COPADOR CERAMIC GROUP. Group Frequency: 1,526. Ware: San Marcelino Very Pale Brown-Pink. Copador Polychrome: Previously Defined Varieties

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1 COPADOR CERAMIC GROUP Group Frequency: 1,526 Ware: San Marcelino Very Pale Brown-Pink Copador Polychrome: Previously Defined Varieties Original Description Citation: (Longyear 1952, Sharer 1978, Bill 1997) Frequency: Variety Unspecified 1,310 Glyphic A 108 Glyphic C 20 Glyphic D 3 Pacho Incised 25 Pacho Composite 3 Pushtan Excised 3 Caterpillar 4 Identifying attributes: Specular red paint. Over the rim band with interior, sublabial black band. Complex designs on vessel interiors and exteriors that are executed in black, orange, and specular red. Fine white paste often covered with light orange wash or Usulutan resist lines. Forms: Bottles; bowls (recurved are most common); vases. Decoration: Specular red paint. Over the rim band with interior, sublabial black band. Complex designs on vessel interiors and exteriors that are executed in black, orange, and specular red. Fine white paste often covered with light orange wash or Usulutan resist lines. Intersite Provenience: Almost all of western Honduras and El Salvador. Comments: Sharer (1978) and Bill (1997) offer comprehensive discussions of Copador pottery. I will add that Copador Polychrome was extremely popular and is found diverse contexts from royal tombs to a home in the hamlet of Ceren (where finger drags in bean paste are evident in a Copador bowl).the forms and decorative techniques are highly diverse. That said, four decorative elements dominate the corpus: glyphs, birds, monkeys, and humans. While these elements do not always appear on the same vessels, they are connected, and I discuss this connection in a separate section. Goodall (2007) presents an interesting spectroscopic study of the specular paints used for Copador at Copan. Based on her data, she perceives a change in firing techniques and paint recipes over time, specifically from the Acbi to Coner phases. Similar studies of well-provenienced vessels from El Salvador might provide some insight about production techniques, as well.

2 Copador Polychrome Glyphic A, C, and D exterior Copador Polychrome Glyphic A, C, and D interior

3 Copador Polychrome Glyphic A ballcourt in lower register bowl exterior San Andres

4 Copador Polychrome Glyphic C bowl exterior San Andres Copador Polychrome Glyphic C with deer-like animal bowl exterior San Andres

5 Copador Polychrome Glyphic C twins with animal bowl drawing Hilasal Copador Polychrome Glyphic C twins with animal bowl drawing Hilasal

6 Copador Polychrome Pacho Composite, Pacho Incised, and Pushtan Incised exterior

7 Copador Polychrome: Newly Defined Varieties Original Description Citation: None Frequency: Mono 9 Diablo 6 Reserve 4 To Define 12 Identifying attributes: Decorative representations that are specific to each variety. Otherwise same as Copador Polychrome. Forms: Bowls. Decoration: Mono Variety has a single circumferential band of stylized, disembodied monkey heads in profile. In other cases, vessel is divided into an upper register containing a circumferential band of stylized heads (usually birds) and a lower register of full-figure bounding monkeys accompanied by red circles resembling Chancala Polychrome. Diablo Variety has a single circumferential band of stylized, disembodied heads executed with black outlines and filled with red. The iconographic meaning of the head is currently unidentified. Reserve Variety is covered primarily with black background paint and various decorative elements are executed in outline where the black paint is not used. Some of these could be the lower register of Glyphic A examples seen from Chalchuapa (Sharer 1978), but I have seen examples from various sources where the extire vessel is executed in reserve technique. To Define Variety has a variety of decorative elements that have not been discussed in previous analyses but are too fragmentary and rare to create defined varieties at this time. Otherwise same as Copador Polychrome. Intersite Provenience: Unknown. Comments: None.

8 Copador Polychrome Caterpillar, Reserve, and Mono exterior Copador Polychrome Caterpillar, Reserve, and Mono interior

9 Copador Polychrome Mono bowl exterior San Andres Copador Polychrome Mono bowl exterior San Andres Copador Polychrome Mono bowl exterior San Andres Structure 7

10 Copador Polychrome To Define exterior Copador Polychrome To Define interior