Classic period: common ceramic figurines will appear recurrently in caches of major buildings in high-ranking centers (pyramids, ballcourts, altars, palaces); many of these are accompanied by human sacrifice, while at the same time they also occur in the “normal” situation of domestic middens and construction fills (mostly fragmented; Table 1). The recurrence of human sacrifice in several contexts in Central Veracruz is inferred by the presence of anatomically connected individuals (whole or dismembered), placed at the same time in a construction fill (Daneels 2017).
Table 1 – Archaeological sites, structures, and types of contexts reporting clay figurines in Central Veracruz
|
Pyramid |
Palace |
Ballcourts |
Altars |
Household |
Site periphery |
Construction deposit |
La Joya, Esperanza, Conchal, La Campana, Loma Iguana |
La Joya, Las Puertas |
Tajín, La Joya(?) |
Morgadal, Cuajilotes, La Joya |
Conchal, Ixcoalco, Plaza de Toros |
|
Ritual dump |
|
Nopiloa, Los Cerros, Dicha Tuerta, Apachital(?), La Joya |
|
Remojadas Sección U, Loma del Reparo |
|
Paso de Ovejas |
6Central Veracruz is famous for the wide diversity of its ceramic figurines in the Classic period (McBride 1971), with a majority of unique depictions of men and women in varied forms of dress and stance, suggesting representations of different social positions and age groups. Yet each region will have its own typical figurine type, most often anthropomorphic, which will dominate in the formal deposits. These have a standard typology that suggests they are not just any human individual, but that they represent specific figures or entities (Figure 1). The “San José Acateno” type is virtually the only figurine type for North-Central Veracruz, between the Nautla and the Tecolutla basins, though with regional stylistic differences (Cortés Hernández 2002). In South-Central Veracruz, between the Antigua and Papaloapan rivers, the best-known type is the Late Classic Smiling Face figurine, of which the most elaborate, large versions are restricted to ritual dumps in the Middle Joachín river basin and construction offerings in El Zapotal (along the lower Blanco basin), while the small, portable versions are widely distributed from the Córdoba Valley to Isla de Sacrificios and the Tuxtlas mountains (Reyes Parroquín 2014). Other types, more regionally circumscribed, are the Red-on-Cream Ladies of Faisán (Hangert 1958; Fuentes 2023), but also the Coyotes of Buenavista, Paso de Ovejas, and Tolome (Cuevas de Álvarez and Torres Guzmán 1960; García Payón 1951, p. 31), the latter demonstrating that not all Central Veracruz figurines are anthropomorphic. They occur in categories of qualities of manufacture: well finished or crude, as shown in Figure 1 for the San José Acateno, Dios Narigudo, and Smiling Face figurines; this suggests that what they represent is more important than how they are represented, as in the case of modern-day religious images, which range from full-size polychrome versions to plastic keyrings. Unfortunately, many of the contexts from Central Veracruz were excavated in the 1950s and 1960s, reporting scant details. A different situation occurs in the Lower Jamapa-Cotaxtla basin, home of the Dioses Narigudos.
Fig. 1 – Regional distribution of certain specific figurine types in Central Veracruz, in elaborate and crude versions, found in construction offerings: from top to bottom: San José Acateno (credits, left: Pascual Soto 2013, p. 112; right: MNA), Red-on-Cream, Coyotes, Dios Narigudo (credit, upper: MAX; bottom: Daneels, 2006), and Smiling Face (credit, upper: MAX; bottom: Weiant 1943, Plate 44, fig. 8). The Dios Narigudo region is in a darker shade of grey, to show the overlap with the Coyotes and Red-on-Cream regions. The dot of Los Cerros encompasses the general location of Nopiloa, Dicha Tuerta, and Apachital
(map by Daneels, based on Google Earth December 2023; reproduction of figurines authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
7The Dios Narigudo ceramic figurine type was first defined by Medellín Zenil in his Remojadas excavations in 1950 and dated to the Classic period. Because of its standardized form and abundance, he considered it to be the depiction of a god, and specifically a solar god because its headdress could be interpreted as a stylized rendering of a descending bird figure, a Mesoamerican symbol for the setting sun (Medellín Zenil 1960, p. 69). Although he only published the main type (seated), he recognized that it recurred in association with two other standing figurine types, a male and a female, and that all were part of the same Dioses Narigudos type (Medellín Zenil, personal communication, summer 1979; Figure 2). The solar god interpretation has been seconded by Torres Guzmán (1999), although more recently I proposed it could be Chane, the Earth God(dess), and his male and female attendants, the chaneques (Daneels 2018, see below), while Ladrón de Guevara proposed that the double circles on one of the standing type figures could be associated with the so-called “Tlaloc goggles” and thus refer to a rain god (Ladrón de Guevara 2020).
Fig. 2 – Dios Narigudo types I, II, and III; in the case of type I, the figure to the left is the most common representation, while the one on the right is a regional stylistic variant more frequent in the northern part of the territory (Tolome area)
(adapted from Daneels 2008b, from original drawings by Daneels; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
8To better understand this type, since 1981 I have conducted an in-depth study of 1356 figurines, mostly from the Museo de Antropología de Xalapa and the Strebel collection of the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin, combined with 1158 additional fragments found during the surface survey of 1000 km2 of the Lower Cotaxtla basin, and another +1000 from the ongoing La Joya excavations. This analysis allowed me to establish a basic typology of three types: a seated figure with triple headdress and two standing types: a male type with double headdress (two variants) and a female type with a banded headdress (two variants); all types present regional stylistic differences (Daneels 2008b; Figure 2). Type I is the most common, and in its most elaborate form can be up to 50 cm high; type II and III are of medium height (up to 12-18 cm), sometimes with bitumen paint on the face (type II) or headdress (type III). All but the rudimentary versions are made with a mixed technique, with the form of the head made in a mold, the headdress, body and limbs hand-modeled, nose, mouth, clothing, and adornments appliquéd, and eyes, mouth, and other details incised with a wide-tipped instrument. They are made from local clays, with generally medium to medium-fine temper, and their surface is smoothed.
