To speak generally, the earliest type of pottery of which we have cognizance is similar in type to that manufactured later by the Tarascans. Following this came the far finer ware characteristic of Teotihuacan, the product of the Toltec culture. In pottery-making the mantle of the Toltec seems to have fallen upon the people of Cholula and Tlaxcala, districts associated with them in legend, and upon the Totonac, whose art shows certain affinities with that of Cholula. Between the ware of the Cholula-Tlaxcala region and that of the
(After Seler)
Mixtec-Zapotec district considerable similarity exists, a similarity which extends to the decoration of the pyramid of Xochicalco. It is usually held that the Cholulan style penetrated into Oaxaca via Teotitlan, but I do not feel certain that the reverse may not be truer, and that the real home of the highly-burnished polychrome ware may not eventually be found to lie in Oaxaca. The form of ornament does not seem to be a direct descendant of the Teotihuacan art, and there are found in the Oaxaca region certain original forms, such as the "Peruvian" designs mentioned above, as well as a tendency to elaborate textile motives as ornament (for instance, the wall-mosaics of Mitla), many of which
