By the year 600 A.D. the first states in the region would have already built up in the tropical forests of central Veracruz. Sites like Nopiloa and El Zapotal, located on hills between the basins of the rivers, would soon become the centers of government of the Classic period. They all would have emerged demarcated by clearly defined territories and on the foundations of a highly stratified society. These pristine cities were to exercise such an attraction on the territory that it would not be impossible to assume that the real earnings of the inhabitants were largely due to its unprecedented commercial prosperity, and that it was this new condition which favored strong demographic mobility throughout the Veracruz coast. Commerce had played a decisive role in shaping these new political nuclei and would continue to be the focus of their subsequent development.
The Great Pyramids of earth, ceremonial corridors dedicated to the ball game and the altars built in the center of the plazas became the elements of an architectural complex, pyramid-corridor-altar, which identifies the centers of government of the period. The ideological factor was no less significant in the emergence of these states. These ancient people gave form to centers of government whose ideological production was in the hands of a dominant class, and where a belief system made the new type of authority emanating from highly centralized government structures acceptable to the majority of the population. Both the ruling elite and the lower strata of society alike believed in the supernatural powers of the sovereign.
The elite promulgated their own belief system through a set of symbols and complex rituals that emphasized the sacred character of the figure of the ruler who occupied the very center of worship, and his undeniable position of authority was upheld both by mythological and genealogical arguments that connected him directly with the gods and had him descend from deified ancestors. Tlaloc, a Central-Mexican deity, was to become the "great sacrificer" in the Gulf of Mexico; he presided over the ball game and the blood rituals. The sovereign was by definition a ball player, his elaborate headdresses reveal him in clear communion with this god, which would have power over the existence of the people and with which only the ruler could intercede on behalf of the community.
This magnificent face of clay, probably from the Papaloapan basin, is precisely the representation of a high ranking character who wears the symbols of this deity on the headdress. The "blinders" stand out, two concentric circles that cover the eyes and were decorated with touches of black paint. After its discovery, the piece was coated with a layer of high gloss varnish. These conservation techniques, although common years ago, are no longer used in order to make way for much cleaner interventions that do not alter in any way the original appearance of the pieces.
By the year 600 A.D. the first states in the region would have already built up in the tropical forests of central Veracruz. Sites like Nopiloa and El Zapotal, located on hills between the basins of the rivers, would soon become the centers of government of the Classic period. They all would have emerged demarcated by clearly defined territories and on the foundations of a highly stratified society. These pristine cities were to exercise such an attraction on the territory that it would not be impossible to assume that the real earnings of the inhabitants were largely due to its unprecedented commercial prosperity, and that it was this new condition which favored strong demographic mobility throughout the Veracruz coast. Commerce had played a decisive role in shaping these new political nuclei and would continue to be the focus of their subsequent development.
