THE SAN VICENTE COLLECTION

On the 11 May 1991, two men (Agustín Solis and Armando Paz) were excavating a septic pit for Mr. Solis's house in the town of San Vicente, Nayarit, on the northern side of the Banderas Valley, about 6.5 km from the Pacific coast, when they discovered a group of 18 anthropomorphic stone sculptures (Figures 2–3). According to the discoverers, the sculptures were found at a depth of 80 cm below the surface of the ground in an area of about 1 m², and they had no apparent association with any other archaeological material (Regino and Ramírez 1991). A few days later, these men turned over 17 of the sculptures to an agent of the Federal Public Ministry, and a Puerto Vallarta newspaper, Vallarta Opina, published some photographs and a brief article about the find (Regino and Ramírez 1991). Three days later, another article was published about the sculptures by the same newspaper in which the recuperation of an eighteenth sculpture was reported (Alcaraz 1991).

Vallarta Opina photograph of the discoverers of the San Vicente stone sculptures, along with three of the anthropomorphic peg-based figures from the collection.

Vallarta Opina photograph of five of the San Vicente anthropomorphic peg-based stone figures.

Eventually, the 18 sculptures were taken to the Nayarit state museum, where several of them were placed on exhibit. In 2005, the sculptures were photographed at the Tepic museum by Joseph Mountjoy and Nathan Mountjoy, aided by José Beltrán. The sixteen anthropomorphic sculptures are described in detail, in descending order from the largest (74.0 cm high) to the smallest (14.5 cm high), in Appendix A.

The two sculptures not included in Appendix A appear to be zoomorphic. One resembles the head of a pelican, and the other, which is more abstract, has a head-like projection on the upper end with what could be construed to be the representation of a pelican-like mouth. Both of these are “peg-based.”

The other 16 sculptures are anthropomorphic (Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, and 19). No two of these sculptures are identical; all have individually distinctive features. Based on genitalia, ten are male, five are female, and one is indeterminate. However, some of the male sculptures have pronounced breasts that give them a somewhat hermaphroditic appearance.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 1.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 2.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 3.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 4.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 5.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 6.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 7.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 8.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 9.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 10.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 11.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 12.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 13.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 14.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 15.

San Vicente anthropomorphic sculpture 16.

Fourteen of the sculptures have a complete body, from head to feet, and 13 have a downward-projecting spike or peg that could have served to hold the sculpture upright in some sort of solid base that had a corresponding concavity. Most of the sculptures have the upper part of the arms vertically aligned to the sides of the torso and the lower part of the arms extended horizontally at a right angle so that the hands are placed close together on the stomach.

The most notable variation in the sculptures is found at the top of the head. Fourteen of the figures, both males and females, appear either to be wearing some sort of headgear, the sides of which fit over the ears, or to have their hair fixed into special tonsures. Some of these head adornments have a cylindrical projection on the top; others have one or two raised crests; and a few have both cylindrical and crest projections. It may be significant that the few figures with only a cylindrical projection on the top of the head are genitally male, as are the six tallest figures.

Most of the figures are in staid erect positions without any indication of activity or movement. However, the position of the legs and feet of one figure (Figure 16) suggests a walking movement, and one other figure (Figure 15) appears to be smoking a cigar.

It was hoped that the investigation of the San Vicente site would provide much needed precise information about the date and function of western Mexican sculptures. The Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia sent an investigative team headed by the archaeologist Gabriela Zepeda García Moreno to conduct excavations at the location of the find (Zepeda 1991). By the time Zepeda arrived, the deposit at the location of the discovery was no longer visible, and the excavation of six stratigraphic test pits in the immediately surrounding area produced no data that clarified the cultural, spatial or temporal context of the sculptures (Zepeda 1991). Zepeda speculated that the sculptures were either buried as a group to hide them, or as a ritual offering related to the gods or local authorities, and offered the opinion that they dated sometime within the middle to late Classic period (ca. a.d. 300–900), between the Shaft Tomb tradition and the Azttlán tradition (Zepeda 1991:19). Williams, however, tended to attribute the San Vicente Sculptures to the Aztatlán tradition (ca. a.d. 900–1200) (Williams 1998).

