Cholula

By Geoffrey McCafferty (mccaffer@ucalgary.ca) 

Cholula was an urban center in the central highlands, located in the Puebla/Tlaxcala valley.  It was continuously  occupied from the Middle Formative through the Late Postclassic periods (and up to the present).  Over the course of this long cultural history numerous ceramic types were used.  Because Cholula sits atop an excellent clay source, virtually all archaeological ceramics are locally made. 

 Cholula ceramics have been studied by several scholars, with book length publications by Noguera (1954), Muller (1978), McCafferty (2001), and Hernandez (2005).  The typology presented here is based on my dissertation research, but expanded in subsequent studies of Formative and Classic contexts.  For more information on this typology, see http://arky.ucalgary.ca/mccafferty/cholula/ceramics