9All types can come in three qualities of manufacture, elaborate, medium, and rudimentary, that suggest different amounts of time invested in their manufacture; this cannot be attributed to the degree of skill of the makers, but results from the intention of producing different classes of figure quality. This is also the case, for example, in the Smiling Face figurines, with large elaborate versions coexisting with crude small versions, some of them with suspension holes (Reyes Parroquín 2014). The more elaborate Dioses Narigudos may include precise detailing in ornaments and skin scarification, while the rudimentary versions of all types, which can be as small as 5 cm high, are very crudely shaped by hand, in few movements, without a mold, and with minimal or no incision or appliqué. Nevertheless, in all quality categories, the basic attributes that allow one to differentiate between them will always be respected: the general form of headdress, and the respective seated or standing position (Agüero 2018). No evidence has been found for workshops producing them. There are slight variations in regional styles, and in the appearance of each individual figurine; together with their ubiquity throughout their specific region, it is probable that they were made by the household members, who consciously always respected the basic attributes and underlying canons.
10While type I figurines can be found alone, or in company of type II and III, it is exceptional to find types II and III by themselves. This, together with the difference in size and posture, led me to suggest they are hierarchically related and, because they recur in construction offerings, they could represent the Earth God(dess) (ungendered or bi-gendered) and his/her male and female helpers (Daneels 2018), who are respectively called Chane and chaneques in Tuxtlas Popoluca and Nahua lore of Southern Veracruz and the Mexican Isthmus that dates from Pre-Columbian times up to the present (Foster 1945; Münch Galindo 1983).
11Such figurines have been recovered by the thousand in a strictly circumscribed region of the Lower Jamapa-Cotaxtla basin and a small sector of the adjoining San Juan basin (a tributary of the Antigua river; Figure 3). They have found their way into private collections and almost all museums containing Mesoamerican collections.
Fig. 3 – Sites reported to have Dioses Narigudos. Solid symbols are those with contextual evidence from excavations in sites reported in the text
(map by Daneels, compiled from information from Medellín Zenil 1950; Hangert 1958; Casimir 1995; Heredia Barrera et al. 2007; and Daneels 2008b; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
- 1 . At La Joya in 1968, Brüggemann uncovered a group of 55 crude Dioses Narigudos, all but three toge (...)
12They have been placed as construction offerings under the floors of houses in an isolated homestead and in second- and third-rank centers, but also in the pyramids of centers of all ranks, including altars and palaces, and possibly a ballcourt.1 Recently they have also been found in exterior spaces, in Paso de Ovejas (Table 2). The most recurring practice is to place them three or four at a time, normally a seated one accompanied by two or three tripod ones, often in the pattern of a cross, aligned cardinally or intercardinally. While this could be related to equinoctial and solstitial alignments, respectively, this interpretation should be pondered carefully (Straffi 2018); but the cross or quincunx is definitely part of recurrent Mesoamerican patterns and worldview as a representation of the Earth (Pérez Blas 2021). Though they may be placed directly on floors or in fills, it is much more frequent to find them within a simple flat-bottomed bowl of the Potrerillo type, the most common service vessel during the whole Classic period in this region (Daneels 2016; Appendix).
Table 2 – Synthesis of deposits with DN; according to site-rank, building type and size, location, chronology and association with human sacrifice
Site |
Rank |
Building |
Size of building |
Context |
Chronology |
Deposit type |
Associated with human sacrifice |
Amount of Dioses Narigudos (DN) |
Reference |
Ixcoalco |
4 |
residential mound |
36 m diameter, 0.5 m high |
under floor (3) |
700-1000 CE |
Bowl-cum-DN |
yes (?) |
60 bowls with > 100 DN |
Maldonado Vite 2001 |
Plaza de Toros |
2 |
residential mound |
12 m diameter, 1.3 m high |
under floor (1) |
500-700 CE |
Bowl-cum-DN |
no |
1 bowl + 3 DN |
Daneels 1988, vol. 1, p. 26-27 and annex III, p. 14; vol. II, profile 13 |
Conchal Norte Structure 38 |
3 |
residential mound |
50 × 27 m, 2.5 m high |
under floor (1) |
500-1000 CE |
DN placed in cross pattern |
unreported |
4 DN forming a cross |
Pérez Blas 2002, p. 55-56, 78-79, 102-104 |
Conchal Norte Structure 38 |
3 |
residential mound |
50 × 27 m, 2.5 m high |
under lower floor (1) |
500-1000 CE |
Bowl-cum-DN |
unreported |
16 bowls, 3 with 1 DN |
Pérez Blas 2002, p. 55-56, 78-79, 102-104 |
Conchal Norte Structure 41 |
3 |
residential mound |
very small and very low |
under floor(?) |
500-1000 CE |
Bowl-cum-DN |
unreported |
2 bowls, each with 4 DN |
Pérez Blas 2002, p. 60, 81-82, 104 |
El Tejar |
1 |
residential mound |
level ground |
unknown |
unknown |
Bowl-cum-DN |
unreported |
bowl with 3 DN |
