Remojadas

Remojadas is a name applied to a culture, an archaeological site, as well as an artistic style that flourished on Mexico's Veracruz Gulf Coast from perhaps 100 BCE to 800 CE. The Remojadas culture is considered part of the larger Classic Veracruz culture. [Among others, Medillin Zenil, p. 168) who says recovered artifacts "reveal a strong technological and ideological relationship" with Central Veracruz.]

The site has remained largely unexplored since the initial investigations by Alfonso Medellin Zenil in 1949 and 1950. Further research into the Remojadas culture is "much needed". [ Coe (2002), p.113.]

Figurines

Remojadas is particularly known for its pottery and its hollow ceramic figurines. Literally thousands of these expressive and diverse figurines have been unearthed, found across a wide variety of settings, including burials and middens.

Figurines portray deities, rulers, and commoners, as well as many types of animals including dogs and deer. Of particular note are the curious childlike "Sonrientes" (smiling face) figurines and faces. Many of the figurines of this period function as flutes, whistles, and ocarinas. Some animal figurines, interpreted as toys or more likely ritual items, are equipped with wheels, one of the few recorded instances of the application of wheel technology in the pre-Columbian Americas. [Diehl and Mandeville, p. 243.]

Many figurines have filed teeth, representing a common practice in the Remojadas culture. The earliest figurines were hand-made while the later ones were created using molds. In style and in other ways, the figurines have a close kinship with Maya figurines. [Coe (2002), p. 119.
*Medillin Zenil, p. 168.]

"Sonrientes"

The "Sonrientes" (smiling faces) are the most well-known of Remojadas figurines, featuring wide smiles on curiously shaped—almost triangular—faces. Often the heads are disembodied. Other times they are attached to childlike bodies which outstretched arms and displayed palms. The smile is rather formalised, usually showing teeth and, on occasion, a tongue sticking out between the teeth.

Male "sorientes" are nude or wear loinclothes. Females wear skirts. Both are usually adorned with pectoral bands and/or necklaces, as well as some type of headdress. The headdress, and often the skirts, display a glyph-like emblem or a stylized animal. [Medillin Zenil, p. 163-168.]

Smiling figurines are rare in Mesoamerican art, and the sheer number of "Sonrientes" figurines likely attests to their special role in the Remojadas society, although what that role might be has produced much speculation. Some researchers see the characteristic smile as being hallucinogenically produced [Davies, p. 91.] while another researcher says that they are "undoubtedly related to the cult of the dead". [Ochoa, p. 68.]

Notes

References

*aut|Coe, M; Snow, D; Benson, E; (1986) "Atlas of Ancient America"; Facts on File, New York.
*aut|Coe, M.D. (2002); "Mexico: From the Olmecs to the Aztecs" Thames and Hudson, London.
*aut|Covarrubias, Miguel (1957) "Indian Art of Mexico and Central America", Alfred A. Knopf, New York.
*aut|Davies, Nigel (1983) "The Ancient Kingdoms of Mexico", Penguin Books, London.
*aut|Diehl, Richard A.; Mandeville, Margaret D. (1987), " [http://www.famsi.org/aztlan/uploads/Tula&wheeled_animal_effigies.pdf Tula, and wheeled animal effigies in Mesoamerica] ", in "Antiquity", vol. 61, no. 232; July 1987.
*aut|Medillin Zenil, Alfonso; Frederick A. Peterson (1954) "A Smiling Head Complex from Central Veracruz, Mexico" in "American Antiquity", Vol. 20, No. 2. (Oct., 1954), pp. 162-169.
*aut|Ochoa, Lorenzo (2000) "Remojadas" in "The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures" ed. Carrasco, Davíd, Oxford University Press.
*aut|Speight, Charlotte; Toki, John (2003) "Hands in Clay: An Introduction to Ceramics", McGraw-Hill, New York.

External links

* [http://www.beloit.edu/~museum/logan/catalog/camerica/veracruz/remojadas/remojadasimages1.htm#artifact1 Remojadas figurines] at the Logan Museum at Beloit College.
* [http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ho/05/cam/ho_1978.412.59.htm An early Remojadas animal figurine.]
* [http://www.PrecolumbianWheels.com Comprehensive site on Remojadas and other pre-Columbian Wheeled Artifacts.]