GEOGRAPHICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SELECTED TRAITS
as equivalent with El Arbolillo ii, here estimated to
date a century or so before 500 B . C High pedestal
bases for bowls, with cutout areas in side walls, came
from Vaillant's (1931 pi. 76k-n) excavations at
Ticoman (chart 15, 30-31). Only three examples are
illustrated in the report, in contrast to the much
more numerous occurrence of both solid and hollow
tripods.
In the strata excavations made at La Venta in
southern Veracruz, Drucker (1952, p. 129) found
annular supports in all levels, but gives no detail as
to size and decoration (chart 15-25). The peculiar
"potrests" that he also found in all levels are probably
pottery stools similar to those from La Victoria. This
type of support is not recorded from Garcia Payon's
excavations at Chalahuites and El Trapiche, but a very
few quite low examples came from the upper levels
of cuts made by Medellin, Wallrath, and the writer
in the former site.
The low heavy annular bases that Drucker (1943a,
p. 57; chart 15-24) found in the middle levels at
Tres Zapotes may also be fragments of pottery stools.
Annular bases for vessels, however, do occur rarely
and tend to be tall and have cutout areas in the walls
of the base (op. cit., fig. 41k-m, pi. 15e). Some of
these vessels seem to be incense burners. These bases
also seem to be rare from the Cerro de las Mesas
deposits. Drucker (1943b, p. 60, fig. 12n', u, w, w')
'Ulustrates low ring bases on bowls and somewhat
higher bases (chart 15-23) on tall slender vases.
Dimpled bases occur at both sites.
In the Panuco sequence on the north Gulf coast of
Mexico, podal supports are fairly common, but an-
nular bases are not mentioned by either Ekholm
(1944) or MacNeish (1954).
The ceramics of the Poverty Point and Tchefuncte
Phases (1200-100 B . C ) of the Lower Mississippi
Valley and the Bayou la Batre Phase (1100-100 B . C )
of the MobUe Bay area, beginning about this same
date, include deep bowl-like forms with very crude
ring bases (chart 15-11, - 1 3 , - 1 4 ; Ford and Quimby,
1945, figs. 17d, 18b, c; Wimberly, I960, figs. 3 8 ^ 0 ) .
These accompany the early examples of tetrapodal
supports in the southeastern United States. They do
not persist lUce the tetrapodal supports, however, and
do not diffuse into the extrem.e Southeast or north-
ward up the Mississippi Valley. A type of base in pre-
Hopewell Upper Mississippi Valley pottery that may
be related to the ring base is the small flat form, with
slightiy projecting "heel" found in the Baumer and
Crab Orchard Focuses of lUinois (Griffin, ed., 1952,
figs. 96-23, 25, 98-1) and in the Adena ceramic
complex.
As with podal supports, there seems to be a thou-
sand-year gap in the eastern United States between
117
these early examples of low ring bases and the reap-
pearance of this feature on the late Mississippian hori-
zon about A.D. 1300-1400 (PhUlips, Ford, and Griffin,
1951, p. 158, fig. 101). At this time ring bases are
found principally in the Mississippian Phase of
Arkansas and Missouri (chart 15, 6-7), and tend to be
fairly low. There are also tall pedestal bases with cut-
out designs similar to the Classic examples of Meso-
america and South America.
Summary
Dimpled bases are earliest on the coast of Ecuador,
followed by low ring bases, which apparently begin in
the Chorrera Phase about 1500 B . C These low ring
bases diffused to Peru, where they were first made in
the GaUinazo Phase about A.D. 400 and become com-
mon in the Expansionist Tiahuanaco ceramic tradi-
tion. In Mesoamerica, low ring bases seem to have
first been made by about 800-600 B . C on the Gulf
coast and in the Valley of Mexico. They are in the
Lower Mississippi Valley and adjacent Gulf coast at
about this same time, but disappear after 500 B.C
and do not last into the Hopewellian Phase, in
contrast to tetrapodal supports.
