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553 N o t e s o f M i d d l e A m e r i c a n A r c h a e o l o g y a n d E t h n o l o g y Carnegie Institution of Washington Division of Historical Research No. 129 March 1957 Tohil Plumbate and Classic Maya Polychrome Vessels in the Marquez Collection Robert E. Smith of high iron content and to a reducing atmosphere at temperatures around 950° C. (Shepard 1948:99), may be separated into three main types. The earliest of these is San Juan Plumbate (Shepard 1948:91), possessing a distinctive paste and made up of simple shapes such as the cylindrical vase and the squat, collared far with little decoration. The most recent type is Tohil Plumbate, thoroughly described and illustrated by Shepard and composed of effigies, jars, tapered vases, barrel-shaped vessels, and bowls, most of them well decorated. A third type, Robles Plumbate, may be placed chronologically between San Juan and Tohil. It is less well known than the other two, and is notable in that much of the design is moldmade (Shepard 1948, Fig. 12n). In this assemblage of 53 plumbate vessels from the Marquez collection we deal only with the Tohil type. Shepard’s valuable plumbate study gives illustrations of all the forms in this collection except two: a double body-bulge jar (Fig. 129.2l) and a recurved -sided tripod jar (Fig. 129.1g), Shepard also reproduces all the decorative techniques found in this group of vessels: grooving; incising and punctation ; modeling, including all effigies; and gadrooning . The last process is described as follows: “The elevation of parts of a surface to produce ribs, lobes or bosses is a common plumbate decorative technique used on bodies of jars and pyriform vases, on bulging necks of jars, and on barrels. The effect is produced by pressing out the vessel wall, or by deep grooving usually combined with modeling and slicing or trimming” (Shepard 1948:17). Shepard also This collection, located in Merida, Yucatan, Mexico, belonged to the late Alberto Márquez, a collector for twenty-five years. It consists for the most part of Maya archaeological material. At present there is a preponderance of ancient Maya and Mexican pottery , including several thousand Jaina figurines both modeled and moldmade, some 200 X Fine Orange vessels, about 100 fine gray specimens, over 50 Tohil Plumbate pieces, a dozen or more Classic Peten-like Polychrome examples, and some miscellaneous ceramic types. This note has to do with 53 Tohil Plumbate and 12 Classic Peten-like Polychrome vessels. The exact provenience of the specimens is uncertain . In all probability the great majority came from somewhere along the coast of Campeche, from such sites as Jaina, Huaymil, Isla de Piedra, Campeche, Champoton, and even Isla del Carmen. Since nearly all the objects are whole, they presumably came from tombs or caches. In no instance, however, is the complete contents of a grave known, nor is it even certain that any two vessels were found together. The associations of these valuable finds are lost forever . Today the value of such collections is simply typology; large groups of the same ware or type can be analyzed, and the variety of shapes, techniques of decoration, and styles of design within those groups can be recorded. TohIl PlUMbATe VeSSelS Plumbate, a ware with a hard lustrous surface attributable principally to the use of a fine-textured clay robert e. Smith 554 illustrates all the design motifs found in this collection . All the styles of design recorded here are abstract , including scroll meander, simple scrolls and related elements, rectilinear and simple curvilinear, reverse curve, elaborate scroll bands, and the loop and scroll motifs. ClASSIC MAyA PolyChroMe VeSSelS The 13 vessels of this type included in the collection are all Classic Maya Polychrome gloss ware (Smith 1955) save one specimen of Classic Maya Dichrome gloss ware (Fig. 129.7d). The exact period or phase to which each example belongs, however, is not always clear. Some have a design style of one phase and the form of another (Fig. 129.6b), or the design style of one period and the form usually belonging to a .different period (Fig. 129.7b), Most of the tripod vessels have forms unusual or unknown at such sites as Uaxactun, Piedras Negras, or San Jose; yet most of the associated design styles are typical of those places. Apparently, design style was diffused more widely...

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