Palenque and Selected Survey Sites in Chiapas and Tabasco: The Preclassic

Palenque

Most Preclassic pottery known at Palenque has been subject to marked redeposition and breakage. The lack of extensive penetration of sealed deposits has contributed to the failure to define ceramic complexes for the period. However, time depth is present.

This is seen especially in Figure 16. Tecomates, although highly fragmentary, occur in thick and thin forms (a, b). Simple in silhouette, d is Xe-like. Waxy slips, when present, are almost exclusively red (e-k). The labial-flange sherd (k) helps to identify the poorly represented Chicanel horizon. Although this is speculative, j, with a field of cursive preslipped incised lines, might in some remote way draw inspiration from the wavy lines of Usulután. In other treatments, comparisons are close to Paso Nuevo (Figure 14n, Figure 16i) and extend to Chinikiha (Figure 12a, b, Figure 16f). Vertically groove-incised, h may anticipate an Early Classic (Picota phase) treatment at Palenque.

Preclassic examples of wide-everted rim dishes, usually slightly upturned, are given in Figure 17. The thick-walled, shallow to heavily grooved rim (a) is probably earliest; thereafter rims are waxy red, groove-incised, plain, or (in the thin-walled versions of d, e) rectilinear-incised. Years ago I pointed out that at Palenque the Preclassic tradition of everted rims carried over into the Classic, undergoing changes in intensity and type of elaboration but, on early Late Classic polychromes, closely paralleling Preclassic shapes (Rands, 1961).

Preclassic Palenque jars are illustrated in Figure 18. Most are apparently unslipped–many surfaces are gone–but a, b are waxy red and may well be earlier than d-g. The flared rim with vertical neck and horizontal upper wall (b) corresponds closely in shape to Lowe’s "Initial Olmec" (1989:Fig. 4.3–the San Lorenzo phase of Coe and Diehl, 1980:Fig 149g). Intraregional correspondences are also illustrated: c is widespread (see comparisons given for Chinikiha); d  has a more limited range but likewise is present at Chinikiha (Figure 11d); outside Palenque, e-g  is best known at Paso Nuevo.

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