The globular pots with spout and handle are some of the best known examples of the ceramics from the Gulf of Mexico. Their production is accompanied by vessels that are used as actual sculptural cups that represent full-bodied humans and animals. Despite the apparent formal similarities, there are features that allow us to distinguish between them, such as the ornamentation themes, the decorative taste and even certain details of the pottery techniques, which establish a different origin and represent as a result parallel pottery traditions. Although they were very common in La Huasteca, an enormous territory in the east of Mesoamerica that extends from the sea of Tamaulipas to the mountains of Hidalgo, they began to be made from very ancient times at various sites of the "hot lands".
Central Veracruz produced extraordinary examples of pottery in the Pre-Hispanic era. Driven by the lack of stone, large pieces were produced from clay that served to stand in for sculptures. The Papaloapan basin was the seat of multiple craft workshops that gave form to a ceramic art with unique characteristics in Mesoamerica. While they certainly share stylistic norms that link them chronologically, it is also possible to observe a fertile field for artistic experimentation, for the introduction of new themes that make on the whole for one of the most important artistic expressions of ancient Mexico.
This splendid vessel that we have here was possibly made somewhere within the territory that crossed the Papaloapan River as it wound its way towards the sea. It probably dates back to the first half of the Classic period (ca. 300-600 A.D.) and its production combines features from two great pottery traditions. If this is true and it does come from the lands of Veracruz, this pot with handle preserves from ancient times the use of a spout while the construction of the body and the proportions of the different features reveal the involvement of an artisanal component strongly linked to Central Mexico, with the Teotihuacan world, which acquired so much influence in this era on the coast of Veracruz.
The pot, particularly the modeled neck and rim, respond in a certain way to the pottery models that did not originate from Central Veracruz, while the decoration of the body with indentations made from fresh clay seem to recall the immemorial heritage of the potters from the Papaloapan River basin. The piece's shiny finish, the use of a thick engobe, the painted decoration of the rim and even the application on the neck of a decoration with black paint in negative, place it fully within the works of the potters from the Classic period.
Unfortunately, there is no other vessel in the collection in the Amparo Museum with similar characteristics that can help us clarify the origin of such a unique piece. There is no doubt that it was obtained from a tomb given the splendid degree of its preservation, but its actual origin from the Veracruz coastal plains is highly provisional for now.
The globular pots with spout and handle are some of the best known examples of the ceramics from the Gulf of Mexico. Their production is accompanied by vessels that are used as actual sculptural cups that represent full-bodied humans and animals. Despite the apparent formal similarities, there are features that allow us to distinguish between them, such as the ornamentation themes, the decorative taste and even certain details of the pottery techniques, which establish a different origin and represent as a result parallel pottery traditions. Although they were very common in La Huasteca, an enormous territory in the east of Mesoamerica that extends from the sea of Tamaulipas to the mountains of Hidalgo, they began to be made from very ancient times at various sites of the "hot lands".
