Aqui se presenta n resultados de un estudio de la iconogral1a pintada en ccrâmica « tipo c6dice » del estilo Mixtcca-Puebla, fcchada para el Postclâsico Tardio (1250-1521 d.C.), p rocedente de varios sitios arqueol6gicos en los estados de Puebla, Tlaxcala, Oaxaca y Ve racruz, México. Esta iconogral1a es similar a la de los c6dices del Gmpo Borgia y los mixtccos. Al parccer, los moti vos pintados en mucha de esta cerâ mica fo rmaba n una pictogral1 a que referia al uso ritual de las vasijas, pues hay grupos de motivos que ocurren en una misma vasija , o en varias, y que form an un tema iconogrâfico. Los temas mas frecuentes parecen a ludir a vari as de las principales actividades rituales en Mcsoamérica. Aqui se comentan el complej o de Danda Solar, el de Plegari a a los D ifuntos, el de Ofrenda a la Tierra, y el de Humo y Oscuridad.

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An excellent illustration of the strong intertwinement of the art, image, text, and ritual characteristics of the ancient Americas is the codex-style pottery of the Mixteca-Puebla style. These ceramics, together with painted books and murals, were manifestations of an artistic style and iconography known as the Mixteca-Puebla style, which developed in central and south Mexico during the late Postclassic period (A.D. 1250–1521). Scholars have long recognized the motifs depicted on these vessels as part of the iconographic corpus of the Borgia group and Mixtec codices, and they have proposed that these vessels had ceremonial uses. A recent study of a large sample of these artifacts from the Puebla-Tlaxcala Valley, central Veracruz, the Mixtec region, the Valley of Oaxaca, and the Basin of Mexico confirms both suggestions, showing that the vessels' painted images were more than mere decoration; they conformed to a pictography that referred to essential notions of Mesoamerican rituality. It is proposed that the meaning of this pictography was related to the context in which the vessels were used. Most likely the painted signs conveyed meanings by using stylistic devices of Mesoamerican ceremonial language. Addressed here are the mechanisms of this pictography, the progress made in reading it, and insights into the vessels' use context.

CeRAMIC-MAkIng In eARLY CoLonIAL tIMesAfter the spanish conquest many indigenous crafts continued to be manufactured in central Mexico from the scarce documentary information on those activities we can infer that during the first colonial decades the production or trade of native goods for native consumers in general did not attract the colonizers, who were looking for other means to make money According to gibson (1964:335), colonial secular authorities did not openly interfere in the course of indigenous crafts nor dedicated itself to their erradication As we will see in this chapter, native ceramics of the early colonial period suggest that the technology of production was long maintained, even after important social and economic changes altered other parts of indigenous life Archaeological research also shows that other common crafts continued with the same method of manufacture in the first post-conquest years, such as the production of obsidian cutting tools (Rodríguez Alegría 2008:39-40) and cloth (Brumfiel 1996) on the eve of the conquest artisans and artists made a wide variety of objects, in many materials and styles, in which dexterity, creativity and aesthetics played important roles This apparently continued into the colonial period as spanish documents, otherwise so negative in reference to the character of indigenous people, recognize the good quality and inventiveness of their craftsmanship As friar Bernardino de sahagún (1992, X:578), actually trying to make a statement in favor of the missionaries' teaching labor, wrote "… en los oficios mecánicos son hábiles para aprenderlos y usarlos … como son oficios de geometría … albañilería, y cantería, y carpintería … todo esto tenemos por experiencia que tienen habilidad para ello y lo aprenden y lo saben, y lo enseñan, y no hay arte ninguna que no tengan habilidad para aprenderla y usarla " 1 nevertheless, the enormous impact of the conquest on essential aspects of indigenous life such as land tenure, 1 "… they are skillful to learn and practice mechanical trades … such as geometry … masonry, lapidary and carpentry trades … we have experience about all this, that they are skilful for this and they learn and know and teach it, and there is no art in which they do not have ability to learn and to use " (sahagún 1992, X:578