Head Shapes in Classic Period Mesoamerica

Abstract

This chapter explores the broad geographic and chronological trends in Mesoamerican head-shaping practices during the Classic period. Back then, the eastern and western parts of Classic period Mesoamerica (Michoacán, Veracruz, Oaxaca, and the Maya Lowlands) harbored the strongholds of cranial modeling in terms of popularity, visibility, and diversity of the culturally produced head morphologies. Central highlanders used predominantly cradleboards, often only evident in weak lamboid flattening. Only in Teotihuacán (north of Mexico City), is the use of body devices notably diverse. Regional preferences for head forms were surveyed systematically across the Maya area. Here, extremely narrow and slanted heads were preferred in the western sphere of the Maya Lowlands; namely, in the Lower and Middle Usumacinta region (Palenque, Chiapas) and along the Gulf coast fringes (Jaina, Campeche). Conversely, tabular erect forms were in vogue among those who lived along the eastern shores, and in the Guatemaltecan and Chiapanecan Highlands. The Mexican state of Veracruz is recognized for a preference for pronounced superior (obelionic) flattening, as witnessed at the site of El Zapotal, which was settled during the Late Classic period. Apart from superior compression, the cranial record of El Zapotal and other sites in Veracruz display other extreme oblique and erect skull modifications, among which the literature highlights the bilobé and trilobé forms.