reported by Fuzier, in the 1860s, Taladoire and Daneels 2009, p. 82 |
Loma Iguana Mound 19 |
2 |
mound close to principal pyramid |
1.9 m high |
unknown |
Classic period |
ritual dump? |
no |
> 398 DN, most from 3 contexts |
Casimir 1995, Teramoto Ornelas 2000, p. 52 |
Faisán Mound 1 |
3 |
pyramid |
8 m high |
concentric deposits in building fill |
Classic period |
in deposits of SE quadrant of building |
yes |
46 DN of type I |
Hangert 1958 |
Conchal Norte Mound 12/13 |
3 |
pyramid |
6.5 m high |
at center and base of building |
500-1000 CE |
Bowl-cum-DN |
no |
11 bowls with 31 DN |
Pérez Blas 2002, p. 63-64, 73-75 |
La Joya |
1 |
pyramid |
25 m high |
in fill under west staircase |
700 CE |
aligned with construction |
yes |
1 DN |
Daneels 2008c |
Infiernillo |
1 |
pyramid |
25 m high |
below top floor |
Late Classic (post-600 CE) |
Bowl-cum-DN |
no |
2 bowls with 3 DN each |
Medellín Zenil 1949 |
La Joya |
1 |
altar |
2 × 2 m, 1.5 m high |
below floor, behind main façade |
100-300 CE |
scene |
yes |
> 67 DNI |
Hernández García 2019 |
Remojadas Ladera Oriental |
2 |
altar on residential (?) mound |
unspecified |
on floor before infilling for next building stage |
Classic period |
concentration |
no |
unspecified |
Medellín Zenil 1950, p. 65-66 |
Loma del Reparo |
3 (?) |
altar on residential (?) mound |
unspecified |
on floor before infilling for next building stage |
Classic period |
concentration |
no |
unspecified |
Medellín Zenil 1950, p. 65-66 |
Las Puertas |
3 |
palace |
monumental Platform |
below floors (sequence of 13 caches) |
100-300 CE |
Bowl-cum-DN, scene |
yes |
77 DN in 9 caches (3 in 1 bowl) |
Guerrero Andrade 2005, p. 58-59, photo no. 19; fig. 13 |
La Campana |
3 |
palace |
Pyramid on Platform |
below floor |
300-700 CE |
ritual dump? |
yes |
> 44 DN |
Jiménez Pérez and Bracamontes Cruz 2000, p. 90, 110 |
La Joya |
1 |
palace |
residence |
below staircase |
500-700 CE |
Bowl-cum-DN |
no |
65 DN in 34 bowls |
Daneels 2008b |
La Joya |
1 |
ballcourt |
unspecified |
below floor |
Classic period |
Bowl-cum-DN |
no |
52 rudimentary DN + 19 vessels, 1 DN in bowl |
Brüggemann 1969, p. 138, 143, 162, 163, Corte 12 and Plate XVI |
Paso de Ovejas |
0 |
natural sanctuary |
associated with 2 large rocks |
on surface |
Classic period |
ritual dump? |
no |
> 4000 fragments |
Aguilar Rojas 2019 |
13La Joya is a typical South-Central Veracruz lowland site, built of earth, and consequently has been badly damaged by earth extraction for brick-making since the late 19th century. It was the capital of a small state with a monumental architectural compound formed by a Monumental Plaza, bound by the North, Northeast and East platforms, and limited by a Standard Plan group to the west, with a 25-m-high pyramid facing a ballcourt (Figure 4). Major construction started around 200 BCE in the North Platform, with the first building stage of the Pyramid and its altar completed between 1 and 200 CE, followed by the East Platform by 100-300 CE (based on ceramic sequence; Daneels 2008a). Since 2004, the site has been the object of 13 field seasons, with excavations still ongoing in the scant remaining vestiges of these four buildings. Dioses Narigudos (hereafter abbreviated DN) have been found by the hundreds in the altar associated with the Pyramid and in the East Platform, a few in the Pyramid, and none at all in the North Platform (what remains of the gutted Northeast Platform has not been investigated). This allowed us to differentiate between types of manufacture (large sized and well finished, medium with few details, small and crude), as well as the different types of ritual contexts at play during the site’s long chronology (Agüero 2018). Here I present four examples of two complete and two partial deposits including figurines, in chronological order, to illustrate the diversity of the contexts and their possible significance.
Fig. 4 – Map of La Joya. Contours of main buildings based on Escalona Ramos 1937; shaded in red: extant areas of Pyramid, altar, North and East Platform
(map Daneels; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
14The construction sequence of the pyramid altar commences around 100 CE. The four-step deposit sequence is detailed in Hernández García (2019), and synthesized here. It starts by placing 28 deposits with human remains (presumably sacrificial victims) on the paleosoil, where the main (north) façade of the altar would be erected. In the first fill layer are three type I DN, along with 55 fine vessels and five female figures. When they built the altar walls and top, behind the main façade, they aligned a series of figurines forming a scene looking towards the main plaza, consisting of 21 DN I (11 of them female) and 21 anthropomorphic figures, with 33 fine vessels (Figure 5, middle left); they capped the top of the altar, before placing the floor, with a layer of whole and broken figurines, placed both face-up and face-down (Figure 5, upper left). Later, on the floor associated with this first building stage, a fancy DN I and a miniature cylinder vase remained visible on the surface (ibid., p. 178, fig. 68) until the north façade was enlarged, with a new scene of DN (six complete and two half DN I) facing the plaza in front of the pyramid (two of them feminine), along with 11 complete vessels (Figure 5, bottom center).
