The schematic face shows the emblematic stylistic modality of the lapidary art of the Mezcala culture, known by the same name. The piece, with an irregular rectangular outline divided into three main triangles, consists of a minimally thick plate with the eyes, nose and mouth represented by straight grooves. The ears protrude from the sides; ornaments could have been hung from the cylindrical holes in the lobes and, in turn, this possible ornate face could have been suspended in the form of a necklace pendant by ing a string through the two perforations made in the upper section. We do not rule out its use for overlapping a certain , using the four perforations, although it does not seem to be designed to cover one side because the reverse is flat -also smooth- and lacks perforations for viewing.
It has an interesting headdress that depicts a fish in the form of a rectangular band. The animal is seen heading to the right, it shows a punched eye and an open mouth; the indented upper outline is of the dorsal fin, while the caudal fin, which gives it propulsion, was marked with incised horizontal lines; two wedge cuts separate the body from the head and the fin from the tail. Due to the fact that it has been represented with its eyes and mouth open, it is more expressive than the actual face, but they obviously share the formal schematism and the smoothness on the reverse.
In the iconographic repertoire of the great Mezcala style, fish are a little represented species; in particular, they are known as free-standing pieces, not as zoomorphic headdresses. As an example, we have three works in the Amparo Museum collection with record number 1028 in which the same type of fish with an oval silhouette and a flat body was sculpted, with a similar view from both sides. They are more naturalistic since a bony animal can be recognized, with a few cuts that form its forked dorsal, pelvic and caudal fins. In the collection of the National Museum of Anthropology we find another very similar to this one, although it was carved individually without an associated face.
In other studies of the lapidary art of Mezcala, I have established that the aquatic is among the symbolism attributed to green stones with fine and compact grain, although it should be insisted that these values are cultural and respond to complex worldviews that transcend immediate connections; likewise, in their material manifestation, the images are not usually explicit. Meanwhile, in the ritual daily economic and social spheres, there is no doubt that fish and other water resources had a fundamental relevance for Mesoamericans, and this face with a fish headdress indicates the Balsas River. It is one of the main rivers in Mexico, and the Mezcalenses settled in its basin, using it for fishing, hunting, agricultural irrigation and transportation.
It consists of a hydrographic system of almost 800 km in length that includes three basins: the Upper, Middle and Lower Balsas. In the first, the Atoyac, Nexapa and Mixteco Rivers feature, which flow through Puebla, Tlaxcala and Oaxaca, and whose union forms the Balsas in its Middle basin. This crosses Guerrero from east to west. In the eastern section the river is called the Mezcala. It is sustained to the north and south from currents originating in the foothills of the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt and the Sierra Madre del Sur. The Bajo Balsas is the border between Guerrero and Michoacán and flows into the Pacific Ocean.
The name of the river refers to the numerous boats that once crossed it. From ethnohistorical and ethnographic sources, it is known that one type consisted of a flat bundle of wooden rods or otate that were bound underneath with tecomates, or large squash shells, to increase their buoyancy.
The Tale of Tetela del Río, a document from 1579, records its Nahuatl name as river “Ueitatl” or “Agua grande,” which evokes its mighty width of between 40 and 200 m. We do not know the name given by the Chontales and Cuitlatecos who inhabited a large part of the center and north of the state, before the arrival of the Nahua settlers around the 12th century and then those who belonged to the Mexica culture in the 15th century.
Veronica Hernandez Díaz
The schematic face shows the emblematic stylistic modality of the lapidary art of the Mezcala culture, known by the same name. The piece, with an irregular rectangular outline divided into three main triangles, consists of a minimally thick plate with the eyes, nose and mouth represented by straight grooves. The ears protrude from the sides; ornaments could have been hung from the cylindrical holes in the lobes and, in turn, this possible ornate face could have been suspended in the form of a necklace pendant by ing a string through the two perforations made in the upper section. We do not rule out its use for overlapping a certain , using the four perforations, although it does not seem to be designed to cover one side because the reverse is flat -also smooth- and lacks perforations for viewing.
