1972.11 Urn Representing Cosijo (Monte Alban, Oaxaca, Mexico, Zapotec)

The Zapotec people believed clouds were the primordial beings from which they descended, hence their name, Peni-Zaa or "cloud people." Zapotecs honored their ancestors who, after death, returned to the clouds. There, royal ancestors communed with lightning and other supernaturals, interceding on behalf of their earthly community. Deities associated with clouds feature prominently in the art of Monte Albán.

In characteristic Zapotec fashion, this hollow cylindrical vessel depicts an elaborately dressed female figure decorated in relief that is worked onto the surface of the vessel. It originally functioned as an urn likely containing water, beads, shells, or animal bones, and placed with other urns as an offering in a tomb, temple, or cache. Female figures such as this example are often represented wearing huipils with hands crossed over the chest, while male figures wear loin cloths and appear with hands on the knees. 

This ancestor figure sits cross-legged, adorned in a beaded necklace, ear ornaments, mask, and an elaborate headdress representing Pitao Cocijo (Cosijo), which signified both lightning and the deity of rain and lightning. The god Cocijo is commonly represented on Zapotec ceramic urns from Monte Albán, identified by zoomorphic face and buccal mask with thick, blunt snout; merlon-shaped eyebrows, squared lower eyelids; characteristic bifurcated serpent-like tongue; and the headdress adorned with the Zapotec "Glyph C," which likely signifies the day name for water and is visually represented as a cross section of a vase with a horizontal band, from which two serpent-form streams flow in opposite directions. The undulating movement of the serpent conjures water, while the swift strike of its tongue signifies deadly lightning bolts associated with rain.  Below the serpents on this headdress are profile crocodile heads facing opposite directions. They represent the Sky Monster, called Chila in Zapotec, though also known to the Maya as the Cosmic Monster stretching across the sky as the Milky Way. 

The crocodile, lightning, water, and rain are all associated with the first day in the 260-day ritual calendar of the Zapotecs and the Maya. The Zapotecs divided time as well as space into cocijos—each of the four parts of the 260-day ritual calendar was governed by a cocijo with particular powers. In ritual respect, the Zapotec and Maya peoples offered them precious goods: pulque and offerings of blood, either drawn from their own bodies in an act of autosacrifice, or that of a sacrificed animal, child, or war captive. In return, the supernaturals granted them sunshine and precious rain to ensure fertile maize fields.

Pre-Columbian (American): AAT: 300016619

Zapotec (culture or style): AAT: 300017179

Monte Albán (Oaxacan periods and styles): AAT: 300017172

Mexico (nation): TGN: 7005560

Oaxaca (state): TGN: 7005591

Oaxaca Valley: TGN: 7383926

Monte Albán (deserted settlement): TGN: 7007152

Zapotec (Monte Albán) Ceramics 

ceramic (material): AAT: 300235507

paint (coating): AAT: 300015029

clay: AAT: 300010439

glazing (coating): AAT: 300053914

incising: AAT: 300053847

burnishing (polishing): AAT: 30053869

coiling (pottery technique): AAT: 300053903

modeling (forming): AAT: 300053130

slab method (pottery technique): AAT: 300053905

relief (sculpture techniques): AAT: 300053622

hollow (form attribute): AAT: 300163023

Monte Albán II (Oaxacan periods and styles): AAT: 300017174

Monte Albán III (Oaxacan periods and styles): AAT: 300017175

urns: AAT: 300129425

ritual objects: AAT: 300312158

ritual vessels: AAT: 300265801

effigies (funerary sculpture): AAT: 300047108

figures (representations): AAT: 300189808

female: AAT: 300189557

women (female humans): AAT: 300025943

sitting (seated): AAT: 300263970

supernatural (concepts): AAT: 300055947

deities: AAT: 300343850

Cocijo (Cosijo / Zapotec deity of rain and lightning): DMA

ancestors: AAT: 300255718

clouds: AAT: 300343840

rain (precipitation / weather): AAT: 300055377

lightning: AAT: 300068795

water: AAT: 300011772

beads (pierced objects): AAT: 300234006

shell (animal material): AAT: 300011829

bone (material): AAT: 300011798

burials: AAT: 300263485

tombs: AAT: 300005926

Temples: AAT: 300007595

huipils (tunics / main garments): AAT: 300410449

hands (animal or human components): AAT: 300310193

gesture: AAT: 300056179

necklaces: AAT: 300046001

ear ornaments: AAT: 300211279

headdresses: AAT: 300046023

nose ornaments (jewelry): AAT: 300211628

zoomorphic: AAT: 300010338

faces (animal or human components): AAT: 300251798

masks (costume): AAT: 300138758

bifurcated (two branches or parts / forked): DMA

tongue (animal or human components): DMA

serpents (snakes/Serpentes suborder): AAT: 300250870

profiles (vantage point for figure): AAT: 300123319

crocodile (animal/crocodylidae family): AAT: 300250293

heads (representations): AAT: 300262520

cosmic monster (earth monster / sky monster / celestial snake / Milky Way): DMA

sky: AAT: 300263064

Milky Way (galaxies / extraterrestrial bodies): DMA

stars (extraterrestrial bodies): AAT: 300387654

cosmology (cosmological / disciplines): AAT: 300054294

calendars: AAT: 300026741

offering (tribute / payment / economic concepts /social science concepts): DMA

bloodletting (self-sacrifice / ritual): DMA

blood: AAT: 300011797

sacrifices: AAT: 300263243

deaths: AAT: 300151836

animals: DMA

children (people by age group): AAT: 300025945

captive (prisoners of war): AAT: 300259895

wars: AAT: 300055314

life (biological concepts): AAT: 300055134

fertility: AAT: 300379149

maize (plant/zea mays species): AAT: 300375398

worship: AAT: 300056005

ritual (events): AAT: 300065284

ancestor veneration: AAT: 300400471

Zapotec (language): AAT: 300389625

cartouches (ornament): AAT: 300010256

hieroglyphics (scripts / writing): AAT: 300028721

geometric motifs: AAT: 300009764

From 1972: Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, General Acquisitions Fund, purchased from Teochita, Inc., New York [1], [2], [3]

[1] The main source for this provenance was existing provenance information in TMS. Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted. 

[2] The main source for this provenance is Acquisition Record (dated March 08, 1972, copy in Dallas Museum of Art Collections Records Object File). Exceptions and other supporting documents are noted.

[3] The name of the Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, founded in 1933, was changed to the Dallas Museum of Art in 1983.

Apply to objects where number equals 1972.11