WHAT DO CERAMICS TELL US ABOUT THE CONTACTS BETWEEN THE MAYA AND TEOTIHUACAN? THE MEANING AND SOCIAL CONTEXT OF TEOTIHUACAN-LIKE CERAMICS IN THE MAYA AREA AND MAYA-LIKE CERAMICS AT TEOTIHUACAN IN THE EARLY CLASSIC PERIOD

Abstract

A long-lived debate within Early Classic Mesoamerican studies concerns the nature of the social, cultural and political interaction between the city of Teotihuacan and the Maya area. Considerable evidence of these contacts is known from epigraphy, iconography and architecture, but we know less from the artefacts, especially ceramics, that point to these relationships. Typical Teotihuacan ceramic forms – like cylinder tripods, Thin Orange pottery, candeleros, cream pitchers and floreros appear in many Maya sites from several regions: the Central Zone, the South-eastern Zone, the Belize Zone, the Guatemalan Highlands and also Northern Yucatan. Teotihuacan-like vessels usually form a predominant component of elite or royal burial offerings. Additionally, Maya-style vessels have been found in a few of Teotihuacan’s apartment compounds. There seems to be much diversity among these sites regarding the chronology of ceramic vessels, their quality and quantity, as well as their depositional contexts. All of these factors may reveal significant aspects of the nature and extent of these long-distance relationships.