In northern South America and Mesoamerica,
the tall annular bases, frequently with cutout designs,
appear between 500 and 1 B . C These do not diffuse
into Peru untU Inca times and arrive in the Mississippi
Valley only one or two centuries after A.D. 1200.
Both tripod vessels and bowls with tall annular bases
were being manufactured in north China toward the
end of the Neolithic, about 2000 B.C
Stirrup-Spout Bottle
CHART 16
Those who prefer a reasonable and rational inter-
pretation of history, rather than a culturological one,
might insist that the bottie form is another natural,
inevitable, and practical shape that the American
Indians easily could have imitated from nature. The
bottie gourd was used on the coast of Peru as early
as 3000 B.C. in the preceramic Huaca Prieta. It ap-
pears logical that this form was imitated in clay. If
this did happen, however, it seemingly only happened
once. The bottie form is eariiest in the Machalilla
Phase on coastal Ecuador, beginning at 2000 B . C
Some doubt may be thrown on even this example as
an imitation of nature, for the straight-necked bottie
is here accompanied by the stirrup-spout bottle,
which certainly has no prototype in the natural
vegetable kingdom.
 SMITHSONIAN CONTRIBUTIONS TO ANTHROPOLOGY
118
Stirrup-spout bottles first appear in Machalilla
Striated Polished Plain and Machalilla EmbeUished
Shoulder (chart 16, 33-34; Meggers, Evans, and
Estrada, 1965, pp. 137-139, figs. 78, 88, pi. 156).
This is a well made sand tempered ceramic ranging
from orange to dark grey in color, which has a charac-
teristic surface finish formed by pebble polishing with
the polishing tracks clearly apparent on most examples.
Machalilla stirrup-spout vessels have globular or
shouldered bodies, and the stirrup spout tends to be
rather large at points of attachment to the body,
narrowing as it approaches the orifice. The vertical
portion of the neck is quite short. Stirrup spouts do
not have a long duration in the Ecuadorian sequence,
for they apparently disappear at the end of the
Machalilla Phase at about 1500 B.C. (Estrada, 1958,
fig. 55).
Stirrup-spout vessels are not found in the initial
phase of the Peruvian highland sequence, but appear
about 1100 B.C. in the Kotosh Kotosh Phase and run
through the Kotosh Chavin to 300 B . C (chart 16,
36-38). They occur in Kotosh Well Polished (Izumi
and Sono, 1963, pp. 114-116, pis. 128, 6-8, 71 a,
1-3) and Kotosh Grooved (op. cit., pp. 116-118,
pi. 71a, 4—5). The ware is slightiy tempered with
sand, surfaces are well polished, and color ranges
from dark brown to black. The bodies of the bottles
are decorated with wide-line incising in Kotosh
Grooved. The stirrup bridge tends to have a slightly
greater diameter at the point where it is attached to
the body of the bottie, and decreases slightly in diam-
eter to the opening. The spout is longer than those of
Machalilla bottles, but by no means so long and slender
as became the case later in Mochica. This tendency
toward characteristically massive spout form is better
shown by the vessel from Chavin de Huantar illustrated
by Tello (I960, pi. 48). This beautifully polished bottle
has a flat bottom., which is also characteristic of coastal
Chavin. A number of examples of the coastal Chavin
or Gupisnique Phase stirrup spouts illustrated by
Larco Hoyle (1945a, pp. 7-9, 11-14), vary from the
massive spouts characteristic of the early period, to
more delicate examples foreshadowing the slender
spouts of the Mochica Phase on the Peruvian coast
(chart 16, 41-43).
After 200 B . C stirrup-spout bottles virtually dis-
appear from highland Peru. They continue and even
increase in popularity on the north coast, however,
where they are characteristic of the Mochica Phase.
Black ware stirrup-spout bottles were popular in
Chimu times and are manufactured today in the
vicinity of Piura, where they are offered for sale to
tourists who pass on cruise ships.