We, the authors, believe that data from our own excavations and surface studies in the Banderas valley clarify considerably the chronological placement and cultural function of the San Vicente sculptures, in some instances supporting the Zepeda (1991) and/or Williams (1998) interpretations, and in some instances not.

In 1996, Beltrán conducted a project of rescue archaeology at San Vicente in which he found surface evidence of an extensive pre-Hispanic occupation with several artificial mounds and abundant pottery sherds, none of which could be attributed to a period prior to the Late Postclassic (ca. a.d. 1300–1600; Beltrán 1996). Furthermore, Beltrán excavated the remains of a large urn in the town, one-and-one-half blocks away from the spot where the stone sculptures were discovered. Excavation revealed pre-Hispanic artifacts and pottery sherds exclusively attributable to the Late Postclassic period both inside the urn and in the soil around the urn extending from the surface to a depth of 65 cm. Below this depth was sterile alluvium into which the base of the urn intruded. Two other large urns were reported to have been found during street construction some 15 m from the salvaged urn. Also, urns of similar size and shape (1.2 m and 1.4 m in diameter) were excavated by Beltrán in nearby Bucerias, Nayarit, on the coast, one of which contained—in addition to shells, stone artifacts, and Late Postclassic sherds—a copper fishhook (Beltrán 1996). Based on the evidence from Beltrán's investigations at San Vicente, there is no reason to attribute the stone sculptures found there to any pre-Hispanic period other than the Late Postclassic.

Additional information on anthropomorphic peg-based sculptures includes two stone sculptures illustrated by Williams (1992a: Figures 73–74) that are virtually identical to the anthropomorphic sculptures found at San Vicente. There is no information on their original provenience. One is housed at the Museum of Compostela, Nayarit, and the other was photographed by Isabel Kelly during one of her field seasons. A third sculpture (Williams 1992a: Figure 66) is similar to those from San Vicente. It is now on display at the Museum of Guadalajara and was reportedly found by a farmer at Teleacapan, Jalisco, on the southern side of the Ameca River about 40 km inland from Puerto Vallarta, after his horse stumbled over an oddly shaped stone while he was riding along a dirt road. Also, Williams (1992a: Figures 59–62) attributes at least eight other anthropomorphic peg-based sculptures to Jalisco, although they are of a much cruder style than those found at San Vicente, Nayarit.

ANTHROPOMORPHIC PEG-BASED SCULPTURES FROM THE MUNICIPALITY OF PUERTO VALLARTA

Beginning in 1986 and continuing through 1994, archaeological investigations were conducted by Mountjoy in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta on the southern side of the Banderas Valley. These investigations focused on the site of Ixtapa, the largest site in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco (Mountjoy 1992, 2002), but other pre-Hispanic sites in the immediate vicinity were recorded and studied, as well. In 1990, the lower half of an anthropomorphic peg-based stone sculpture (Figure 20) was found on the surface of the El Llanito del Tanque (PV-25) site in the foothills south of Ixtapa (Figure 1).

Two views of the lower half of an anthropomorphic sculpture from the El Llanito del Tanque (PV-25) site, Jalisco.

The sculpture is missing the head. From the neck to the lowest point, the piece measures 25 cm, and the body has the form of a cylinder 11 cm in diameter. The arms are bent at the elbows, with the hands resting on the stomach, and the legs join below the knees. The sculpture has masculine genitals, as well as pronounced breasts, and below the legs the peg base appears to be carved to resemble a penis. This sculpture was found adjacent to a rectangular structure with stone foundations and a floor of burned clay. The artifacts found during the subsequent excavation of this structure pertain to the local El Llanitos phase (ca. a.d. 600–1100). However, the structure was found to have been cut diagonally by another structure, associated with which we recovered two prismatic obsidian blades and pottery sherds that probably date this second foundation to the Early Postclassic (Aztatlan) phase (ca. a.d. 1100–1300). Unfortunately, because of the different dates of the excavated remains and the fact that the sculpture was found on the surface, neither the precise chronological placement nor the function of the stone sculpture could be determined.

