Early Formative Interaction on the Pacific Coast of Guatemala: A Ceramic Perspective

Description and Comments on Ceramic Groups

After classifying the pottery, distinctions were made between areas: Suchitepéquez, Tiquisate, Sipacate, and Chiquihuitán as the various groups seemed to somewhat differ by region. Within each group, separate type names were given depending on the region of origin.

Slipped Groups

Grooved Group
This consists of thick slipped pottery of various colors: orange, white or cream, black, and red (Figure 2). This group represents some of the early examples of pottery on the Pacific Coast of Suchitepéquez and Escuintla. The surface is decorated with grooved lines that, at times, resemble the shape of a squash or pumpkin. Similar examples have been identified at the Mazatán region during the Barra phase. The dates for our examples are 1596-1322 B.C. (calibrated). Similar examples were recovered at the neighboring region of Tecojate, and referred to as the Madre Vieja phase (Arroyo 1994).

Jocote Group
This consists of slipped and burnished surfaces with exterior orange or black-brown slip (Figure 3, shown above). Some examples have incisions in lines on the vessel body. As with the Grooved Group, this one is similar to the Monte Incised type of the Barra phase from Chiapas and has been recovered at sites such as Altamira, Paso de la Amada, and San Carlos. In the neighboring region of Tecojate we located identical examples dating to the Madre Vieja phase, corresponding to the Manaco type (Arroyo op. cit.).

Manglera Group
The Manglera Group consists of mostly bowls that have a variety of lip forms (Figure 4a and Figure 4b). The exterior surface is roughly smoothed and there is no evidence for slip or paint. The interior is softly smoothed. The color of the surface is that of the paste. This is a very interesting group that has been identified in El Mesak, Retalhuleu, the Suchitepéquez sites, and Escuintla. It was probably used as a ware to exploit or cook a specific estuarine or mangrove resource. Arroyo (1999) has suggested that they were used to process salt, while Clark has proposed they were used to process fish. Pye and Alberstadt carried out analysis showing that remains on the surface were composed by calcium carbonate with a few silicon grains. According to this, they suggest that similar vessels from El Mesak were used to cook several types of fish and shellfish as they contain a high percentage of calcium carbonate.

The Manglera examples from the neighboring Tecojate region show an ample complex of shapes and context. This fact contrasts with the El Mesak evidence where most examples were recovered at one mound. The examples studied from Sipacate indicate that there are several bowl shapes with different types of lip forms. More studies need to be done to establish the exact use of this vessel that is abundant in the Escuintla samples.

Another aspect to consider is the distribution of this group. It is limited to the Retalhuleu Coast continuing to Escuintla, covering a total region of around 100 kms. No examples of Manglera were recovered or identified in the Chiquihuitán region. This suggests that whatever resource was being exploited, it was limited to a 100 kms region.

Brushed Group
This consists of globular-shaped tecomates with an application of white, gray, or orange paint that was brushed on the body of the vessel, with small areas of specular red paint (Figure 5). The exterior rim has a band of red paint and one groove around the vessel.

The neighboring region of Tecojate had a few examples of this group referred to as Mojarra type (Arroyo 1994). The only other region where similar examples have been recovered is Veracruz, where García Cook reports them at the lower basin of the Pánuco River (1998).

Red on Buff or Cream Group
This group consists of globular-shaped tecomates with cream slip and a band of specular red paint around the interior lip (Figure 6). In some cases there is a fine incised line around the exterior rim, limiting the extension of the red paint. The exterior surface is burnished.

This group is one of the earliest examples of tecomates with red paint. It was noted that these examples were placed in the lower levels in stratigraphic order and associated to dates as early as 1681-1502 B.C. (calibrated). As one looks at the remaining occupation and stratigraphy, one notes that there seems to be an evolution to the tecomates with a thicker red band around the rim as well as the inclusion of various grooves and incisions. No other place has shown examples of this group, although the white or cream surface color characterizes the Metalío Group from El Carmen, El Salvador (Arroyo 1995).

Orange Slip Group
Most examples correspond to tear and globular-shaped tecomates with orange slip on the exterior surface and a band of red paint around the rim (Figure 7). These examples present grooves or incisions around the exterior rim. There are a few bowls with exterior red lip and/or interior red slip. This is a group that shows up in Sipacate and Chiquihuitán. At Chiquihuitán, the examples might be a little later in time in contrast with those from Sipacate.

The major characteristics consisting of tear or globular-shaped tecomates with a band of red paint around the rim may be considered Michis in other parts of the coast (Clark and Cheetham 2002). However, there were clear stratigraphic and physical distinctions between this group and the Michis group that will be described below. The Orange Slip Group is an antecedent to the Michis group.

