A. Sutherland - AncientPages.com - Ancient ‘smiling faces’ are small figurines of reddish clay, associated with ancient cultures of Maya and Aztec.
Usually these ceramic sculptures were solid or hollow-bodied, small in size, sometimes larger and always with their characteristic facial expression – a rather unnatural smile.
Ritually smashed and decapitated, the figurines were often unearthed in Late Classic burials (600-900 CE, El Tajín and Classic Veracruz culture).
They represent the art that flourished from 100BC to 900AD and was created by the Totonac people (in Nahuatl language: "people of hot land"), inhabiting the Veracruz region and neighboring state, Puebla in East-Central Mexico.
The Totonac are believed to be one of the possible creators of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and even participated in building of Teotihuacán (a city which they claim to have built).
So far it is unknown what the function of these pre-Columbian artifacts was....
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