Censer Symbolism and the State Polity in Teotihuacán

Ritual Ceramics at a Workshop in the Ciudadela, Teotihuacán: Catalog
by Carlos Múnera B. and Saburo Sugiyama

Introduction

The material displayed in this catalog was recovered during the excavations carried out by the Teotihuacán Archaeological Project 1980-82, INAH (Cabrera et al. 1982a, 1982b) in the so-called North Plaza of the Ciudadela (Rodríguez 1982). There, the working area of a workshop destined to the manufacture of ritual ceramic pieces, mass-produced with molding techniques was found, particularly set for the production of the well-known biconical censers ornamented with appliqués also known as "theater-type censers," as well as for the production of other figurines that include the so-called portrait-heads, and the little masks that were added to the larger censers and masks, probably used in funerary rituals (Múnera 1985).

It is possible, though we are unable to assert it at this time, that the postfire incised decoration (sgraffito) and the frescos on tripod cylindrical vases were also made here; this is suggested by a certain amount of fragments (heavily deteriorated) found in the refill of an architectural modification.

The workshop was located at the far west of the North Plaza, within the Ciudadela, which is found in turn between the northern platform and the fertile lowlands of the San Juán River, delimited to the west by the Avenue of the Dead and to the east by a small wall that enclosed a space measuring 60 m x 47 m. The rest of the North Plaza to the east has not been explored, and we anticipate the possible presence of other workshops or activity areas.

The communication between this space and the interior of the Ciudadela was made possible by means of two staircases situated on the slope of the North Platform. The first staircase lies immediately south of the workshop, while the second is a bit more to the east; this one headed to the upper part of the North Platform and possibly communicated with the North Palace of the Temple of Quetzalcóatl, where important amounts of censers similar to the ones manufactured at the workshop were found.

Probably due to social problems existing before the destruction of the Ciudadela, and from discoveries made in the palace mentioned above, where traces of violent acts were identified (Millon 1988), the accesses to this workshop had been blocked with soil and coarse stones. However, and as opposed to the palace, no evidence of violent actions were found at the workshop, as shown by the fact that in the main structure (small room), right in the middle of it and on the floor, in an amazing state of preservation, the stone sculpture of the Old God, or Fire Lord was found; it looked to the west across the portal arch, while the pyrite earflares had come off and lied at each side of the sculpture. In association with the sculpture, a Tlaloc-type vessel and several censers were recovered; the less damaged one exhibited a decoration of molded appliqués of small animals emerging from marine shells, and also featured a band of a type Hasso Von Winning (1985) has referred to as combs.

The workshop activities that involved a mass production through the use of molds, allowed for a rapid and abundant output, and this has led us to consider the participation of a small number of craftsmen; maybe simply a teacher with some assistants who may have learned the craft, not only in relation to their training as potters, but also in the knowledge of symbols and glyphs, many of which are represented in the mural paintings. Just like a typographer composing a text, the potter, while arranging the different molded pieces on the front part of the censer, and in combining different symbols and colors, was capable of representing a certain reading or message in each one of the censers.

As to the elaboration technique and the manufacturing process, evidence was found, under the collapse of the walls and above the final stage floor of the workshop, of the use of raw materials, work instruments, leftovers and imperfect pieces, utensils elaborated, and the spatial distribution of the different activity areas, where the preparation of clay, the molding, and firing of the pottery took place (for a detailed discussion on this subject, see Múnera 1985).

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