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Field Museum II
OF
Natural History
W-DA5
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, No. 3
MAP OF RUINS OF SOUTH CAYO DISTRICT, BRITISH HONDURAS,
AND ADJACENT REGIONS
Field Museum of Natural History
Founded by Marshall Field, 1893
Publication 301
Anthropological Series Vol. XVII, No. 3
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN
THE SOUTHERN CAYO DISTRICT
BRITISH HONDURAS
BY
J. Eric Thompson
ASSISTANT CURATOR OF CENTRAL AND SOUTH
AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY
First and Second Marshall Field
Archaeological Expeditions to British Honduras
28 Plates in Photogravure, 21 Text-figures, and 1 Map
Berthold Laufer
CURATOR. DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY
rA NATURAL ^i
*^ HISTORY >
FOUNDED BY MAWHAU FIELD
CHICAGO, U. S. A.
1931
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
BY FIELD MUSEUM PRESS
CONTENTS
PAGE
List of Illustrations 219
I. Location and Environment 223
II. General Description of the Ruins 233
Tzimin Kax 233
Cahal Cunil 238
Cahal Pichik 239
Hatzcap Ceel 248
III. Monuments and Votive Caches 261
Monuments 261
Altar 1 261
Altar 2 264
Uncarved Monuments 267
Votive Caches 269
No. 1 270
No. 2 274
No. 3 275
No. 4 276
No. 5 277
No. 6 277
No. 7 277
No. 8 278
No. 9 280
No. 10 281
Comparative Study of Caches 282
IV. Burials 284
Holmul I Period 284
Chultun A, Tzimin Kax 284
Chultun B, Tzimin Kax 286
Chultun C, Tzimin Kax 287
Vaulted Chamber I, Cahal Cunil 290
Burial III, Cahal Cunil 292
Summary of Holmul I Burials 294
Holmul V Period 295
Vaulted Chamber II, Tzimin Kax 295
Vaulted Chamber I, Tzimin Kax 303
Vaulted Chamber III, Tzimin Kax 304
217
218 Contents
PAGE
Burial VII, Tzimin Kax 313
Burial II, Cahal Cunil 316
Vaulted Chamber X, Tzimin Kax 317
Relationships of Holmul V Burials at Mountain
Cow 318
Miscellaneous Burials 319
Chultun D, Tzimin Kax 319
Burial IV, Tzimin Kax 320
Vaulted Chamber IX, Tzimin Kax 321
Vaulted Chamber IV, Cahal Cunil 321
Burial VIII, Tzimin Kax 322
V. Sequence of Cultures 323
VI. General Summary and Conclusions 334
Appendix I . The So-called ' ' In-and-out' ' Style of Masonry
at Lubaantun, British Honduras 338
Appendix II. Stela 26, Copan 344
Appendix III. Dates 25 and 26 of the Hieroglyphic Stair-
way, Copan 347
Appendix IV. On the Origin of the 260-day Almanac .... 349
Appendix V. The Initial Series at Holactun, Yucatan . . . 354
Bibliography 357
Index 361
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PLATES
XXV. 1. Typical Rain Forest, Mountain Cow District.
2. Ceremonial Plaza, Hatzcap Ceel before Excavation.
XXVI. 1. Temple F, Hatzcap Ceel after Excavation.
2. Stairway of Pyramid D, Hatzcap Ceel.
XXVII. Incensarios, Structure M, Hatzcap Ceel.
XXVIII. Altar 1, Hatzcap Ceel.
XXIX. Altar 2, Hatzcap Ceel.
XXX. 1. Stelae Al, A2, and A3, Cahal Pichik.
2. Part of Contents of Votive Cache 1, Hatzcap Ceel.
XXXI. Part of Contents of Votive Cache 1, Hatzcap Ceel.
XXXII. Jade Objects from Votive Caches 1 and 8,
XXXIII. Celt with Inscription from Votive Cache 1.
XXXIV. Votive Cache Urns, Votive Caches 2, 3 and 8.
XXXV. Figurines from Various Caches.
XXXVI. Contents of Votive Cache 4, Cahal Pichik.
XXXVII. Part of Contents of Votive Cache 5, Cahal Pichik.
XXXVIII. Contents of Votive Cache 8, Camp 6.
XXXIX. 1. Pyramid A, Camp 6.
2. Contents of Votive Cache 9, Camp 6.
XL. Contents of Chultun A, Tzimin Kax.
XLI. Contents of Chultun B, Tzimin Kax.
XLII. Contents of Chultun C, Tzimin Kax.
XLIII. Part of Contents of Chultun C, Tzimin Kax.
XLIV. Pottery Vessels from Vaulted Chamber I, Cahal Cunil.
XLV. Pottery Vessels from Vaulted Chamber II, Tzimin Kax.
XLVI. Stone and Shell Objects from Vaulted Chamber II,
Tzimin Kax.
