The paste color of La Quemada sherds is generally dark grey (7.5YR 3/0) to black (7.5YR 2/0), with rare specimens being reddish-yellow (7.5YR 6/6) with a black (7.5YR 2/0) core measuring 0.2-1.5mm wide. Refiring experiments conducted by Wells and Nelson (2002:194) suggest a shorter range of firing temperatures from 700-800˚C. This type is characterized by the appearance of hatching and cross-hatching within the design band and the increased use of panel dividers and discontinuous designs. It also appears that excision becomes more common than incision. Motifs include the blocked zigzag, triangle, diamond, sawtooth and stepped block, and the scroll. The motifs are enclosed within a single or double lined design band. A final feature includes the increasing presence of tick marks or small, hatched triangles as secondary elements or appended to the outside design band lines. The appearance of this type of hatched triangle evolves into the fully carved triangle typical of the Murguía type. The five La Quemada variants are Noria, Tigres, Atitanac, Zacate, and Tuitlán.
Noria Incised-engraved
The predominant motif of Noria Incised-Engraved is the diamond, which differs from Trombold’s (2014:74-76) identification of the motif as two intersecting zigzags and, thus, a potential variant of Villanueva. Single line design bands are most common, but when double lined design bands occur, the outer lines are zigzagged or wavy. Both incision and excision appear in this variant, but excision is more common. The majority of rim sherds also have a wavy or zigzagged line decoration on the lip of a flattened rim. Red fill pigment is common both on the lip decoration as well as in the design band.
There are two Noria sub-variants (Figure 73). The first exhibits coiled or scrolled diamonds within a main complete diamond (Figure 74a). When the points of the diamond connect to the interior design band lines, small flanking triangles are created that may not receive any interior treatment, more commonly though, they contain coiled or complete nested triangles, or simple hatching (Figures 75a-c and 76a).
The second sub-variant contains nested, complete diamonds within a larger complete diamond, resulting in a nested diamond motif (Figure 74b). One specimen is from a basket handle (Figure 76b), which are usually considered as chronologically late. Based on the Chalchihuites sequence (Kelly and Kelley 1971), basket handles are common on Refugio Red-on-brown and Neveria Red-on-brown vessels. These types are dated to the Las Joyas phase (A.D. 950-1150) of the Guadiana sequence (Kelley 1985). However, the specimen illustrated in Figure 76b is incised-engraved rather than painted and it has a flattened, ovoid cross-section rather than the more circular cross-section of the Chalchihuites basket handles. The examples shown from vessel bodies (Figures 77a-b) have flanking triangles that are hatched, nested, or coiled. In one specimen, the main diamond motif contains nothing but a small punctation in the center. This same specimen also has a tick mark on the outside of the diamond.
Tigres Incised-engraved
This variant is characterized by the use of a triangular motif. Zigzagged or wavy lined design bands do occur but are less commonly used. Some Tigres sherds are incised, but the majority tend to be excised. Incision/excision of the lip also occurs, but it is less common than in Noria. The lip decoration is not usually filled with pigment. The design tends to be wavy lined or zigzag, but one specimen has repeating sets of four vertical lines with the outermost lines receiving tick marks.
There are four Tigres sub-variants (Figure 78). The first is composed of paired, coiled or nested triangles in a discontinuous design arrangement. Usually the triangles occur in opposed pairs with the outer diagonal lines of the triangle receiving tick marks or small hatched triangles serving as panel dividers (Figure 79a). The triangles may be coiled, ‘voluted,’ or a series of complete triangles may be nested within the main triangle (Figures 80a-c).
A second sub-variant has contiguous alternating triangles that repeat throughout the design band (Figure 79b). The alternating triangles are inverted and contiguous in a bifold rotation (Figures 81a-c). This variant appears in low frequencies in the LQ-MVAP collection and could be folded into the Villanueva, as Trombold (2014:19, A6) has classified such sherds. Similarly, Trombold (2014:20, A8) would also classify the third Tigres sub-variant as the Villanueva. It consists of a series of nested triangles; however, the upper and lower design band line is used as the base for each triangle, resulting in what Trombold (ibid.) calls chevrons (Figure 79c). Some LQ-MVAP specimens have a continuous chevron design (Figures 82a-b) and others have step elements outlining the triangle motifs (Figure 82c).
