ANTHROPOMORPHIC PEG-BASED SCULPTURES FROM THE BANDERAS VALLEY OF COASTAL WEST MEXICO

Both the accidental as well as the purposeful discovery of a large number of anthropomorphic peg-based sculptures in the Banderas Valley in the states of Jalisco and Nayarit during the 1990s have provided a corpus of contextual and iconographic data that, along with conquest-period ethnographic data, allow for an assessment of the date and function of such figures. In addition, because of the similarity of these sculptural figures to ones of comparable dates in Central America, the case for significant pre-Hispanic coastal contacts between the two areas is reinforced.