Secrets of Casas Grandes - El Palacio Magazine

secrets of casas grandesThe Ceramic TraditionThe people of Casas Grandes left no written accounts but theirpottery has endured to tell us about their society. Potters collectedhigh-quality local white clays to form vessels by hand.The typical form is a globular jar or olla. Ceramics were usedeveryday in both domestic and ritual contexts.The striking pottery of the Medio period (a.d. 1200–1450)has bold geometric designs painted in red and black on a lightbackground. Casas Grandes potters produced a wide varietyof types and forms. Ramos Polychrome is the most prevalent,and appears to have been made in the core area and exportedto other villages. Archaeologist Maria Sprehn finds that therise of pottery specialization coincided with the rise of an elitein the Medio period, as elite patrons may have commissionedspecialist artists to make the finest pieces.The symbolic importance of macaws and serpents isunmistakable, as they are among the images most frequentlydepicted on pottery. Serpents may symbolize Quetzalcóatl,Mesoamerican deity of the underworld, or they may be connectedto the Water Serpent of the Pueblos. Although the birdserpent may have been transmitted from Mesoamerica, it islikely that the underlying ideas may have been interpreted differentlyas this symbol spread throughout the Southwest.One of the secrets of Casas Grandes that continues topuzzle archaeologists is why potters madesuch a variety of ceramic effigyjars. Effigies are sculptural formsdepicting animals, humans, andother beings. They portraybirds, badgers, fish, andturtles, along with fantasticalcomposite creaturessuch as a cross betweena rabbit and a bird.“Janus” pots have thesame face on both sides,reflecting the importanceof duality. Hooded effigies,with a human-like head abovea jar, have been interpreted by DiPeso as Mesoamerican deities. Oneresearcher argues that effigy vessels were setin wall niches in domestic rooms, where they may havebeen used to present food and drink offerings.Female and male effigies may be more closely related toa Mesoamerican tradition, as human effigies are rare in theSouthwest. Information about dress and adornment are seenin details of jewelry, textiles, sashes, headbands, and facialdecoration. Females are seated with both legs extended, whilemales kneel or have one knee flexed to the chest. ArchaeologistChristine VanPool argues that smoking male effigies depictritual activity and may represent shamans, possible religiousleaders of Casas Grandes.Exotic Goods and ElitesExotic artifacts at Paquimé surpass amounts found at otherSouthwestern sites. Workshop and storage rooms containedornaments of shell, copper, and turquoise. Over four millionpieces of shell were found, weighing one and a half tons. Shellwas transported from the coast and made into jewelry. Fivethousand pieces of turquoise were found, as jewelry and buriedin room corners as offerings. Turquoise likely originatedfrom the Cerrillos mines or Burro Mountains of New Mexico.A probable trade network exported the sacred stone from theSouthwest to central Mexico.Casas Grandes society appears to have centered arounda prestige goods economy based on long-distance trade ofmacaws, shell, and turquoise. One of its secrets is why exoticgoods were stockpiled at the site. Somepropose Paquimé was a pilgrimage centeror that the goods represent storedwealth. Exotic goods may havebeen controlled by elites whowere religious leaders. Theassociation of elites withrare artifacts and symbolsof authority reveals statusdifferences among theCasas Grandes people.The RegionalSystemWe are only beginning tounderstand the role of Paquiméwithin the larger region. The surroundingarea contains hundreds of sites, just nowbeing scientifically studied, that were all part of the Casascontinued on page 88El Palacio 37