The American Museum Journal 



Vol. IV. 



JULY, 1904. 



No. 3 



FUNERAL URNS FROM OAXACA. 



MONG the most interesting remains of the ceramic 

 art in Mexico are the funeral urns which have been 

 found in ancient mounds containing tombs in the 

 Valleys of Etla, Oaxaca and Tlacolula, in the cen- 

 tral part of the State of Oaxaca. They are, as a 

 class, perhaps the most important objects of this phase of culture 

 left by the old Mexican peoples. 



In the exploration of the ancient tombs in the Valley of 

 Oaxaca by the Loubat Expeditions sent out by The American 

 Museum of Natural History, many of these funeral urns were 

 found, varying in size, shape and detail.* They were on the floor 

 in front of the door, on the roof, fastened into the fa§ade, or in 

 niches over the door. They seem never to have been placed in 

 the burial chambers. As a rule they were deposited in series of 

 fives and nothing was placed in them. One group is illustrated 

 on page 53 in place as found. Dupaix, in his description of a 

 funeral urn of the box-and-cover form, which he collected in 1806, 

 states that it was found in Zachila "with jour others of similar 

 size, shape and substance in ploughing a piece of ground." 



The Museum is indebted to Mrs. Robert W. De Forest for five 

 superb pieces which were found recently in a motind in the Valley 

 of Oaxaca. They form a complete series, the only one known 

 which is thus preserved intact. The specimens, which average 

 about fifteen inches in height, are illustrated on page 50. 



The first figure on the left represents a seated woman dressed 

 in simple skirt and shirt with a heavy band around the neck. 

 The right hand grasps a cylindrical object, while the left hand is 



* A brief account of the discoveries made at Xoxo may be found in "Ex- 

 ploration of Zapotecan Tombs in Southern Mexico," by Marshall H. Saville. 

 Amar. Anthropologist, (N. S.) Vol. I., April, 1899. 



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