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The Business of Narrative at Tula: An Analysis of the Vestibule Frieze, Trade, and Ritual

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Cynthia Kristan-Graham
Cynthia Kristan-Graham*
Affiliation:
The Atlanta College of Art, 1280 Peachtree St., N.E., Atlanta, GA 30309
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Abstract

The so-called frieze of the Caciques at Tula, Hidalgo, Mexico, is an 8-m-long bench with most of its original polychromed face intact. It formed part of a larger composition that once ran around the perimeter of the Vestibule, a colonnaded hall that served as a foyer for Pyramid B. The composition of profile males is adapted to look as if they are actually marching around the room toward the pyramid. Although Hugo Moedano Koer (1947) identified the figures as caciques or local chiefs, an analysis of architectural setting, subject matter, and ethnohistory suggests instead that the figures represent merchants engaged in rituals related to trade. This new reading demonstrates that Tula had decorative programs paralleling its development as an important center of long-distance exchange during the Early Postclassic period, and that merchants from Tula may have been a plausible prototype for Aztec pochteca.

El friso de los Caciques de Tula, Hidalgo, México, es una banca tallada de ocho metros de largo con la mayoría del policromado intacto. Este formaba parte de una composición más grande que alguna vez corría a lo largo del perímetro del vestíbulo, una columnata (pasillo formado por columnas) colocada enfrente de la piramide B. La composición de personajes masculinos colocados de perfil es adoptada para aparentar la presencia de una procesión en acción, marchando alrededor del cuarto hacia la pirámide de Tula. Sin embargo, un análisis más profundo del marco arquitectónico, la iconografía, y la etnohistoria nos sugiere que las figuras representan comerciantes en lugar de caciques. Esta nueva interpretación nos provee de una visión conceptual y paralela hacia del papel de Tula como un importante centro de intercambio comercial a través de grandes distancias durante el principio del horizonte Postclásico.

Type
Articles
Information
Latin American Antiquity , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 1993 , pp. 3 - 21
Copyright
Copyright © Society for American Archaeology 1993

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References

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