Fig. 5 – Altar, deposit in the fill of the north façade, with a layer of figurines on top (upper left), an alignment of figurines facing north behind the façade (lower left); when the north façade was expanded 50 cm to the north, a new deposit of aligned figurines was placed, facing north (photo below)
(photos left: A. David Piña, may 2011; photo below and plan: García Hernández 2013, p. 182, fig. 71 and p. 158, fig. 50; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
15This early deposition shows the presence of a female type I variant, alongside male versions, overlying a series of human sacrifice. This female version is then replaced by the identical but male version—a form that appears until the end of the Classic period. Female versions of type I have been reported from other sites, also modeled by hand and possibly from early contexts (Guerrero Andrade 2005; Aguilar Rojas 2019; Faisán and Remojadas—MAX collections).
16Apart from figurines arranged in scenes behind a building wall, and meant to look towards the plaza, as in the case of this context and the one described below (in context 3), there are large accumulations of DN figurines forming continuous layers. Such concentrations occur in other caches at La Joya (see below, associated with context 4; Shaw 2008) as well as at other centers, along with the practice of placing dedicatory caches of humans and/or vessels (jars, bowls) along the line of building façades (see Table 2: Las Puertas, La Campana).
17Another complete deposit is slightly later, approximately 200 CE (Daneels et al. 2023). Construction Offering No. 6 was placed after the second stage of the East Platform was partly dismantled, and covered with a 50 cm layer of sterile sand obtained from the palaeodune underlying the site, forming an elongated but irregular mound. On this fill, the first object to be deposited was a mudbrick, placed north to south along the orientation that the future building would have. Above this brick, they placed a fill of porous sandy soil with small clay nodules, on which apparently a group of persons first placed a set of bowls lip to lip, with four DN inside, then, directly on top of it, in a new sandy fill layer, a new set of lip-to-lip bowls, and around it another 32 vessels in the form of a cross with branches 3.3 m long. Only the central bowls and those on the eastern and southern branches had DN in them, 28 in all (Figure 6). The eastern branch stopped exactly where the future central staircase would start (Figure 7). The deposit was covered with the same fill until reaching the desired height for the clay floor.
Fig. 6 – Construction Offering No. 6 of the East Platform, stage III (outlined in red); in blue outline of stage II
(drawing and photos [2021-2022] by Daneels; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
Fig. 7 – Profile of East Platform, stage II (outlined in red) and position of construction offering 6 in fills of stage III, before the construction of the basal platform and the west staircase (upper outline)
(drawing Daneels; compare with complete East Platform profile published in Daneels, Guerrero Baca, and Liberotti 2013, p. 460, fig. 2; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
18In the same East Platform, there are similar bowl-cum-DN deposits below and above this one. They are incomplete due to the earth extraction by modern brick-workers. In the first building stage, there is a set of two bowls with seven DN each, close to a crossed-legged primary individual, believed to be a sacrificial victim (Figure 8). In two enlargements of the palace, there are first three bowls, without DN, then 21 bowls, with at least one DN. After the palace is transformed into a commemorative pyramid, there are two subsequent deposits: one of three bowls with eight DN, and a large deposit of 34 bowls and 65 DN (Aguëro 2018). Parallel with the caches in front of the buildings of each substage, there is another superposition of caches of bowls with DN in the main staircase immediately to the west. Thus, this practice starts in stage I dating to the Early Classic 100-300 CE, and continues in stage IV (700-1000 CE), as part of a huge closure offering with human sacrifice (three superposed bowls, with at least five DN— see below).
Fig. 8 – Construction cache of stage I, East Platform: large bowl with four DN type I, with intercardinal orientation, and one DN of types IIA (SW), IIB (NE), and III (SE)
(photo Adriana Agüero, 2009; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
19Interestingly, we found no such type of caches in the Pyramid or its altar (though they had DN) or in the North Platform (although it had vessel caches). Furthermore, the building stages in which the caches were found are slightly earlier but still overlap with the early East Platform. The late buildings stages of the Pyramid and the North Platform, which also continue until 1000 CE, failed to produce caches, but they were also much destroyed.
20Consecration caches with bowls and DN (inside or close to bowls) is one of the most common patterns in the whole region, and also the oldest one reported in the literature (see details in Table 2). Thus, while the DN appear at the end of the Protoclassic (around 100 CE), the pattern of bowl-cum-DN may start slightly later (Early Classic) and become increasingly common afterwards.
21This third context is from the private ritual patio adjacent to the palace of the East Platform. It is an enclosed space (in its last transformation 9.5 m E-W and at least 13 m N-S, with a 1.5 × 2.5 m altar in the center, Daneels, Guerrero Baca, and Liberotti 2013, p. 464, fig. 5). This altar had a dedication cache below it, of the scene type in a cruciform pattern (it consists of a large DN I with three small female DN III in his lap, and five other medium-sized DN I: three aligned to the east and two DN I on either side to north and south; Figure 9).
Fig. 9 – La Joya, East Platform, dedication cache of a two-tiered altar in the form of a scene in the private patio of an elite residence
(photo Chloé Pomedio, La Joya, October 2005; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
22The patio continued to be used after the palace was burnt, partially dismantled, and rebuilt as a commemorative pyramid with a sumptuary burial below its top, including a whole yoke sculpture (Daneels and Ruvalcaba 2012). We excavated the extant NW quadrant of the patio during its use in the different substages, and found a series of elements on the successive floors (Daneels 2023, p. 95-97, 181). The elements were certainly left in situ because they were found encased and at times covered by the fine sandy sediment accumulating on the patio floor due to the limited drainage. One of these finds consisted of a complete but flattened bowl of Orange on Cream, a fine ware (element 31), and two complete rudimentary DN IIA (Figure 10): the first one (element 29) was found close to the burnt patch of a probable censer, on a bench built against the West Platform; the other figurine (element 8) and the bowl were on the main floor. To the north of the bowl was the fragment of a possible yoke sculpture.
