Three different types of Tlatilco pottery are identified. One is the local style that is shared with other village groups from the area, another is a series that resembles ceramics from the West of Mexico, especially the Capacha style of Colima, and the last one is the type that is associated with the Olmec culture of the Gulf coast. This cylindrical cup belongs without doubt to the last group.
During the Middle Preclassic period, the time of the splendor of the Olmec culture on the Gulf coast, Tlatilco and other several regions of Mesoamerica had the influence of this culture. The interesting thing about this phenomenon is that local productions always coexisted, along side finely crafted Olmec style artifacts.
The cylindrical cup has the typical form of Olmec style ceramics. Although the motifs do not correspond to the symbols of the Olmec iconographic repertoire like other cups that bear St. Andrew's Cross, the flaming eyebrow, the hand-paw or dragon's head, the shape of the cup and the decoration technique applied by means of thick lines engraved after firing, can be associated with the Olmec style. Possibly it is a copy made by the potters of Tlatilco.
Three different types of Tlatilco pottery are identified. One is the local style that is shared with other village groups from the area, another is a series that resembles ceramics from the West of Mexico, especially the Capacha style of Colima, and the last one is the type that is associated with the Olmec culture of the Gulf coast. This cylindrical cup belongs without doubt to the last group.