However, considerably more definitive information on additional stone sculptures was obtained in 1992 and 1993 at the nearby PV-33 (El Ranchito) site in the municipality of Puerto Vallarta (Figure 1; Mountjoy 2002, 2004). During the study of the site, townspeople described a sculpture almost a meter tall that was uncovered during the construction of the town's bullfighting ring. Another sculpture was said to have been found when the townspeople dug a trench for a water line. Another was reportedly found when a pit was excavated for one of the supports for the foundations of a house. Another was said to have been uncovered by rainfall in the patio of a house. A further sculpture was reportedly found in the patio of another house. And a sculpture in the form of a rabbit apparently was found by a woman when she was sweeping the patio in front of her house. Unfortunately, none of these sculptures remained in the town as of 1992.

Nevertheless, one man, Isidro Luna, had saved parts of two stone sculptures that his mother had found at the foot of a tree that his father had planted in 1970 at the entrance to the patio in front of his house. One of the fragments consisted of the upper half (the head to below the breasts) of an anthropomorphic sculpture possibly of granite, measuring 15 cm in height, 12.5 cm in width, and 7.5 cm in thickness (Figure 21). It is quite similar to one of the sculptures found at San Vicente (Figure 14). The other fragment was the right hand, part of the lower arm, and part of the torso of a very large sculpture, with the hand turned downward like one of the San Vicente sculptures. The hand alone measured 7 cm wide, not much smaller than an actual human hand.

The upper half of an anthropomorphic sculpture from the El Ranchito (PV-33) site, Jalisco.

Excavating in the area at the base of the tree in 1992, we removed the contents of a pit that measured 185 cm north–south by 105 cm east–west. What was left of the pit reached a depth of 35 cm below the surface, and the pit was full of rocks, many of them burned and/or fractured, plus some grinding stones, one prismatic obsidian blade, one obsidian flake, and 109 pottery sherds. In addition to these artifacts, we found at least six fragments of stone sculpture. It was possible to fit some of them together and reconstruct a large part of a head with face and headgear or tonsure, as well as another piece with hands, arms, and stomach that was probably part of the body that corresponded to the head (Figure 22). This sculpture is of the same style as those found at San Vicente. The head measured 16 cm wide and 13.5 cm high and was probably about the same size as the largest of the San Vicente anthropomorphic sculptures. We also pieced together what seems to be a portion of the body of another sculpture and what was possibly the peg base of a third sculpture, of granite.

Head and midsection of an anthropomorphic sculpture from the El Ranchito (PV-33), site, Jalisco.

At least two of these El Ranchito sculptures are of a vesicular basalt-like volcanic stone that contains small olivine crystals, and this kind of stone appears to be uncommon, if present at all, in the Banderas Valley. It is different from the vesicular basalt or granite of the San Vicente sculptures. Two of the sculptures had remains of red pigment adhering to the surface. Various fragments of both sculptures showed evidence of fissures and breakages, some of which appear to have been produced by contact with fire. The surface of some of these sculptural fragments had been exposed to a fire of such high temperature that areas of their surface had become vitrified, in contrast to the nonsculptural stones in the pit.

All of the sherds of decorated pottery that could be attributed to a pre-Hispanic phase were of the Banderas (Late Postclassic) phase (ca. a.d. 1300–1600; Mountjoy 2002, 2004). The sides of the pit appeared to have been burned, and we found a large amount of firewood carbon at the bottom of the pit. A sample of this carbon gave a radiocarbon date of a.d. 1550 ± 60 radiocarbon years (Beta-62397) calibrated to a.d. 1435–1660 at 95% confidence, with calibration intersections at a.d. 1510, 1595, and 1615. Therefore, the San Vicente-style anthropomorphic peg-based stone sculptures appear to have been in use during the Late Postclassic (local Banderas phase), perhaps until the local indigenous population dwindled away to virtually nothing about 1620, although we cannot definitively rule out an introduction of such sculptures into the Banderas valley area as early as the local Aztatlán phase (ca. a.d. 1100–1300).

