The extensive iconographic repertoire of the ceramic art of the shaft tomb culture includes the anthrozoomorphic beings; in the predominant representation of humans in a realistic style, these fantastic images are peculiar. In my opinion, the quadruped we see can be a dog with a human head, since correspondences can be established with images made in other zonal styles.
I am referring, in particular, to the Comala style, in Colima, where dogs with human masks are found, and the Ameca-Etzatlan, which has figures of men posed on "four legs" and even with tails, although their anatomy and posture exhibits a greater proximity to the human (of the latter there are some works in the collection of the Amparo Museum), the anthrozoomorphic individuals are presented as standing man.
According to my research, these dog-human images refer to a mythical narrative in which a dog eventually transformed into a woman and a man constitute the ancestral pair that gave birth to humanity.
This piece exhibits the San Sebastian style, named after a population located in the basin of the Magdalena lagoon, in the central-north of Jalisco. In this stylistic mode animals are not abundant; the ones I identify are quadrupeds whose head, with the pointed muzzle and the ears in the frontal area, clearly indicate that animals were represented; in this framework, our piece is unique. The head is certainly human; according to the canons of the style, the ears are absent and in their place only the earrings are seen, in the form of several rings that would be inserted horizontally in the lobes. In the body, with certain sections painted in red, with tapered torso, with conical-periformic legs and short tail, the motifs painted in black on orange consisting of a reticulate and spirals, located in the upper part of the four extremities, which are interesting, since they are equated with what is displayed as fully human bodies; it is possible that this pictorial treatment, together with the head, give human qualities to the animal.
The extensive iconographic repertoire of the ceramic art of the shaft tomb culture includes the anthrozoomorphic beings; in the predominant representation of humans in a realistic style, these fantastic images are peculiar. In my opinion, the quadruped we see can be a dog with a human head, since correspondences can be established with images made in other zonal styles.