Fig. 10 – Elements found on one floor associated with the ritual patio of the East Platform: below left: small seated DN I; above right: fragments of a fine vessel smashed on the ground, with a possible small piece of yoke sculpture to the North, and below: small tripod DN IIA, both on the floor in the corner of the patio (excavation squares are 2 × 2 m)
(drawing and photos Daneels: map Daneels 2023, p. 96, fig. 120; photo upper right: Daneels 2023, p. 71, fig. 84; photo lower left: p. 63, fig. 73; photo lower right: unpublished; reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
23This type of context, also registered in other parts of the site, is not well described in the Mesoamerican archaeological literature. Generally, such finds would come under the heading of termination offerings, because of the fragmentary condition and position on floors (Aimers, Hoggarth and Awe 2020). But in this specific case, it was possible to define that they were on the floor for quite some time during the use of the altar, and left in place through several successive layers of the clay flooring. This is therefore not a termination context, but rather the result of a ritual practice in which (some of the) objects are left in place close to an altar as a sort of memento, not to be removed. This practice has parallels with placing ex-votos at altars or shrines in Catholic sanctuaries. Objects of devotion, they are often placed as a plea or in gratitude for a plea granted, and not to be removed by anyone. If removed, such artifacts often tend to be gathered and kept in a sacred place. As I am not aware of an emic term, I will refer to this practice of placing DN as ex-votos, with the same root as votive offering or oblation, in which the object is meant as an offering of a permanent nature, independently of the other functions or significance it may enclose.
24The commemorative pyramid of the East Platform (Daneels, Guerrero Baca, and Liberotti 2013, p. 460, fig. 2 and p. 461, fig. 3) is sealed at the start of the fourth building stage by a thick fill layer covering it from the front stairway to the other end of the private patio. When the architecture was already covered by this layer, a huge deposit was placed in a very short time: above the main staircase, a line of elements composed of a dog skeleton to the north (facing north), a stack of three bowls with at least five DN, then a juvenile body, flexed and prone, head towards the NE, and an adult body, laterally flexed, head to the SW. Over the ritual patio, there was a large deposit of bodies (16 seated cross-legged, one lateral flexed) and body parts (seven crania, two mandibles, four arms and legs), as well as five secondary deposits with fragments of crania and long bones. In the 10 cases where sex could be determined, they were young, adult males, well grown and well fed. (Genetic studies are ongoing to ascertain whether the individuals that were part of the cache were descendants of those placed in the sumptuary burial.) Between them were large serving vessels, some stacked, and circular concentrations of rudimentary DN. The same fill was used to cover these elements, and above them was a continuous layer of hundreds of rudimentary DN and small hemispherical cups (Figure 11). Conserved over 50% are 92 cups and 431 DN, the vast majority DN I (only 35 fragments of tripod DN II and two DN III were recovered; Table 3). All the pieces of this cover layer were made in two series of paste: a tan compact paste and a dark orange granular paste. The manufacture of both figurines and cups, while extremely crude, is consistent in size and shape. This suggests that all were made at the same time from two clay batches, by few artisans. Yet, while the production of this ensemble of figurines and cups may have required few people, their large number suggests that they were meant for many users in one event.
Fig. 11 – Closure deposit of stage IV East Platform. Left: primary human deposits (above), with stacked vessels between them (below); right: continuous layer of DN and hemispherical cups covering the whole sector above the former ritual patio (photos Ana Catalina Celis, 2006). Upper inset: hemispherical cup, 10 cm diameter (photo Guillermo de Pavia, 2016); lower inset: very crudely made DN type I figurine, both in orange paste (photo Daneels, 2006)
(reproduction authorized by the INAH of Mexico)
Table 3 – Amount of DN figurines and cups found in the closure context, according to the percentage of conservation and paste type (tan or orange)
|
Percentage of piece recovered (%) |
Tan paste |
Orange paste |
Hemispherical cups |
100 |
17 |
3 |
99-75 |
15 |
16 |
75-50 |
22 |
19 |
<50 |
139 |
130 |
Crude DN |
100 |
142 |
51 |
100-50 |
136 |
102 |
<50 |
78 |
132 |
25The entire sequence would have taken place in a matter of days. The magnitude of the event, including the capture and simultaneous execution of at least 17 persons (who were probably not willing participants), the quantity of figurines and cups, and the amount of fill moved to contain it, with over 50 m3 only to cover the deposit (0.5 × 15 × 7 m) and 200 m3 the whole building (18 × 22 × 0.5 m), suggests a large collective endeavor, as was the case with the first two contexts described above. This deposition has been interpreted as a closure ritual, as it obliterates what was a commemorative pyramid. But as this deposit is part of the new building stage, it has more in common with construction caches. This is why I define it as a “closure deposit” rather than a “termination ritual” as in the Maya area, as the characteristics that have been used to define them are different: objects that were previously used are broken on the floor of a building before its abandonment, and covered by rubble (not fill; see discussion in Aimers, Hoggarth and Awe 2020).
26Only four contexts were selected here from over 54 caches and deposits found up until 2023 in La Joya, because they are complete (or nearly complete) deposits, reflecting very different kinds of ritual practice including DN figurines in ceremonial or civic buildings in a regional capital. None of the deposits where figurines were found have a funerary function. In Conchal Norte, two apparently funerary burials found under the floor of a domestic unit lacked DN (Pérez Blas 2002, p. 105). This is an important observation as it stands in contrast with the traditional association in the Mesoamerican context of figurines with funerary ritual.
