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San Pedro Polished Red

San Pedro Polished Red is characterized by a well-burnished red slip that covers most if not all of the vessel. It may occur without additional decoration, but is usually either painted or incised, and sometimes both decorative techniques are used simultaneously.

Paste and Firing Effects

The paste is light brown to light reddish-brown. It is compact, and usually has a medium hardness. Dark firing clouds occasionally occur, particularly with the censer forms. Painted decoration (especially graphite paint) tends to have a "negative" appearance giving it a grayish color, probably as the result of firing either during production or through use as an incense burner.

Surface Treatment

The surface is usually well-burnished to a lustrous finish. Most examples have a bright red (guinda) slip on the interior and/or exterior. The slip is occasionally applied only on the upper portions of the exterior vessel wall with the lower section retaining the natural brownish color. Censers, including sahumadores, are unfinished on the interior, and are usually a gray to dark gray/black color from repeated burning of incense.

Decoration

In addition to the highly burnished red slip, decorative techniques used include painted designs, fine line incising, shallow grooves made before the slip was applied, modelling of the vessel walls, and carving through the vessel walls to form a "lattice" effect. Painted motifs are frequently outlined with incising. The quality of decoration is usually high and may include codex-style designs. This type occurs in a variety of decorative styles, resulting in at least nine subtypes: Sencillo, Incised, Graphite on Red, Incised Graphite on Red, Banded Graphite on Red, Graphite on Red Elegante, Incised Black on Red, Shallow Grooved, and Modelled.

The Sencillo subtype is undecorated other than the characteristic polished red slip (Figs. 1-2). It appears most often as subhemispherical bowls and conical bowls.

Figure 1: San Pedro Polished Red outleaned wall bowl with crenellated rim

 

Figure 2: San Pedro Polished Red shallow bowl with stamp bottom

 

The Incised subtype is identified by fine-line incising through the well-burnished red slip (Fig. 57b,c). Designs are in the form of curvilinear and rectilinear geometric motifs, but can also include codex-style representations. Incised decoration usually appears in panels around the exterior rim. Conical bowls are the most common vessel form.

 

Figure 3: San Pedro Polished Red Incised subtype conical bowl

 

Figure 4: San Pedro Polished Red Incised subtype conical bowl fragments

 

The Graphite on Red subtype has painted decoration using a black graphite paint that produces a metallic sheen. Painted decoration usually occurs on the rim. The most common vessel form was the tripod censer, often with carved "lattice" vessel walls. Similar censers have been found in the Mixteca Alta and at Tula, and they appear to have been a widespread ceremonial form.

The Incised Graphite on Red subtype is characterized by graphite painted decoration as well as incising, which is often used to outline the painted motifs. The predominant vessel form is the sahumador, a shallow, outleaned wall bowl with a long handle. The exterior of the censer bowl is often decorated with alternating vertical panels of graphite paint and red slip, usually with the panels outlined with incising.

The subtype Graphite on Red Banded was represented by only a single example, making this a tentative assignment. It had graphite paint on the rim, and also in horizontal bands below the rim in a style similar to the Banded subtypes of Cocoyotla Black on Natural and Ocotlán Red Rim.

The Graphite on Red Elegante subtype has graphite paint on the rim, but with elaborate painted decoration in a horizontal panel below the rim. Motifs are similar to those found on Ocotlán subtype Elegante, with codex-type representations painted in black, red and orange over a white background. The most common vessel form found was the conical bowl.

The subtype Incised Black on Red is distinctive because it has black paint instead of the more common graphite paint. Decorative techniques include a panel of black paint below the rim, decorated with fine line incising (Fig. 5). Motifs are similar to the Incised subtypes of Cocoyotla Black on Natural and Ocotlán Red Rim.

 

Figure 5: San Pedro Polished Red Black on Red Incised subtype olla

The Shallow Grooved subtype has curvilinear motifs carved into the body as shallow grooves that were then covered by the red slip. Similar decorative techniques are found on Fine Orange bowls and on small ollas found at the Altar of the Carved Skulls (Noguera 1937).

The Modelled subtype is characterized by an irregular vessel body, which was probably modelled in a naturalistic form such as a gourd shape. No other decoration is apparent. Only one example was found at UA-1, so the classification is tentative due to the small sample size.