Black Slip Group
This group is characterized by the presence of tear-shaped tecomates and bowls with brown-black slip and a band of specular red and grooves around the exterior rim. Bowls have everted walls and flat bases as well as hemispherical shapes (Figure 8). Similar examples have been reported at La Victoria as part of their Victoria Coarse Group. The neighboring region of Tecojate has similar examples in the Tecomichis Brown type (Arroyo 1994).

Red Slip Group
Only few examples form this group and they correspond to small tecomate fragments with red slipped surfaces and bowls with red slip in the interior of the vessel. Similar examples have been included in the Paso Red type in Mazatán, Chiapas, México (Figure 9, shown above) (Clark and Cheetham).

Unslipped Groups

Natural Group
This group consists of globular or tear-shaped tecomates with a band of red or orange paint around the rim. The red paint was applied to the naked surface which only treatment is the smoothing of it, showing the paste color (Figure 10). Some other examples do not have the band of red paint but include globular and tear-shaped tecomates as well as hemispherical and everted wall bowls.

Similar examples include the Tecomichis Group at Tecojate (Arroyo 1994), and Michis in Mazatán, Chiapas (Clark and Cheetham 2002), Michis Thin from El Mesak (Pye and Demarest 1990), and Victoria Coarse from La Victoria (Coe 1961).

Red on Orange Group
This group consists of globular or tear-shaped tecomates with a band of red paint around the rim. This band may have grooves or incised lines as well (Figure 11). The surface color is orange. There are also bowls with everted walls and flat base. None of the examples have slip, showing a smoothed surface with the paste color.

This group is similar to some of the Michis examples from Mazatán, La Victoria, and El Mesak.

Michis Group
Globular-shaped tecomates with a band of red or iridescent red paint around the rim, together with one to three incised lines on the exterior of the vessel. The red paint and the incised lines are always together, part of the vessel decoration (Figure 12a). There are various surface colors that range from orange to black. Some of the tecomates have large tripod bulbous supports that suggest they were placed on top of the fire (Figure 12b).

Some of this tecomates have plastic decoration including the Lagar (Figure 13) and Puyado (Figure 14, shown below) type, which show shell or other artifact impression and punched surfaces. They were identified at the neighboring region of Tecojate (Arroyo 1994) as well as the Mazatán region. In La Victoria (Coe 1961) these examples are referred as Ocós Buff. The Puyado type is known as Loga Gouged in Chiapas (Clark and Cheetham 2002).

This is a large group and many examples were recovered at sites on the lower coast of Suchitepéquez. The Sipacate sample does not show as large sample as that from other areas. No examples were identified for Chiquihuitán.

Stone Group
This group has a very hard surface and that is why it was given such name as well as for its distinct greenish-gray hard paste. It consists of globular tecomates with one or two incisions around the exterior rim. One case shows a groove on the body. No examples have been identified for comparison.

Unslipped Black Group
Globular or tear-shaped tecomates with smoothed black surface. The color of the surface corresponds to the paste color, which might reflect the burning of the clay. Only a few examples have punctuated decoration on the body and some show nail impressions on the surface. This is particularly characteristic of the Chiquihuitán examples.

Examples from Sipacate and Suchitepéquez have a band of red rim around the exterior of the vessel (Figure 15, shown above) and Chiquihuitán also has a type that shares this characteristic.

Revolorio Group
This group is characterized by thick and heavy tecomates with a band of brushed surface or thick punctuations with incisions (Figure 16a and Figure 16b). No paint has been noted for these examples and they are almost identical to others reported at Tecojate (Arroyo 1994). Because of the lack of Cuadros phase like material in the region, I have proposed that this group represents the local manifestation of Cuadros. In Tecojate, I referred to this group as belonging to the Tecojate phase, dating between 1100-800 B.C. The only examples studied in these samples were recovered at Sipacate and Tiquisate.

Because of the absence of Cuadros like pottery, and considering the heavy deposits identified at sites such as El Mesak, Salinas La Blanca, Aquiles Serdan, and Salinas Sinaloa, we have concluded that the concentration of people using that pottery is limited to the lower coast of Mazatán, Chiapas, San Marcos, Retalhuleu, and Suchitepéquez. Somewhere around the limits of the Madre Vieja river, Cuadros pottery is no longer found and shows up as Revolorio pottery. It is possible that the lower Tiquisate coast functioned as some kind of buffer or frontier between the regions to the west. Only further studies will contribute to solve this question.

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