27At La Joya, no DN have been found in the North Platform, also interpreted as a palace, though there are caches with human sacrifice, and with vessels. While the Pyramid and its altar, as well as the main plaza, produced evidence of both human sacrifice and caches with DN, none were placed in the typical bowls. This shows that, within the same site and the same Classic period, there are different practices in different buildings, requiring few or many figurines, more or less human sacrifice, few to many actors, and different ways of placing and assorting the components. This means that any attempt to generalize has to be taken as very tentative.
28In spite of the caveat expressed above, some observations can be made with respect to the recurrent use of figurines in Classic period Central Veracruz caches. Detailed information is generally lacking for most of the sites, or possibly misinterpreted, as when the artifacts found associated with human remains are automatically assigned a funerary function (a problem analyzed by Tiesler 2007). Of the four contexts described, scene, bowl-cum-DN, left exposed on floors (ex-voto), and sealing a deposition (closure), the last two, strictly speaking, may not be typical construction offerings, as they are not (obviously) intended as consecration of new building stages, but they are certainly found in a construction sequence of major buildings, and not to be reduced to a “domestic” context. The two other types of deposits can be more readily interpreted as dedicatory caches of buildings, in the classic sense of consecration offerings defined more than a century ago by Hubert and Mauss (1899: III), in which these “ensoul” a building (“les rites qui ont pour objet d’introduire une âme”).
29There are no direct parallels of the four specific contexts described from La Joya in the rest of Central Veracruz, probably due to scant reporting. Nevertheless, construction caches with accumulations of figurines are recurrent in many sites. A single monumental platform at El Zapotal has impressive conical heaps placed on floors, consisting of hundreds of figurines of different types placed as part of early construction deposits; among all the deposits there are more than 235 humans, some with Smiling Face figurines. There are San José Acateno-type figurines in a cache of a ballcourt in El Tajín, in altars at Morgadal Grande and Cuajilotes (more than 1500 figurines), but also in residential middens and construction fills. The pyramid in Faisán had DN and Red-on-Cream female figurines in different sectors of the fill, together with 83 human deposits. In the case of Buena Vista, the central part of a large platform had 15 deposits of crania and long bone, all of them with coyote figurines. “Vertederos,” heaps or dumps, consisting exclusively of broken Smiling Face figurines, are reported placed close to monumental mounds in capital centers at Los Cerros and Dicha Tuerta, Nopiloa and Apachital (see Appendix). Not all such concentrations are found in sites, as in the case reported in Paso de Ovejas (see Table 2): an accumulation of more than 4000 DN fragments was found between two boulders, prominent on a field but far from any archaeological settlement, and thus probably marking a place revered as a natural sanctuary.
30The recurrence of figurines in caches within politically significant buildings at major sites (pyramids, altars, ballcourts, palaces) marks a function for figurines that contrasts sharply with other Mesoamerican civilizations of the period. Drawing on synthetic works and some specific publications, a general panorama of typological range and contexts can be inferred for the major, contemporaneous Classic period societies, including those at Teotihuacan and in the Maya area and the Oaxaca Valley.
31The imagery of clay figurines in Mesoamerica is generally different from the elite/state cult images represented in stone or mural painting (see above). Figurines often appear to depict men and women of different social spheres, though they may represent or personify deities. Yet only in Central Veracruz is there evidence of specific figurine types manufactured in different sizes and degrees of quality in their manufacture (fine, medium, and crude), which can be appreciated in the anthropomorphic San José Acateno, Dios Narigudo, and Smiling Face figurines.
32Turning towards contexts, there are also similarities to and differences from other Mesoamerican societies. I restrict my comparisons to the main contemporary cultures surrounding Central Veracruz, for which information is available on contexts in major architectural compounds. I leave out more distant regions, such as the Occidente, where the finds are still predominantly associated with funerary contexts and domestic refuse (but see Forest et al. 2021 for an analysis of figurine fragment distribution from fills and middens at the La Quemada monumental compound). In Teotihuacan, construction caches may have fine ceramic vessels, but the figures are of stone or obsidian. Ceramic figurines come from burials, construction fills, or on the floors of plazas or minor temples (Jiménez Gonzales 2020). There is only one old case of a construction deposit, dated 150-250 CE, precisely at the east entrance to the site (i.e. the route towards the Gulf Coast), with 72 objects, 35 of them figurines, three of them inside a vase (Rodríguez Sánchez and Delgado Rubio 1997). After many years of continued research at Teotihuacan, this deposit, reminiscent of the bowl-cum-DN type of South-Central Veracruz, although with Teotihuacan-style figurines and vases, is still unique. Another exceptional case in the Central Highlands of Mexico would be the seven superposed deposits in the construction fill of the main staircase of the Epiclassic Pyramid of the Flores of Xochitécatl, with a total 28 sacrificial remains of juveniles and women and more than 360 clay figurines, most of them female figures of a local type but with some of them considered to be similar to South-Central Veracruz representations (Testard and Serra Puche 2011).
