Ticomán figurine head

Around 500 B.C., Olmec societies experienced a gradual decline, leaving room for the emergence of more powerful local communities. These villages began to develop their own identity and to produce pieces that, while maintaining similar features, began to show progressive differences between them.

In Central Mexico, the village of Cuicuilco played a prominent role and experienced significant population growth by initiating a proto-urban phenomenon. This emerging city established contacts with other regions, such as Monte Albán and Chupícuaro, which is reflected in some of its artistic representations that exhibit elements similar to those found in those places.

This piece is a head of a solid figurine, made with the pastillage technique and with a smoothed surface. The change in color of the clay, from a cream to an orange tone, is due to the firing it underwent during its elaboration. The piece shows a fracture in the neck, which makes it difficult to determine the exact position of its body.

The head is oval in shape and possibly represents an annular or circular cranial deformation. The facial features are elaborated using pastillage, a technique that uses small strips of clay to create textures and details. The eyes and mouth are represented using the "coffee bean" technique, that is, ovals are placed with an incised line in the center. The eyes are placed vertically, while the mouth is represented horizontally. In the center of the head is an oval-shaped nose that reaches the lips. Above the eyes, two strips of clay can be distinguished as eyebrows, inclined towards the nose.

On the sides of the head are two circular earspools with a hole in the center. On the top of the head, a headdress can be distinguished, which is differentiated from the face by a pronounced V-shape. The lines of the headdress start at the earspools and meet in the center, creating a visually striking design. The headdress is composed of a wider band at the bottom, which is then divided into four small strips. These strips are bent to the right in the form of a circumference and then return to the head, crossing it horizontally. Each strip ends in a finial formed by three spheres. Small bands of clay are used to secure these strips. One is placed vertically at the beginning of the curvature, another is placed horizontally at the distal end of the circumference, and the last is placed vertically in the center of the head, near the end of the headdress. In addition, one of the strips of clay comes off the penultimate tie and falls down the left side of the head, also ending in a small sphere.

The neck of the head shows a remarkable thickness and its walls curve divergently, indicating the transition between the head and the body of the figurine. Unfortunately, the piece has suffered a fracture, making it difficult to determine what the full figure looked like. On the back of the head, the smoothed texture becomes rougher, revealing the traces of the potter's fingering and the various pieces of clay used in its construction.

The elaborate headdress is reminiscent of the hairstyle used by priests in the Postclassic period. The priests in charge of attending the temples wore their hair matted, adorned and smeared with blood and ule, a sacred vegetable resin. This type of hairstyle was known in Nahuatl as "papatli". Although there is a temporal overlap between the period to which these figurines belong and the Postclassic period, it is possible that they represent a similar concept related to hairstyles and their ritual importance.