Flagon with triple globular bodies

This piece belongs to the Capacha tradition in the West of Mexico. Even though the main archaeological site of this culture, which bears the same name, is located near the city of Colima, the geographical distribution of the Capacha style ceramics is much wider. It extends along the Pacific Coast and covers six current Mexican states, including: Sinaloa, Nayarit, Jalisco, Colima, Michoacan and Guerrero. It is the most ancient ceramics horizon in the region.

The most characteristic shape in the Capacha style is a vase that is horizontally divided by a waist, it is known as an imitation of the gourd. The globular parts are usually decorated with linear or dotted incisions applied before firing. The most common presentation for the gourd-shaped vessel is a double body with a wide mouth.

This piece has a triple globular body with a long neck, which is a variant of the gourd. The vessels with inverted U-shaped mouth and the ones called "trifid" (vessels with three cubes that connect the upper and the lower body) are other tell-tale shapes of the Capacha style. Except for the gourd-shaped vessel that is still used by farmers to transport liquids to the field, the other shapes are not functional. Their shapes possibly have a symbolical and religious connotation.

Not much is known about the origin of the Capacha ceramics. It is believed that the creators of these ceramics came from outside of this region. Because of the formal similarities to the ceramics of the Machalilla culture of the coast of Ecuador, Isabel Kelly, pioneering archaeologist of the West of Mexico, believes the Capacha ceramics originated in this Latin-American country and arrived to the Pacific Coast through overseas. Further similarity with the ceramics of the Tlatilco culture of the Central Highlands of Mexico is observed in both shape and decoration, which suggest a close relationship between both cultures.