33In the Maya area, figurines are also reported from burials, as in Jaina or the wonderful deposit placed as a scene in Waka-El Perú (Freidel, Rich, and Reilly III 2010), but in general figurines are quite rare (Patrois and Nondedéo 2023, p. 228; Novelo Osorno and Benavides Castillo 2023, p. 178). Figurines are also reported from “problematic deposits” in construction fills, in domestic middens, and sometimes in termination deposits smashed on floors (Halperin 2014; Aimers, Hoggarth and Awe 2020). In the case of construction caches, recent reviews (Vázquez Campa 2012; Begel 2020) show the presence of fine and everyday vessels, very often placed lip to lip, and the recurrence of the cruciform arrangement. Yet these types of caches have no clay figurines and only very occasionally contain human remains (Begel 2020, p. 334, 350, 353, the empty Lucum-type cache, as well as types Maaz, Koxol, and Sak, which contain offerings). A quite exceptional (up to now) small construction cache with whistle figurines comes from a Late Classic residential compound at Naachtun, under a patio floor, with three groups in a N-S alignment (Patrois and Nondédéo 2023, p. 233-239). Concentrations of fragments of ceramic vessels and figurines have been reported in several major sites and associated with termination rituals (in Aguateca, Triadan 2007), feasts (in Xunantunich, LeCount 2001), end-of-cycle events (in Lagartero, Ekholm 1979), or interpreted as objects discarded after a ceremony during new construction stages (in Palenque, Flores Jiménez 2023). The latter two would be similar to the cases of the Vertederos of Smiling Face figurines from Los Cerros, Dicha Tuerta, and Apachital, but do not correspond closely to any of the four context types I defined at La Joya. In the case of Terminal Classic Kohunlich, there is a series of 30 “unusual deposits” on the floors, inside and outside rooms of two main compounds of the site; they consist of fragmented vessels, half of them of fancy vessel types and censers, as well as whistles and figurine fragments; 15 of them include human bones (long bones, mandibles, and crania). They are interpreted not as termination rituals, but as remains of end-of-cycle or fertility rituals carried out in relatively closed, elite spaces, in a context of increasing political fragmentation (Nalda and Balanzario 2011). This instance shows parallels with the contexts of figurines left exposed on floors, defined as ex-voto in this article.
34For the Classic period Oaxaca Valley, figurines are mainly found in secondary and tertiary contexts, mostly from construction fills and middens; when found in primary contexts, they come from funerary and domestic contexts (Martínez López and Winter 1994). A recent review enlarges this to “offerings, burials, pits filled with debris from ritual activities, domestic trash deposits, and construction fill” (Feinman and Nicholas 2019). Nevertheless, the association of more than 3870 figurine and whistle fragments with a ballcourt compound, in an apparent “event-related discard” at Late Classic Lambityeco, is still considered exceptional. It consists of trash-filled pits filled with “an abundance of large ollas and serving vessels” and specific types of mold-made figurines and whistle fragments, related to “ceremonial activities enacted in public spaces” (ibid., p. 110, 126). Apart from the presence of service vessels, this context is also very reminiscent of the Central Veracruz Vertederos described above.
35Thus, in the rest of Mesoamerica, the association of clay figurines with households, primarily in middens and burials, seems to remain valid. There are many cases involving concentrations of ceramic vessels and figurines on floors in or around buildings, increasingly interpreted not only as termination rituals, but also as the result of events involving a large, presumably common (i.e. non-elite), public. These types of deposits are not always linked to the abandonment of the site, and it is interesting that their number appears to increase later on in the Classic period. In the Maya and Oaxaca examples above, the authors place them in a perspective of political unrest and decrease in centralized authority, requiring the elites to co-opt popular support, represented by the presence of the common clay figurines.
36To summarize, in the case of construction caches, Central Veracruz shares the general Mesoamerican canons of the Classic period: they are placed in symbolic parts of the buildings (center, central axis, corners, aligned with façades); moreover, they include the use of ceramic vessels, among other types of artifacts, disposed in an ordered fashion; the presence of bowl sets placed lip to lip, empty or with oriented elements within, is recurrent in the Maya area (Begel 2020), but also known elsewhere. Construction caches often include human remains, as probable result of human sacrifice, although secondary depositions suggest that ancestor worship was also a factor. The only salient point of divergence are the clay figurines: outside Central Veracruz, such figurines are exceptional in construction caches, and, if present, then only in—comparatively—modest amounts. This raises the question: why did Central Veracruz societies include the clay figurines?
37The Dioses Narigudos afford us a good opportunity to approach the function of figurines in Classic period Central Veracruz. As they represent the most common figurine type in all levels of settlement in a specific region, they can be associated with a household/popular cult, as in the rest of Mesoamerica. Their standard attributes, recognizable even in the most rudimentary manufacture, their ubiquity, and their repeated placement in ritual, non-funerary, contexts suggest they had a specific meaning, possibly representing a divinity or a group of divinities, shared by all layers of society.
38This stands in contrast with a model of state religion. As indicated above, in Central Veracruz the original Protoclassic legitimation strategy of elites had been to foster the building of ballcourts in first- and second-rank centers, organize ballgames, and reserve for themselves the right to carry out the decapitation rituals when the need arose; this would be an elite-controlled ritual attracting a massive following. Although the objective was to attract the population, ballgame paraphernalia, including yoke, hacha, and palma sculptures, and the iconography of decapitation associated with volutes could only be commandeered, used, and exhibited by elites in important locations within regional capitals (Daneels 2015, 2016).
39Clay figurines, on the other hand, were apparently made and used by everyone. Thus, their repeated presence in offerings in elite contexts, pyramids, palaces, altars, and ballcourts, in high-ranking centers, suggests the participation of the popular cult in events of political importance. This is supported by the sheer number of figurines in some of the contexts. In most cases, the figures are all slightly different, meaning they were pre-existent, possibly used in household shrines, and brought in for the deposition. Their large quantity suggests the contribution (and thus the probable presence) of a lot of people (contexts 1, 2, and 3). In the case of the large closure deposit (context 4), on the contrary, the figurines were apparently made in a hurry and specifically for the event, possibly by a small team of makers, but the amount of people required to capture and hold at least 17 victims, and the use of hundreds of figurines and cups to seal the event, suggests the attendance of large number of people in a relatively small place.