It seems quite possible that the pieces of sculpture that were found burned and broken in the pit at El Ranchito represent the act of destruction of indigenous “idols” by the Spanish. There is an account of the visit by a Spanish friar, Francisco de Lorenzo in 1530 to the area of El Tuito, the indigenous province in northwestern coastal Jalisco immediately to the south of the Banderas Valley, where he found that the natives worshipped many idols. After Fray Francisco de Lorenzo had convinced the natives of the error of their idol-worshipping ways, the natives

However, it is also possible that the sculptural remains in the El Ranchito pit represent the post-destruction inclusion of burned and broken “idols” as part of the stones used in a pit oven like those known to have been used into colonial times to roast hearts of the maguey plant.

In 1993, in another part of the El Ranchito site (Figure 1), some 120 m southwest of the pit that yielded these pieces of sculpture, the torso of a female (Figure 23), apparently in the San Vicente style, was discovered lying next to the house where the woman was reported to have found the stone sculpture of a rabbit while sweeping her patio. This sculpture was carved of volcanic stone, and the fragment measured 13.5 cm high and 8.6 cm wide. In an area near where the sculpture was found we excavated 25% of the interior of a square house foundation. Eighty percent of the decorated pottery that was found on the floor of the house was attributable to the Banderas (Late Postclassic) phase (a.d. 1300–1600; Mountjoy 2002, 2004). We also excavated a trench northeast of the Late Postclassic house, finding in the process a small fragment (7.5 cm × 4.5 cm) of a sculpture of granite, likely a part of the ring that is found on the San Vicente figurines often formed by the feet just above the peg base. The pottery sherds found associated with the sculptural fragment were of the same Banderas-phase types found in association with the house floor.

Lower part of an anthropomorphic sculpture from the (PV-33) El Ranchito site, Jalisco.

THE FUNCTION OF THE SCULPTURES

Because these anthropomorphic peg-based sculptures appear to have been in use during the Late Postclassic period in the Banderas Valley, it should therefore be possible to use ethnohistorical data from indigenous culture in the coastal area of Jalisco to get ideas about their possible function. Ethnohistorical data have been used by Williams (1988, 1991, 1992a, 1992b, 1992c, 1998) to interpret other types of western Mexican stone sculptures, but there is one ethnographic source from the coast of Jalisco that is not cited by Williams and that seems especially useful for interpreting the anthropomorphic peg-base sculptures from the Banderas valley: the Relación Geográfica de la Villa de la Purificación compiled in 1585 by René Acuña (1988).

This Relación includes information about towns in the central part of the coast and the western highlands of what is now the state of Jalisco. The document mentions the use of stone idols by indigenous peoples in the settlements of Opono, Cocochol, Tlaltenpa, Ocotitlan, and Melagua. In many cases, the indigenous people left offerings to these idols, including deer meat, honey, beads, bows and arrows. In one case, they left the hearts of enemies that they had killed in battle. It is probable that many of these idols were anthropomorphic in form, and information from Tlaltenpa and Ocotitlan is very specific with respect to this:

Idols appear commonly to have served an oracular purpose in the indigenous societies of northwestern Mexico, especially among the Tepehuanes in the area of western Durango (Pérez de Ribas 1944:166, 186). Two other accounts of “idols” found among the Tepehuanes during the process of initial missionization seem particularly relevant to the discussion of the function and destruction of anthropomorphic peg-based stone figures from the Banderas Valley area of Jalisco and Nayarit.

