Veracruz Mural Traditions: Las Higueras, México

The Murals of Mound 1

Of the research done on Las Higueras the 1985 thesis, Las Higueras-Acacalco-Dinamica cultural de un sitio en el Totonacapan Barloventino, by Ramón Arellanos Melgarejo, provides the most complete surviving account of the original site excavation. The excavation project was instigated when a local farmer uncovered the murals of Mound 1 as he attempted to expand his home atop the ancient structure. In addition to the effects of nature, there was substantial damage and loss of mural remains due to this incident and subsequent looting before the area could be secured.

The pyramidal structure known as Mound 1 (Figure 1) is one of approximately twenty-eight structures at the site. The structure is built by means of a pounded-earth core covered with smooth, river rocks that are held in place using fired oyster or clam-shell lime as a mortar and final stucco surface. The structure has one set of stairs ascending its east side.

The surviving mural fragments were found on the smooth, stucco-covered outer walls and floor of a two-tiered superstructure. Of the nineteen layers of mural discovered on the most preserved northern corners, seven were found associated with a first stage of construction, while the remaining twelve were on a second stage. From above, the superstructure takes on a decidedly cruciform shape. The lower tier of this structure rises approximately one meter. The upper tier of equal height forms walls that rest atop the lower base. The walls are recessed from the outer edge. The top of the platform created by the recession is also nearly one meter in width. An opening in the eastern wall allows access to the inner chamber. Other than a portion of mural on the floor between the jambs there were no surviving interior adornments.

The mural iconography includes various narrative themes including images of Mesoamerican ball courts with their associated ballgame accoutrements and sacrifices, processions of musicians, banner and standard-bearers, temple structures, seated and standing figures wearing elaborate plumage, several ritual scenes strongly associated with water and fecundity, "solar" disks, birds, fish, serpents, and fanged figures. A range of figure types, clothing styles, adornments, and colors are used that may distinguish styles over time or in some cases by the individual hand of the artists. When including the iconography of these murals in a regional comparative analysis of Central Veracruz visual art it is important to consider changes occurring contemporaneously elsewhere in Mesoamerica. The cultures of Central Veracruz that developed visual art canons during the Late Classic period witnessed both the final stages of the collapse of the great Central Mexican state of Teotihuacán and the later decline of the Classic Maya. Examples of Maya and Central Mexican ideology, iconography, science, and glyphic writing exist throughout Veracruz material culture.

The murals present connections to both of these regions, but they ultimately retain the style of Veracruz’s own unique past. Claude Lévi-Strauss’ (1966:16-22) discussion of bricolage provides a model for a more sophisticated understanding of how these complex social institutions and ideologies may have been composed. He suggests that we should view the structuring of ideologies or myths as not necessarily being built from an existing social discourse, either spatially or temporally, but also from the compilation of useful or needed remains of past discourses. The mural iconography highlights this process through the appropriation, blending and transformation of regional and foreign styles and ideologies in the creation of a distinct Gulf Coast culture.

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