Examples of stirrup-spout bottles are very rare
between northern Peru and central Mexico. Bennett
VOLUME 11
(1944b, p. 63) mentions four in the Quimbaya ceram-
ics from northern Colombia and says that "none
resemble the Peruvian style." Stirrup spouts also occur
in the late Tairona culture of the Santa Marta region
(op. cit., fig. 2 4 E ) .
Stirrup-spout botties have a very limited occurrence
in Mexico, with the notable exception of the Tlatilco
Cemetery, dating between 800 and 400 B . C (chart 16,
10-11). Porter (1953, p. 40, fig. 12) was impressed
with specific resemblances of the TlatUco specimens
to the coastal Chavin. She says, "This extraordinary
shape is closely associated with Peru where it occurs
in abundance. Stirrup spouts were unknown in Mexico
on an early horizon until they were found in Tlatilco.
In form, the Tlatilco specimens are almost identical
with Peruvian examples from coastal Chavin sites
(Covarrubias, 1950, pp. 155-156; Larco Hoyle, 1941,
cover, and fig. 77a, d ) . "
Pifia Chan (1958, vol. 1, figs. 43m, 44n; vol. 2, pi.
42) also illustrates examples. T h e rather specific
resemblances to Gupisnique or coastal Chavin are
indeed striking, including the black to brown polished
surfaces. The TlatUco examples emphasize the angular
outlines for the body found in Gupisnique, rather than
the globular bodies common in highland Chavin. It
will be recalled that both globular and angular bodies
occur in the earlier Machalilla Phase of Ecuador. In
the Valley of Mexico, as in Chavin, the stirrups are
massive and the spouts are short. Body decoration is
formed by zoned red paint and broad incised lines in
both regions.
In discussion of this form. Griffin (Phillips, Ford, and
Griffin, 1951, table 8, pp. 171-172) lists eight other
occurrences, which are concentrated principally in
northwestern Mexico. H e also cites examples from
the eastern part of the Anasazi area in the southwestern
United States, ranging in time from Basket Maker iii
until the 19th century. Griffin lists 28 examples of
stirrup-spout botties in the Mississippi Valley pri-
marily in Missouri and Arkansas (chart 16, 1-2).
These shell tempered vessels date in the late Mis-
sissippian, after A.D. 1200-1300, and in a crude fashion
show the massive spouts and short necks attached to
globular bodies characteristic of the Peruvian Forma-
tive. It is possible that this form survived to a very late
date in northwestern Mexico, had a minor popularity
in the Anasazi area, and passed into the Mississippi
Valley by the Arkansas River trade route, which as
Krieger (1946) points out, was in operation about
A.D. 1200.
Summary
Stirrup-spout botties have no prototype in nature.
They are an element of the Machalilla Phase (begin-
 GEOGRAPHICAL AND CHRONOLOGICAL DISTRIBUTION OF SELECTED TRAITS
ning at 2000 B . C ) and their ultimate source is as
mysterious as the derivation of the Machalilla complex
as a whole. Their subsequent diffusion within the
Americas seems clear enough: into Peruvian Kotosh
and Chavin with characteristic large fat spouts, a
long history in Peru up to modern times, and a rather
long geographical j u m p to the Tlatilco Phase in the
Valley of Mexico, where they seem to be unique in
the Mesoamerican Formative. This was never a
popular form in Mexico and apparently continued
only in the western part of the country, from where
they diffused into the Anasazi area of the south-
western United States. From here the form seems to
move into the Mississippi Valley after A.D. 1200.
Straight-Necked Bottle
CHART 16
The bottle is missing from the Valdivia Phase of
Ecuador, from Puerto Hormiga, and the early Forma-
tive manifestations in Panama and the eastern United
States. It first appears in minor frequencies in the
Machalilla Phase of Ecuador (2000-1500 B . C ; chart
16-35), where it is a shape of MachalUla Double-line
Incised (Meggers, Evans, and Estrada, 1965, fig. 77-7)
and more characteristically of MachalUla Striated
Polished Plain (op. cit., fig. 88-11). In the latter type
it is a com.panion of the stirrup-spout bottle discussed
above. The form has a globular body and long slender
neck, which flares slightly at the lip.