The first of these accounts, dated to 1579, stems from the mission efforts of Father Jerónimo Ramírez in the Tepehuan area around the major settlement of Papazquaro, Durango, about 140 km northwest of present-day Durango, which at that time was known as Guadiana. One of the natives living in a small outlying settlement visited by Father Ramírez had in his possession a naturally shaped stone, roundish and somewhat bigger than an apple. Although reluctant, the man finally brought the “little idol” to Father Ramírez, wrapped up so that the other natives would not be forced to gaze upon it, since to do so might cause them to drop dead on the spot. The man told Father Ramírez that the stone had rolled to him and spoken to him, telling him it had the power to cure and cause illness and that it contained a power that it could transmit to a warrior when he carried it into battle. After the stone had been in his possession for a while, the man discovered that it could also foretell things, such as the outbreak of warfare. The following day, Father Ramírez requested that

Another highly revered “idol” that seems to have been sculptured into an anthropomorphic peg-based form similar to the sculptures found at San Vicente, Nayarit, was discovered by one of the fathers who was sent by Captain Mateo de Vezga, the governor of New Vizcaya (1620–1625), to continue missionizing Tepehuanes near Papazquaro, Durango. The father found that the “idol” had been placed on the top of a “little hill” (artificial mound?) at their settlement. According to the father, it was made

After the father had converted the natives to Christianity, he took the converts to the place where the “idol” stood. There the native chief attacked the stone, hurling it down the slope, where it eventually came to rest on the bottom of the river located at the base of the hill. Afterward, the natives built a large cross that they decorated with flowers and placed on the spot where the idol had stood (Pérez de Ribas 1944:153–154).

If the anthropomorphic peg-based sculptures of the San Vicente style were “idols” that the indigenous peoples used in the fashion suggested by these ethnohistorical accounts, they would have functioned as divine oracles either for an individual shamanistic leaders or for the entire population of a settlement, and the detailed, anatomically realistic representation of the ears of most San Vicente figures might be a reflection of this.

However, some of the characteristics of the San Vicente-style anthropomorphic sculptures suggest a general association with fertility, an association clearly not at odds with oracular prognostications. One of these characteristics is the clear sexual—and in some cases, somewhat hermaphroditic—characteristics of the sculpture, as well as the phallic form of one or more of the peg bases, and perhaps even the cylindrical and crest representations on the top of the head. Some of the sculptures may have been stuck upright into the ground as fertility symbols, reminiscent of the use of phallic-shaped wooden digging implements in the Xochimilco area of the Valley of Mexico by the contemporary Mexica or Mexica-related people who used the implements to “impregnate” the earth with seeds at planting time.

The fact that the San Vicente sculptures were buried as a group in relatively flat, low-lying land on the up-slope edge of the Ameca River floodplain, within a major Late Postclassic (Banderas-phase) settlement on the northern side of the Banderas Valley, and without any apparent association with ritual structures, could indicate that they were buried there to hide them from the Spanish friars. This way, they would have been protected from the kind of Spanish missionizing destruction that was befalling stone “idols” at many other locations, such as, perhaps, at El Ranchito on the other (southern) side of the Banderas Valley.

Because the ethnohistorical data cited herein from Jalisco and Durango generally refer to solitary “idols,” it seems likely that the group of sculptures at San Vicente was assembled from a number of different settlements on the northern side of the valley. The internal variation in size and style—and, in two cases, the different type of stone—of the sculptures would seem to support this idea. Certainly, there would have been an ample number of settlements from which the sculptures might have come, for according to Fray Antonio Tello (writing in 1653), when the Spaniards entered the Banderas Valley (in 1525) there were more than 40 principal towns and an estimated 100,000 natives living there (Tello 1968:63).

That the San Vicente “idols” were confiscated by the Spaniards themselves and buried in a pit seems unlikely, judging from the ethnohistorical accounts from western and northwestern Mexico that amply attest to the desire by the Spanish friars to make a great public spectacle of destroying such “idols” to convince the natives of the superior power of the Christianity over that of the devil, who the friars believed resided in or inspired such objects.

DISTANT CULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS

We will close this discussion by pointing out that these anthropomorphic peg-based stone sculptures give additional support for the idea that there was important long-distance coastal contact between western Mexico and Central America during the Postclassic period.