XLVII. Shell Objects and Teeth from Vaulted Chamber III,
Tzimin Kax.
XLVIII. Cylindrical Jar from Vaulted Chamber III, Tzimin Kax.
219
220 List of Illustrations
XLIX. Shell and Stone Objects from Vaulted Chamber X,
Tzimin Kax.
L. Pottery Vessels from Chultun D, Tzimin Kax.
LI. Bowl Resting on Floor 1, Plazuela I, Cahal Cunil.
LII. 1. Stela 26, Copan.
2. Lower Part of Stela 26, Copan.
TEXT-FIGURES
PAGE
1. Map of Mountain Cow Water Hole and Surrounding Ruins 232
2. Cross-sections and Ground Plans, Tzimin Kax: a, Plazuela
II; b, Plazuela 1 234
3. Cross-section and Ground Plan of Mound A, Plazuela II,
Tzimin Kax 236
4. Ground Plan of Cahal Pichik 240
5. Restoration of Temple B, Cahal Pichik 242
6. Cross-sections of Supposed Ball Courts: a, Cahal Pichik;
b, Hatzcap Ceel 246
7. Ground Plan of Hatzcap Ceel 250
8. Mirror and Burial Chamber, Hatzcap Ceel : a, Iron Pyrite
Mirror from Votive Cache 2; b, Vaulted Burial
Chamber, Pyramid N 255
9. Ground Plan of Camp 6 Ruins 279
10. Ground Plans and Cross-sections, Tzimin Kax: a, Vaulted
Chamber II; b, Vaulted Chamber I. c, Pottery Vessels
from Burial IV, Tzimin Kax. d, Vessel from Mound F,
Cahal Pichik 297
11. Pottery Shapes, Vaulted Chamber II, Tzimin Kax 299
12. Pottery Shapes, Vaulted Chamber I, Tzimin Kax 305
13. Pottery Shapes, Vaulted Chamber III, Tzimin Kax 307
14. Objects from Vaulted Chamber III, Tzimin Kax, Holmul V
Period: a, Polychrome Bowl; b, Restoration of Incen-
sario; c, Glyphs from Jar on Plate XLVIII 311
15. Pottery Shapes and Flint, Tzimin Kax, Holmul V Period:
a-c and f-g, Burial VII ; d-e, Vaulted Chamber X . . . . 315
16. Ground Plan and Cross-section of Plazuela I, Cahal Cunil 324
List of Illustrations 221
PAGE
17. Pottery from Cahal Cunil, Pre-Holmul I Period: a,
Chultun E; b-e, Sherds Resting on Floor 1, Plazuela I 327
18. Sherds from Hollow under Plazuela II, Cahal Cunil 329
19. Sherds from Hollow under Plazuela II, Cahal Cunil 331
20. Front and Cross-section Drawing of Part of Face of
Pyramid E, Lubaantun 339
21. Front and Cross-section Drawing of Part of Face of
Pyramid D, Lubaantun , 342
ARCHAEOLOGICAL INVESTIGATIONS IN
THE SOUTHERN CAYO DISTRICT
BRITISH HONDURAS
I. LOCATION AND ENVIRONMENT
British Honduras is divided for administrative purposes into six
districts. The Cayo District, one of these six and the scene of the
investigations described in this publication, is situated on the western
frontier of the colony, adjoining Guatemala. It occupies a block of
territory, roughly oblong in shape and about equidistant from the
northern and southern boundaries of the colony. The total area is
about 1,830 square miles, and it forms the second largest district in
the colony, being surpassed in this respect only by the Toledo
District, which is about 300 square miles larger.
Despite its size, the population of the Cayo District is small,
being estimated in 1923 at less than 6,000, which gives an average
only slightly above three persons to the square mile. In actual
fact the whole population is concentrated in the northern half,
mainly along the banks of the Belize River; and the southern third
of the district, the area dealt with in this publication, has no per-
manent population whatever.
The capital of the district and the base for all expeditions into
the southern area is the town of El Cayo, also known as San Ignacio
Cayo. The population of the town fluctuates, as the number is
swollen during the dry season by a large number of chewing gum
bleeders engaged in the chicle industry, who at that time are not
working. The average population cannot fall far short of 1,500, and
in the middle of the dry season probably reaches 2,000. Racially
El Cayo is very mixed. Spanish-Indian half-breeds, many of them
immigrants from the neighboring republics, predominate. There are
also many English-speaking mulattos, men of Spanish-Indian-Negro
blood, Negro descendants of the slaves introduced during the eight-
eenth and nineteenth centuries, a few Syrian and Chinese merchants,
and a diminishing number of Maya Indians. The Spanish tongue
predominates.