Vessel Forms

San Pedro Polished Red occurs as both serving and ceremonial vessels, including conical bowls, subhemispherical bowls, sahumadores, and carved "lattice" censers.

Conical bowls measure between 20 to 30 cm in diameter, and 5 to 10 cm in vessel height. One large example of the subtype Graphite on Red Elegante had an abraded interior base and lower walls, perhaps as the result of use as a spinning bowl or from whipping cacao.

Subhemispherical bowls are generally smaller and shallower than conical bowls.

Sahumadores are long-handled incense burners that can be compared to "frying pans" in form. The bowl section usually consists of a shallow outleaned wall bowl that is unfinished and fire blackened on the interior, and decorated on the exterior. The handle is hollow, and measures about 5 cm in diameter. Handles are occasionally decorated, with zoomorphic representations on the end (Müller 1978: ).

Carved lattice censers resemble miniature ollas with a globular body, constricted orifice, and a low, flaring neck. The diagnostic attribute of this vessel form is the carving of the vessel walls, in which the clay was completely carved away to created a lattice-like pattern to allow the smoke from the incense to pass through the sides. The interior of the vessels is usually fire-blackened and unfinished. The exterior is well burnished and often decorated. Complete examples of these censers usually have two short supports, and a longer third support that probably also served as a handle.

Discussion

San Pedro Polished Red is another enigmatic type, in part because it is relatively rare at UA-1, but also because various subtypes are found in contexts throughout the Postclassic sequence and into the Colonial/Historic period. In contrast to the relatively short periods of popularity exhibited by most polychrome types, San Pedro appears to have maintained a limited, probably specialized function over a long period of time. A second possibility, however, is that the San Pedro designation may include more than one type that shared basic similarities but have not as yet been distinguished due to the small sample sizes of individual collections.

Noguera (1954:113-115) described two variations of his esgrafiada type that correspond to the San Pedro classification. The first is most similar to the Incised Graphite on Red subtype in that the incising is used to outline the painted decoration; Noguera attributed this to "Aztec" influence. The second variation is more similar to the Incised and Incised Black on Red subtypes. Noguera described the quality of workmanship as among the finest in Cholula, and identified several symbolic motifs, including serpents and birds similar to styles found in the codices. An example found in an intrusive midden at the R-106 excavation (McCafferty, Suárez C., and Edelstein n.d.) featured an elaborate feathered serpent in black and outlined with incising on a large olla (Fig. 58).

Polished red ceramics were identified by Müller as both "Azteca polícromo de Texcoco" and "negro esgrafiado sobre rojo" (1978:123-124). She interpreted both as intrusive pottery types.

Mountjoy and Peterson (1973:fig. 23, k-l) identified this type as "Tlatoa Graphite on Red Engraved," which occurred in very low frequencies (2 to 3%) in their UA-70 trash deposits. As "Cuauhtli Red," it made up about 4% (n=139) of the midden assemblage at the UA-69 Faculty Housing Complex (Peterson 1972:200-201, Table 18). It was very rare (.2%, n=7) in Feature 10 at UA-79 (Barrientos 1980).

Regional similarities link San Pedro Polished Red with both the Valley of Mexico and the Gulf Coast. "Texcoco Black on Red" is a Middle and Late Postclassic diagnostic (Chadwick 1971a:252-254; Sanders, Parsons and Santley 1979:467-473), that has often been used to infer Aztec influence in outlying regions (e.g., Bernal 1949; MacNeish, Peterson, and Flannery 1970). Smith (1990:154) has recently criticized the use of "Guinda" ceramics as a means of identifying Aztec trade since the style is relatively abundant throughout the Central Highlands, probably as the result of local production. Polished red pottery with "irridescent" black paint, together with an incised variety, occurs on the Gulf Coast (García Payón 1971:542).

In summary, pottery similar to San Pedro Polished Red is found over a wide geographical area, and probably had a long temporal range. The UA-1 assemblage does little to clarify this situation since the type is found in very low frequencies in all Postclassic contexts (Table 15). This is interpreted as an indication of the longevity of the type, perhaps because of ritual importance. The censer forms in particular seem to continue unchanged over a long period of time. Other subtypes, for example the Incised and Incised Black on Red subtypes may have been restricted to the Early/Middle Postclassic.

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