40What do 100 participants represent in the case of Central Veracruz? Population estimates for the lower Cotaxtla basin average 200 to 300 persons per km2 in the rural areas, reaching maxima above 1000 persons per km2 in some capitals that have large numbers of mounds in their immediate vicinity (e.g. Cerro de Don Crispin, Daneels 2016, p. 273-277). This was probably not the case for La Joya, with a monumental compound enclosed by three reservoirs, with only three monumental platforms that have been interpreted as palaces. Within these platforms, not all buildings were residences; those excavated suggest single-family dwellings (Daneels 2012). Thus, the whole population within the monumental compound was not very large, and 100 persons, especially if they included only adults, would imply the presence of people from outside the compound. Was this attendance voluntary? Did the elite residing in the compound invite them or at least accept their participation? Or were the commoners obliged to take part? The analysis of over 100 human remains of the caches at La Joya shows that most have work-related pathologies and nutritional stress, similar to those found in individuals from low-ranking settlements, and are thus inferred to be from lower classes, with the exception of the > 17 victims found in the closure offering (context 4), inferred to be from the elite (Velasco González, Daneels, and Cárdenas 2011; Daneels 2017; isotopic analysis is planned for 2024-2025). The sacrifice of local commoners does suggest a considerable power over life and death wielded by those in command. We must keep this in mind as a counterbalance to the argument of spontaneous and active popular interference in political events.
41Most contexts suggest events with a large attendance, not only to carry out the construction work, but also to place the formal deposits, including the figurines that are not part of the elite repertory. Particularly in the contexts of the altar construction (context 1), the dedication of the new building stage (context 2), and the closure of the commemorative pyramid (context 4), the number of people involved cannot be simply dismissed as a “labor force.” In these cases, I would interpret the figurines as indicative of the presence of a popular cult in events organized by (and for) the elites. This would especially be the case of the bowl-cum-DN context because this type is composed of common household objects: on the one hand, the most common service vessel anywhere in the region and, on the other, the ubiquitous clay figurine type. This is also the most common type of context and occurs in rural households, in single instances (Plaza de Toros) or more numerous ones (Ixcoalco; see Table 2). It is thus not an elite practice adopted by the commoners, as no complete ballgame paraphernalia or iconography are ever found in commoner households or low-ranking centers. It appears to be a commoner practice present in elite buildings, multiplied in numbers (one bowl with three DN in the case of the Plaza de Toros house; 11 bowls and 31 DN in the Conchal Norte pyramid, 34 bowls and 28 DN in Offering No. 6 at the palatial residence of the East Platform of La Joya; see Table 2 and Bowl-cum-DN context).
42Consequently, I would consider two alternative interpretations: either elites co-opted the popular cult in some of their consecration events, as a secondary strategy for attracting the following of the population by identifying with the common cult, or the population interfered with political decisions, by being present at these events with their popular cult items. Even if the different scenarios are not mutually exclusive, the presence of the clay figurines in the deposits suggests a negotiation between the group inside the monumental compounds and the group outside it, and this during the entire Classic period, as the cases span the years 100-1000 CE (Table 2). It marks a clear contrast with what is observed in other societies of Mesoamerica.
43As stated in the introduction, the interest in the ways individuals conceive their place in the world and in their society has increasingly become a topic of interest, addressed in particular by the study of clay figurines and ritual deposits in archaeology. Yet in Mesoamerica, these two topics rarely have been treated together, because clay figurines are generally not part of archaeological caches. This article presents evidence for a ritual practice recurrent in Classic period Central Veracruz, where clay figurines, assumed to be expressions of popular and/or domestic religion, are part of dedicatory caches and ritual deposits in elite contexts.
44The types of figurines found in these caches differ regionally, but they share a characteristic: they may appear in different categories of manufacture quality, from elaborated versions down to very crude and small ones, but always retaining their defining formal attributes. This is the case for the figurine types for which we have more abundant information: San José Acateno, Dios Narigudo, and Smiling Face figurines. This suggests that their meaning was more important than their finish, and that they refer to a (set of) very specific beings, commonly recognized and part of the life of the whole population. Their identification is not the purpose of this article, but it is not likely that they represented the same entities. Yet their presence in the same types of contexts, from common households to elite settings, suggests that they served the same social function during the Classic period in Central Veracruz. It is their function, not their meaning, that is important.
45Taking into account the relatively low population density in the tropical lowlands of the central Gulf Coast, and the small size of the political entities during the Classic period, I consider that the presence of the common clay figurines, made and used by everybody, found in elite contexts, of which I presented four different types, shows the participation of the general public in events of political significance. The same public must have participated in the ballgame, promoted but also controlled and supervised by the elite, as shown by the very asymmetrical distribution of its paraphernalia and iconography. The recurrent and very large presence of the clay figurines shows a different type of participation, of many people from “outside” the major compounds, in events that happen “inside” of it. Whether this latter participation is coerced by the elite, or voluntary or imposed by the public, remains a moot point, especially because of the significant presence of human sacrifice in caches of major capitals, as the right over life and death is normally considered a prerogative of central power.
46This article does not pretend to reach firm conclusions or demonstrate a “democratic” organization in Classic period Central Veracruz. Rather, it aims at drawing attention to the recurrent ritual practice of including clay figurines in elite contexts, where they do not appear in other contemporaneous societies of Mesoamerica. This is important, to underscore the particularity of the central Gulf Coast in the perspective of the mainstream ritual beliefs of Mesoamerica, López Austin’s núcleo duro. The detailed publication of ritual contexts, in both public and domestic spaces, their sequence of deposition, and the in-depth study of the associated materials, not only artifacts, but also botanical, mineral, and chemical residues, as well as isotopic and DNA analysis of human remains, is in most instances still a work in progress for the Classic period throughout Mesoamerica, but eventually it will contribute to a finer and more nuanced understanding of ritual practice.