The term "urn" tends to be used to refer to sculptures in ceramics pasted to a cup that have been abundantly found in Zapotec tombs. They do not contain ashes or other remains of the dead, and it would be more adequate to apply the term effigy-cup. The practical or symbolic foundation of the recipient has not yet been made clear, but it could be related to the idea of a more ethereal or "spiritual" than material content. Ceramic sculptures placed in the entrance of the tombs were also rendered with the same technique and similar dimensions.
Three figures were placed on this piece; two full body ones and another in the form of a mask. The main figure is a priest depicted upright, seen from the front. He has an enormous and lavish headdress, and the long bands hanging from its sides create the appearance of a cape. A plume of quetzal feathers emerges in the upper part, a very common sumptuary component in Zapotec, Teotihuacan or Mayan representations. Let's suppose they're from a quetzal from their aspect and great length, and also because the paintings have the corresponding green color.
With both forearms placed horizontally, perpendicular to the body, the figure is holding an object in a very ostensible manner. It is a bag, very common in Mesoamerican representations, which allows a priest or a ruler to be noted, exercising a priestly function. The priests carried copal in the bag to spread over the embers and make offerings. Our figure also has what seems like a pair of stoles, one on each arm, adorned with tassels. These stoles are another priestly distinction both in representations from Monte Alban and in Teotihuacan.
Above the priest's head as an insert to the headdress there is a full feline, apparently a jaguar. The four hinds and the tail come out the right side, and the head and claws emerge from the left. The feline fiercely shows its jaws. We see a small mask on the jaguar's back. It is a face with earrings almost completely covered by its own nose which is curved upward like a trumpet and ends in a fork; it is a bat mask. The feline and the bat are frequently associated with Zapotec iconography. Both animals are associated with caves and mountains, with darkness and night, and therefore belong to the cosmic feminine field and have connotations of fertility.
In Zapotec pieces like this, in which a human face is seen, a moderate naturalism can be seen in the representation. The general conception of the figure corresponds to a style that is very characteristic of Monte Alban and Teotihuacan in which the proportions of the human figure are not anatomic, but conventional, ranging from 1:3. The forms of the limbs are also subject to a conventional stereotype. This style corresponds to a great extent with that which the Post-Classic Period would dominate, which we associate with the codices of the Mixtec-Puebla tradition.
The term "urn" tends to be used to refer to sculptures in ceramics pasted to a cup that have been abundantly found in Zapotec tombs. They do not contain ashes or other remains of the dead, and it would be more adequate to apply the term effigy-cup. The practical or symbolic foundation of the recipient has not yet been made clear, but it could be related to the idea of a more ethereal or "spiritual" than material content. Ceramic sculptures placed in the entrance of the tombs were also rendered with the same technique and similar dimensions.
