The ceramic of the middle Preclassic is characterized by its enormous variety. This variety affects both the small solid representations of clay, especially anthropomorphic, as well as the hollow ceramic vessels and sculptures. Las Bocas, near Izucar de Matamoros, Puebla, is frequently pointed out as the area of origin for a group of naturalistic ceramic pieces with thick engobes, particularly black, well burnished and with a somewhat shiny finish. Such is the case of these two hollow sculptures, which appear to be containers for liquid. However, it should be noted that archaeological knowledge of the site of Las Bocas is uncertain; therefore, the attributions are based more on the oral tradition of people who have found pieces than on the study of objects extracted in excavations. It should also be noted that many pieces from the Valley of Mexico, and in particular from Tlatilco, bear interesting similarities with this pair of representations.
Representations of birds and other animals are common in the Tlatilco repertoire, mainly of ducks. Both the duck and the heron are typical species of the Valley of Mexico at the time when there was a huge lake. By this we mean that there are better reasons to point to the Valley of Mexico and Tlatilco in particular as the place of origin of these pieces, than the almost unexplored Las Bocas.
The use of the black engobe, the burnishing, the post-firing sgraffito that scratches the engobe (noticeable in the grid at the base of the representation of the duck) and the location of an opening directly flush on top of the figure without any neck are all features found in Tlatilco ceramics.
An interesting characteristic of the ceramic art of the Middle Preclassic or Olmec stage in general is the willingness to represent natural forms, both of people and animals. At that stage some representations of fantastic beings coexisted in different regions such as vessels decorated with very abstract symbols and quite naturalistic recreations of people and objects. Some of these representations seem to have been offering cups, which at the same time evoked the environment of life outside the tomb and served to conserve water or other liquid. This seems to have been the function of these two pieces.
The ceramic of the middle Preclassic is characterized by its enormous variety. This variety affects both the small solid representations of clay, especially anthropomorphic, as well as the hollow ceramic vessels and sculptures. Las Bocas, near Izucar de Matamoros, Puebla, is frequently pointed out as the area of origin for a group of naturalistic ceramic pieces with thick engobes, particularly black, well burnished and with a somewhat shiny finish. Such is the case of these two hollow sculptures, which appear to be containers for liquid. However, it should be noted that archaeological knowledge of the site of Las Bocas is uncertain; therefore, the attributions are based more on the oral tradition of people who have found pieces than on the study of objects extracted in excavations. It should also be noted that many pieces from the Valley of Mexico, and in particular from Tlatilco, bear interesting similarities with this pair of representations.