The final sub-variant is difficult to characterize owing to the small sample and sherd size. It appears to be composed of a hatched, nested, or inwardly ticked triangle that uses the upper or lower design band line as its base (Figure 79d). The triangle is also outlined, or nested within two or three truncated triangles. One or more of the diagonal lines outlining the triangles receive some ticking (Figures 83a-b). The sherds of this particular variant are too small to determine if the motif is primarily composed of paired triangles or if the design is continuous.
Atitanac Incised-Engraved
Atitanac is the second most common incised-engraved variant after Tuitlán in the assemblage. It is defined by Trombold (2014:57-62) as consisting of a single, blocked zigzag enclosed within a single or split design band. He further indicates that the blocked zigzag motif is highlighted by diagonal hatching of the background, and occasionally cross-hatching is used. Even though hatching is more common than cross-hatching in the LQ-MVAP collection, cross-hatching does occur with considerable frequency. Even less common is the use of horizontal lines as background hatching. As with Tigres, decoration of the lip is also common. The varieties of lip decoration are more diverse and include the use of motifs from the Huizache type, such as wavy or zigzag lines, steps, and the lazy ‘S’. Blocked zigzags and diagonal slashes are also used, and one specimen has small hatched triangles. In general, there is a pronounced range of variability in vessel size and design band width in Atitanac. Excision is much more common than incision and both red and white fill occur with red pigment being more common.
Trombold (2014:58) discusses two varieties of Atitanac: full banded zigzag and truncated banded zigzag. The full banded zigzag is characterized by the tips of the zigzags reaching, or nearly reaching to the interior lines of the design band (Figure 84a). The truncated banded zigzag is characterized by the upper and/or lower zigzag tips truncated by the interior design band lines (Figure 84b). While the difference between full banded and truncated zigzags is a useful means for distinguishing among sub-variants of Atitanac, it seems that a higher order separation should be between specimens with a single design band and those with a split design band (Figure 85).
The single design band sub-variant is far more common than the split design band variant (Figure 86a). Within the single design band are full banded or truncated zigzags in which the background areas are either hatched or cross-hatched (Figures 87, 88a-b, 89a-c, and 90a-b). There are some notably odd specimens. One in particular has a blocked zigzag with a single lined central zigzag and is the only Atitanac sherd in the collection with small hatched triangles appended to the design band line. Rarely, the hatched triangle backgrounds are offset creating diamonds (Figure 90c), which could cause them to be confused with Noria. As a general rule, if the central diamond motif does not have nested, coiled triangles, or if they are not hatched, they are classified as Atitanac.
The split design band sub-variant is represented by only five specimens in the LQ-MVAP assemblage (Figure 86b). It is characterized by two contiguous design bands placed one on top of the other. The block zigzag motif can be found in only one of the design bands (Figure 91a) or in both (Figure 91b-c). The background is highlighted with vertical or diagonal hatching as well as cross-hatching. The LQ-MVAP specimens tend to be composed of truncated zigzags.
Zacate Incised-engraved
This is a relatively rare variant. The defining motifs of this type are the stepped block and sawtooth and small, hatched triangles are sometimes appended to the top or bottom design band lines. The motifs themselves are blocked, usually hatched or cross-hatched, and are always contiguous with at least one of the framing lines, and most often with both. The vessel lip is also decorated with zigzag and wavy lines, sometimes placed between parallel lines. Two sub-variants of Zacate are recognized (Figure 92). The first has either a sawtooth or stepped motif within a single design band (Figure 93a-b). The motifs can be hatched or cross-hatched (Figures 94a-b and 95a-b). There are some examples with small hatched triangles appended to the upper or lower design band lines. The second has a split or double design band (Figure 93c). There are some examples of the sawtooth motif combined with the stepped block, but there are also specimens in which the sawtooth or the stepped block motif appears alone (Figure 96a-c).
