Epi-Classic Cultural Dynamics in the Mezquital Valley

Red-on-Bay (Rojo sobre Bayo) and Black-Brown Incised/Incised Postfire (Negro-Café Inciso/Estrafiado)

The behavior of these ceramics cannot be analyzed separately, as they usually appear in association. Like Raised White, they cover an extended time span, but due to their presence in several stratigraphic sequences, there is some more information available in regard to the differences between them, the chronological validity of a number of peculiarities, and the scopes of their geographic dispersion.

As said, the correlative base for the Bajío studies has been mainly the work by Michael Snarkis, who named the diagnostic Red on Bay of the Lerma phase from Acámbaro⁹⁰  as Cantinas Red-Orange A (Snarkis, 1985:239, figs. 70-75), and the primary incised diagnostic type as Garita Black-Brown B (ibid.:238, figs. 62-69) (Figure 17 and Figure 18). Apparently, the distribution of these types includes the center and south of the State of Guanajuato (Nalda, 1981; Contreras and Durán, 1982; Velázquez, 1982, n/p; Ramos et al., 1988:315; Durán, 1991:64-68; Crespo, 1991a:123, figs. 14a-14c), northeast Michoacán (Moguel, 1987:72-73, 80-81; Moguel and Sánchez, 1988:231; Faugère, 1996:84; Healan, 1998:106; Healan and Hernández, 1999:139) and southern Querétaro (Brambila and Castañeda, 1991:146; Crespo, 1991a:104, 1991b:192, fig. 13; Saint-Charles, 1991b:80-88; 1998:349). The generalized presence of the Acámbaro types does not seem to have reached beyond the eastern boundaries of the State of Querétaro.⁹¹

The concurrence of Cantinas and Garita is one of the traits that define the Bajío Sphere, but its presence is the local expression of a larger phenomenon, by which it existed, apparently, a primary relationship between the manufacture of the red on bay types with painted designs and the brown/coffee types with incised/incised postfire (sgraffiti) designs. This primary relation is important because it has allowed us to contemplate the multiple local expressions as the translation of interregional concepts or styles, rather than the emulation of specific types.

Throughout the Classic and the Epi-Classic, the complementation of red on bay painted decorations with incised or incised postfire decorations on monochrome pieces, spread all along the northern portion of the Central Mesa and to the northwest (see Braniff, 2000:39), at least from Sinaloa, Colima, Jalisco (Meighan, 1972 in Braniff, idem) and Zacatecas/Durango (see Kelley and Abbott, 1971; Jiménez and Darling, 1992:14; Jiménez, 1995:43), to the region of Tula (see Cobean, 1990).

The primary relation is more clearly observed in a number of cases where in addition to their coexistence, these types are sharing motifs. For example, the peculiar designs of the Xajay Incised Postfire materials are not directly comparable with those of the incised postfire types of neighbor wares; however, some of them have been indeed reproduced in red on bay in ceramics also locally manufactured. Beatriz Braniff had noted this phenomenon, outlining not a direct analogy between certain types from central and southern Guanajuato, but between Snarkis’ relation Cantinas–Garita, and the relation of her types San Miguel Red on Bay–San Miguel Incised Postfire (Braniff, 1999:58), the latter ones being present in the San Miguel (100 B.C.–A.D. 300) and Tierra Blanca (A.D. 300–950) phases (Braniff, 1972:279-281; 1999:46, 125). In this sense, the primary relation we mentioned would include several "styles", and from that point of view, the differences between the Reds on Bay and Blacks or Coffee Incised/Incised Postfire that were generalized towards the end of the Classic in the northern portion of the Central Plateau, are significant.

South of Guanajuato and Querétaro, one of those styles may have integrated ceramic types such as Snarkis’ Cantinas Red-Orange A, and maybe a good portion of those that have been reported as their variants or equivalents (while the same thing happened with the Blacks-Browns Incised) (see Nalda, 1981, n/p; Contreras and Durán, 1982, n/p; Sánchez and Zepeda, 1982, n/p; Velázquez, 1982, n/p; Moguel, 1987:72-73, 80-81; Saint-Charles, 1990:64-66, illus. 50-58; Durán, 1991:64-68), but these types also coexisted with red on bay ceramics derived from other styles.

