Incised-engraved
Mexico/West Mexico
200-900 CE
Epiclassic
Incised-engraved ceramics are a diagnostic ware in West Mexico, specifically the Bajío region of Guanajuato, the Altos of Jalisco, and the Suchil, Guadiana, Malpaso, Juchipila, Tlaltenango, and Bolaños valleys of Zacatecas. Thus, the incised-engraved ware has a regional distribution across Northwestern Mesoamerica during the Epiclassic period. As first described by Kelley and Kelley (1971), incised-engraved wares typically occur as black, burnished tripod bowls and plates decorated using an incision technique that is often filled with colored pigment and concentrated within a design band located just below the rim on the exterior of tripod bowls and on the interior of plates. Kelley and Kelley (1971:9-10) also note that ...
In general, types assigned to this ware are subdivided based primarily on the timing and nature of the incision technique used to execute the design motifs (i.e., incision, excision, and champlevé, respectively) and in some cases the vessel profile. There appears to be a chronological sequence in the development of more complicated design techniques from single-line incision to cross-hatched and full excision, as well as the motifs that are incorporated (i.e., simple to blocked geom...