Clay was the Mesoamericans preferred material, and throughout their history among the most important or ample evidence of the many cultures, it is found in pottery and sculptured pieces. The qualities of clay together with sophisticated processing techniques allowed for the creation of an extraordinary variety of objects, including those for everyday use for cooking and serving food such as pots, mortars and saucers, those of ritual and also religious use that could fulfill practical functions as containers sported elaborate painted, carved or modeled images, such as the vessels used in the ceremonial consumption of drinks whose outer surfaces shows courtesan scenes, and those which met the symbolic order functions such as the sculptures of small and large format images portraying rulers, warriors, ancestors, and representing the appearance of the gods.
Thus, ornaments such as this necklace were made with clay. It is a long piece made up of numerous short tubular beads, the three pendants are worth noting: one has the shape of a human head, and the other two appear to be bivalve mollusk shells. In the little head the application of the paste from the same clay protrudes to form the eyebrows and eyes; it has a type of lock of hair gathered up with a circular perforation that serves for it to be hung. As necklaces of a similar appearance were also made with hard precious stones and natural shells, we can assume that its use corresponded to individuals who did not belong to the elite of a given community. Parallel to this assumption it is important to emphasize the fundamental importance that ornamentation could have for any member of society, including those of the lower strata. Beautification, personal identity, hip of a particular group, and the indication of hierarchies are some of the functions of body decoration; therefore, it is possible to say that this is a substantial part of the human attributes.
Clay was the Mesoamericans preferred material, and throughout their history among the most important or ample evidence of the many cultures, it is found in pottery and sculptured pieces. The qualities of clay together with sophisticated processing techniques allowed for the creation of an extraordinary variety of objects, including those for everyday use for cooking and serving food such as pots, mortars and saucers, those of ritual and also religious use that could fulfill practical functions as containers sported elaborate painted, carved or modeled images, such as the vessels used in the ceremonial consumption of drinks whose outer surfaces shows courtesan scenes, and those which met the symbolic order functions such as the sculptures of small and large format images portraying rulers, warriors, ancestors, and representing the appearance of the gods.