We refer for example to the one with which the Red on Bay type from San Bartolo Aguacaliente, Guanajuato, would fit, contemporary to Cantinas, at least along the Epi-Classic (A.D. 600-900) (Flores, 1981 in Saint-Charles, 1990:62 and Durán, 1991:62). This ceramic has deserved little attention, and therefore it is difficult to trace its scopes and possible links, although types with very similar designs, shapes and finishes have been reported in several sites from Guanajuato (see Red/Bay, Contreras and Durán, 1982, n/p; Red/Bay Group 10, Sánchez and Zepeda, 1982, n/p; El Bajío Red/Bay, Saint-Charles, 1990:52, 60-62, illus. 33-49; Red/Bay Polished, Zepeda, 1986 in Braniff, 1999:46) and Querétaro (Brambilia and Castañeda, 1991:146; Saint-Charles 1991b:80-88; 1998:340). These types, related to San Bartolo Red on Bay, coexist with Cantinas in a number of sites (see Contreras and Durán, idem, Sánchez and Zepeda, idem), but at first sight, it would seem that their scope is not fully consistent. Perhaps the distribution of San Bartolo Red on Bay and other associated types, should be taken as a subsphere within the Bajío sphere (Figure 19).⁹²

The dispersion (or ’provinces’) of particular types such as Black on Orange, Cantinas Red-Orange A, Garita Black-Brown B, or San Bartolo Red/Bay, is not circumscribed to the Bajío Sphere, but instead, it includes the south of Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and the Jalisco highlands, where they are present in the form of intrusions. Additionally, in the Bajío Sphere, there are red on bay ceramics which we believe would adequately integrate allochthonous styles, such as the Coyotlatelco style. Both phenomena are the result of overlappings with neighboring spheres.

The Bajío Sphere towards the eastern and southern borders, connects with Coyotlatelco, thus confirming the bonds of the social groups that inhabited in northeastern Michoacán, southern Guanajuato, and southern Querétaro, with those to the east of Hidalgo, the State, and the Basin of México. At this time, we shall focus our attention on the links of the Bajío with the north and the northwest.

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Endnotes

90. The preliminary periodification for Acámbaro was designed by Shirley Gorenstein based on Snarkis’ ceramic analysis, and consisted of four phases. The Lerma phase, which is the focus of our interest, occurred in the Late Classic (Saint-Charles, 1990:8, 53, 114). Years later, with the results of some C14 datings, the limits were widened to A.D. 450/475-1450 (Gorenstein, 1985:45-46, 97; Saint-Charles 1990:8, 53, 114; 1998:337). The works anchored in the Acámbaro sequence were based on the first chronology, and their accuracy, therefore, is uncertain. However, the nature of the correlations is indeed valid, and notwithstanding that there are no firm grounds so far for absolute datings, the chronological proposal also seems appropriate (Saint-Charles, 1990:59). At some places there is a consistency of the diagnostic types of the Lerma de Acámbaro phase with ceramic types tentatively placed towards the end of the Classic or the Epi-Classic, and there are absolute datings for southern Querétaro, in layers containing Cantinas and Garita (El Cerrito, Test Pit 3, Layer III, 805±113, Crespo, 1991b:165, fig. 9: Barrio de la Cruz, Unit Excavation F, Layer 6, A.D. 760±35, Crespo and Saint-Charles, 1996:124-125).

91. However, it remains to be verified whether some intrusive incised that were recovered in western Hidalgo, in Xajay sites and in Sabina Grande, are consistent with Garita, as at first sight they do resemble, in addition to their contemporaneity.

92. It is possible that the type San Miguel Red on Bay that Braniff identified at the site of Morales, Guanajuato, and in the surroundings of San Miguel de Allende (Braniff, 1972:282; 1999:32-50, illus. 3 and 4), corresponds to the same style (Saint-Charles, 1990:52, 62), but apparently, with a greater temporal depth. Nieto correlates the Red on Bay from Cañada de la Virgen with Braniff’s type, and also with materials from northern Michoacán (1997:107), perhaps referring to the Ramón Red on Brown from the Ucareo Valley, named by Healan and Hernández, who outlined their similarities with Saint-Charles’ El Bajío Red on Bay (1999:138).

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