The North European population consists of the resident doctor,
Dr. T. Patterson and his family, and the District Commissioner,
virtual ruler of the area, a position at present held by Mr. R. Wyatt.
I should like to take this opportunity of recording my deep gratitude
223
224 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
to Dr. and Mrs. Patterson for their kind help and hospitality offered
me on many occasions.
El Cayo, which is situated on the eastern branch of the Belize
River about two miles above the fork, is reached from Belize by
means of gasoline launches that ply up and down that river. The
journey occupies anything from thirty-six hours to six days depending
on the amount of water in the river. The launches, which are chiefly
engaged in carrying chicle (raw chewing gum, the product of the
sapodilla tree, Achras sapota) downstream, returning with pro-
visions, gasoline, etc., average about fifty feet in length, and have a
beam of some seven feet. They are of very light draught owing to
the shallowness of the river in many parts. The distance from
Belize by river is some 135 miles, but as the crow flies the distance
does not exceed sixty-five miles. There is also a track overland,
officially designated a road, but which is impassable for vehicular
traffic.
The area around El Cayo is rolling limestone country thickly
covered with tropical rain forest, averaging a height of between five
and six hundred feet above sea level.
The actual scene of the excavations carried out by the First and
Second Marshall Field Archaeological Expeditions to British Hon-
duras lies some twenty-five miles south-southeast of El Cayo in a
direct line. There is situated a small water hole, which sometimes
dries up during the dry season, known as Mountain Cow Water Hole.
During the dry season of 1928 when the First Marshall Field
Expedition was in the field, the Mengel Lumber Company of Louis-
ville, Kentucky, was carrying on logging operations in this area,
cutting and transporting mahogany to the bacardier of Vaca on the
eastern branch of the Belize River about fifteen miles by river above
El Cayo. Bacardier is a local word used to denote the point at which
the logs are placed in the river to await the floods that will carry them
downstream to the coast. The word is, presumably, a corruption of
the Spanish word embarcadero (a "quay" or "loading point"). The
bacardier of Vaca was at that time connected with Camp 6, the
headquarters of the Mengel Company's operations, by a lumber
railroad some nine miles in length, which was used to bring the logs
down to the river.
Mr. Stuart Williams, the manager of the Mengel Company's
operations in the southern Cayo District, very kindly placed his own
organization at the disposal of the expedition, and thereby personnel
Location and Environment 225
and stores were transported to Camp 6 and Mountain Cow Water
Hole at a minimum expense and maximum comfort. It would be no
exaggeration to say that the whole success of the expedition was due
to the never-ending help of Mr. Williams and his colleagues, shown
in a hundred different ways, from the loan of mules and tractors, at a
time when they were badly needed for the operations of the Mengel
Company, to the hospitality so cordially offered by both Mr. and
Mrs. Williams.
In 1929, however, when the Second Marshall Field Archaeological
Expedition took the field, the Mengel Company had transferred
its operations to Guatemala, working from a base below El Cayo,
the railroad had been dismantled, and it was necessary to travel by
land. A short description of the route followed to reach Mountain
Cow Water Hole is given for the benefit of any future investigator.
From El Cayo take the paved road to Benque Viejo, distant
about nine miles from El Cayo. Benque Viejo is a pleasant little
Latin American-Maya town of some 800 inhabitants situated about
a mile from the Guatemala frontier. Teobert Maler (1908, p. 76)
met with some troubles at Benque and is outspoken in his criticism,
describing the "miserable traders" as "good-for-nothing, inconsid-
erate persons" and the town as "this wretched Benque Viejo."
However, Maler was in the habit of venting his vexations on places
and their inhabitants where things went badly with him. In actual
fact Benque Viejo is a prosperous town engaged in the chicle business,
where it is possible to outfit for a trip into the bush, although at
prices considerably higher than those current in Belize.
Mules can be hired either at El Cayo or Benque Viejo. From
Benque Viejo take the Arenal trail. About two miles from Benque
Viejo the trail forks. The trail to the right goes to Arenal, that to the
left to Water Hole. Water Hole is situated on the now derelict rail-
road from Vaca to Camp 6. There is a good water supply, and
excellent pasture for mules. The journey from Benque Viejo to
Water Hole is about nine miles, and in the dry season it is easy to
push on to Camp 6 the same day, another seven miles, following the
old railroad track.