The anthropomorphic peg-based stone sculptures of coastal Jalisco and Nayarit of San Vicente style (of apparently Late Postclassic date) are similar in many ways to some of the stone sculptures of Central America known as “peg-based stone figures” (Stone 1945: Plates 27–28). The Central American peg-based sculptures are found primarily in the Diquís area along the coastal plane of Terraba (the Boruca region) of the Pacific coast in the southwestern part of Costa Rica, as well as inland around Palmar (Graham 1981:catalog nos. 244–245; Mason 1945:Plates 52(d–e), 53(a, c–e), 54(a–d), 55(d–f), 56(b–c, f), 57(a, c), 58(a–f), 59(a, c, e), where they are attributed by Mark Graham (1981:220–221) to Period VI dated a.d. 1000–1550 and proposed to represent warriors. Peg-based stone sculptures have also been found in Honduras (Stone 1945:Plate 28), especially in the southern Pacific coastal area.

The similarities between the San Vicente-style anthropomorphic peg-based stone sculptures of coastal western Mexico and many of the peg-based stone sculptures of Central America include the form of the peg base (sometimes appearing to be phallic), the occasional presence of a ring on which the figure's feet stand, the position of the hands on the stomach, a hermaphroditic aspect (in at least one Central American example), and the occasional depiction of a helmet-like head covering or hair tonsure, as well as a cylindrical or crest-like projection on the top of the head.

For some time, similarities have been pointed out between the decorations on many polychrome pottery vessels found on the Nicoya peninsula of Costa Rica and decorations on roughly contemporary polychrome pottery of the Early Postclassic Aztatlan archaeological culture along the coast of western Mexico (Smith and Heath-Smith 1980). To this may now be added similarities between stone sculptures of both areas, giving added support to the idea of important and intimate Pacific coastal contacts between the two areas during the entire Postclassic period. Such coastal relations between the two areas did not begin, however, in the Postclassic. They date back at least to the importation of jadeite ornaments from Guatemala in Middle Formative times (Mountjoy et al. 2004) and may have been an important aspect of western Mexican cultural development during much of the pre-Hispanic period.

RESUMEN

En 1991 una colección de 18 esculturas de piedra fue encontrada accidentalmente en el pueblo de San Vicente, Nayarit, en el lado norte del Valle de Banderas, y eventualmente el grupo de ellas llegó estar depositado en el Museo de Tepic. Una investigación del sitio del hallazgo por Gabriela Zepeda García Moreno no pudo establecer la fecha de las figuras ni determinar la función de ellas. Sin embargo, un estudio posterior del asentamiento prehispánico de San Vicente por José Beltrán indicó que las esculturas probablemente pertenecían al período posclásico. En 2005, estas esculturas fueron inspeccionadas y retratadas en el Museo de Tepic por Joseph Mountjoy, Nathaniel Mountjoy, y Beltrán, y se presentan aquí fotos y una descripción detallada de cada una de ellas que tiene forma antropomorfa. En 1990, Mountjoy había encontrado la mitad inferior de una escultura antropomorfa con base de espiga en la superficie de un sitio al lado sur del Valle de Banderas, y en 1992 y 1993 información adicional sobre tales esculturas fue recuperada en el sitio de El Ranchito en el lado sur del Valle de Banderas, incluyendo fragmentos de esculturas antropomorfas, quebradas, y quemadas, de un pozo cuyo contenido incluía tiestos del posclásico tardío, y carbón que dio una fecha (no calibrada) de 1550 d.C. ± 60 años. La condición de las esculturas y su contexto sugieren un acto de destrucción de “ídolos” que solía suceder a manos de los frailes españoles a la sazón de la conquista de los nativos. Datos etnohistóricos del siglo XVI en Jalisco y Durango sugieran que estas esculturas de piedra hayan funcionado muchas veces como oráculos para un líder/chaman de la comunidad, o para la comunidad en general. Sin embargo, aspectos iconográficos de las esculturas también sugieran una relación con la fertilidad. El contexto y algunos rasgos distintos de las esculturas de San Vicente sugieran que fueron juntadas por los indígenas y enterradas para protegerlas de la probable destrucción a manos de los españoles. Además, se hace una comparación de las esculturas del Valle de Banderas con esculturas antropomorfas con base de espiga que han sido encontradas en Centroamérica para demostrar otro caso de evidencia apoyando la idea de una relación íntima entre culturas de ambas áreas durante el posclásico.