According to Estrada (1958, fig. 55) the simple
bottle form disappears from, the Ecuadorian sequence
at the end of the MachalUla Phase (1500 B . C ) . It is
followed through the Chorrera Phase (1500-500 B . C )
by single-spout bottles with a strap handle attached
to the neck and vessel shoulder. These are usually
provided with a whistle and may be transitional forms
in the development of the bridge-spout bottles to be
discussed in the following section.
Simple-spout bottles do not occur in the earliest
ceramic phase in the Peruvian highlands, the Kotosh
Waira-jirca. Like stirrup-spout bottles, they begin
at 1100 B.C. and run through Kotosh Kotosh and
Kotosh Chavin to 400 B . C (chart 16, 39-40). In
these phases, bottles have both globular bodies
(Izumi and Sono, 1963, pi. 44a) and bodies with
flat bases (op. cit., pi. 129-9). The narrow necks
tend to flare slightly at the lip, as did the Machalilla
examples. T h e bodies are decorated with incised
designs; one bears a rather realistic representation
of an ear of corn (M. D. Coe, 1962). Similar botties
with characteristic Chavin-style incising are one of
the principal forms illustrated by Tello (1960, fig.
144d, e, g, h, 166) from Chavin de Hucintar.
119
Globular-bodied and flat-base bottles are also an
element of the Gupisnique ceramics of the Peruvian
coast. Larco Hoyle (1945a, pp. 10, 15) shows typical
examples including a human head bottle (chart 16,
48-49), a form that becomes popular in the later
Mochica Phase.
Simple bottles are not found in the early ceramic
complexes that Duque describes from the site of
San Agustin, Colombia, nor do they appear in the
form sequence given by the Reichel-Dolmatoffs for
the north coast of Colombia, Gerardo and Alicia
Reichel-Dolmatoff (1956, p. 212, figs. 11-16) illus-
trate a very small "toy" bottle with quite short neck,
apparently from late Momfl i deposits, but the form
is rare.
Earliest botties in northern Colombia appear to
be in Cupica Phase iv (Reichel-Dolmatoff, G. and
A., 1962, pi. 11), but they have very short necks,
quite different from the long neck botties under con-
sideration. According to Angulo, this phase must date
several centuries after A.D. 500. Although bridge-
spout botties and botties with handles occur in
Quimbaya ceramics of northern Colombia, and
Peruvian-like double bottles continue into Chibcha
ceramics, the simple bottle with a long spout is not
a popular form.
Bottles are not found in the Ocos Phase of the Pa-
cific coast of Guatemala. According to Coe and Flan-
nery (1967, p. 23) they are completely missing from
the Cuadros Phase, and their figure 8 shows a single
form of the straight-necked bottle restricted to the
Jocotal Phase about 850-800 B . C (chart 16-24).
The illustrated example is white slipped, has a band
of red paint encircling the orifice, and rocker stamping
on the short neck.
In the Chiapas sequence, true botties do not make
their appearance before the Horcones Phase (Chiapa
VI, 100 B.C-A.D. 1; chart 16-23; Lowe, 1962, fig.
10b, pi. llb-2')- Apparently they are rare and are
accompanied by variations on the bottle form very
reminiscent of examples on the same time horizon on
the Peruvian coast. These include double-bodied,
joined bottles with bridges between human figures and
spouts, whistiing botties, and spouted botties, the lat-
ter being by far the most common form.
This simple bottle is completely missing from. R.E.
Smith's (1955) Uaxactun ceramic sequence, which
extends from the Mamon through the Tepeu iii
Phases, from about 700 B.C to A.D. 900.
In MacNeish's Tehuacan sequence (Byers, ed.,
1967, vol. 3, fig. 7), the true bottle with small neck
first appears about 1500 B.C in Ajalpan Fine Red
(chart 16-19). It continues in Ajalpan Coarse Red,
Coatepec Buff, White, and White Rimmed Black
(chart 16-18). Palo Blanco Phase bottles have out-