The culture of the shaft tombs includes outstanding sculptures that are featured in a wide range of architectural enclosures and are called "mock-ups". The term does not apply in the sense of mock-ups that serve to imitate a constructed work or to show the distinctive characteristics of a project, but as the representation in small format of existing works. The mock-ups provide an extremely valuable testimony to an architecture whose antiquity could be traced back more than two thousand years and of which the majority has disappeared or been destroyed.
We found the house to be a of a surprisingly formal sort and an entity that brings together multiple functional and symbolic values. The mock-ups from this culture are distinct from those of other Mesoamerican peoples due to their fully three-dimensional design, with interior spaces and especially because they include the inhabitants of these spaces in various activities and poses, usually dynamic and lively. The building we see consists of a rectangular room with two side walls; a trapezoidal high and very inclined hip roof, the form refers to a prism with the middle section constrained, accentuating the projection of the eaves which protect the walls and openings on all four sides. At the very top are two protuberances that protrude are identified as two crossed poles that form part of the structure; the roof side views display a triangular shape.
The building stands on a high base abutting the slope of a ladder which is pointing to the same facade. The polychrome decoration corresponds to the stylistic concepts that characterize Ixtlan del Rio area ceramics and is a testament to the existence of mural painting. The motifs are always geometric-abstract and although the repertoire is limited, the combinations are varied; this ornamentation is limited to the outer surface. The middle section of the roof is covered with linear concentric diamonds in red and black; the peak has vertical red and black lines in the central and horizontal part in the posts, while at the bottom there is a strip of black solid triangles.The front and back of the base are painted with red wavy vertical lines; on the sides are visible linear black concentric diamonds. Now we move into the house, drawing nearer to its inhabitants and the narrative qualities that have been impressed by the artists in a way that sets the scenes.
There may be five individuals who appear to be men, and there may have been another of whom a fragment is preserved; all have band headdresses, circular earrings, nose rings and a kind of thick belt. In relation to these figures, within the style of Ixtlan del Rio, the mock-ups are part of a sub-variant with "caricaturesque" traits, as their anatomy looks disproportionate and appears to be carelessly made without details: in particular the humans have very large heads, prominent noses, and hands and feet like stumps.
However, the configuration is accurate for denoting their primary identity and appropriate for the expression of vitality and dynamism. Although they may lack eyes, or they were only barely suggested, the figures seem to be looking; they exhibit the characteristics belonging to free-standing sculptures made in greater size, such as the body positions, clothing, ornaments, associated objects, gestures and actions both of females and males. Only one of the individuals is distinguished by bringing his hand to his mouth, as if to consume something from the big pot that is at the center of the composition. On either side of this are a couple of tall objects shaped like urns, although unlike the pot they are closed. I think they are also recipients, since they are common objects in architectural representations; in fact, besides humans and some animals, only vessels were modeled; the furniture is absent.
I propose that it depicts a ritual of a private nature involving collective ingestion, the ritual character of the scene sustains the burial origin of the piece. In the religious sphere, one possibility is that the mock-up perpetuated an activity in which he or the individuals to whom it is offered in the tomb participated, or perhaps a ceremony held in their honor. It should be noted that the ritual is intrinsically linked with the architectural space; the same forms underline it.