Camp 6 has a good water supply, excellent pasture, and a frame
house, once the headquarters of the Mengel Company and their
predecessors, the Starky brothers. This house should be good for
another four or five years. Camp 6 is situated in the middle of a
valley, and is surrounded by low hills. The elevation is in the
neighborhood of 1,200 feet.
226 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Next day Mountain Cow Water Hole should be reached without
difficulty in the dry season. The trail follows the old railroad track
south from Camp 6, a distance of five miles, to the old rail-head.
Thence it bears away slightly to the right (south-southeast) across
the high Starky Hill to Moho Tree, an old lumber camp, a farther
four miles. At Moho Tree take the trail to the left leading south-
southwest, a mile to Cohune Ridge. A couple of hundred yards
beyond Cohune Ridge a trail branches off nearly at right angles to
the left. This leads to Mountain Cow Water Hole, distant four and
one-half miles.
The total distance by trail from El Cayo to Mountain Cow
Water Hole is about forty miles.
Except in the rainy season there is no water supply at rail-head,
Moho Tree, or Cohune Ridge. At Mountain Cow there is a fair-sized
pond, which can be depended on at all times except in a very dry
season. The pond is situated about twenty yards north of the
center of the camp.
The actual position of Mountain Cow camp was found by Mr.
N. G. B. Guy of the Surveyor General Department to be latitude
N. 16° 47', longitude W. 89°, which would place it about eleven
miles east of the Guatemala frontier. The elevation, according to
Mr. D. Stevenson of the Forestry Department, is 2,076 feet.
Mountain Cow Water Hole was previously occupied as a ma-
hogany camp, and the surrounding country is intersected by old
tractor roads. In 1927 lumber operations ceased in this area, and
when the Marshall Field Expedition arrived there early in 1928,
the camp was already partly overgrown, many of the tractor passes
were reverting to forest, and most of the huts had either collapsed,
or were in a dangerous condition.
"Mountain Cow" is the local Creole name for the tapir. The
origin of the word is probably to be sought in Maya. The Maya
word for the tapir was tzimin. On the introduction of the horse to
the New World, the Mayas extended this word to cover the horse,
since the tapir among the animals they knew most resembled the
horse. Later, to avoid confusion, the termination die or kax was
added to the tapir. By this time the horse was commoner than the
tapir, and the word tzimin conveyed the picture of a horse more
than that of a tapir. The words che or kax mean "wood" or "forest,"
so the word meant "horse of the forest." Translated into Spanish
that became el caballo de la montana. The word was next translated
into English, the word montana, however, being wrongly translated
Location and Environment 227
"mountain." The horse became "cow" either in Spanish or in English,
probably because the tapir resembles a cow more than it does a horse.
The usual Spanish word, however, for the tapir is danta, and the
modern Creole word was probably borrowed originally from Spanish-
speaking Mayas.
Mountain Cow Water Hole is situated in rolling limestone country
thickly covered with tropical rain forest (Plate XXV). Mahogany
(Swietenia macrophylla), cedar (Cedrela mexicana), the sapodilla
(Achras sapota), Santa Maria (Calophyllum antillanum), bullet tree
(Bucida buceras), allspice tree (Pimento, officinalis), the breadnut
(Brosimum alicastrum), the cohune (Attalea cohune), the ceiba (Bom-
bax ceiba), the cabbage palm (Sabal mexicana), and a species of oak
are the most outstanding trees. The forest is rich in orchids, aerial
plants such as bromeliads, and the water-bearing liana.
Game is abundant. Jaguars, ocelots, howling and spider monkeys,
agoutis, coatis, armadillos, peccary, warree, a large and small variety
of deer, tapirs, ant-eaters, opossums, kinkajous, and skunks are
all found in this area.
There are also a large number of bird species for a description of
which the reader is referred to 0. L. Austin's "Birds of the Cayo
District."
There are no rivers within a radius of ten miles of Mountain Cow,
consequently the ancient inhabitants of this region must either have
dispensed with fish, or, more probably, made lengthy fishing trips.
The rainfall during most of the season is heavy, and only during
the months of February, March, April, and May can one count with
any certainty on a spell of dry weather. Owing to its elevation the
Mountain Cow region is salubrious and comparatively free of
mosquitoes. The nights are cool, and the days not oppressively hot.
The soil is rich, although somewhat shallow, but in the valleys is to
be found deep soil as good as any in the whole peninsula.
Some ten miles to the north, just beyond the Macal or eastern
branch of the Belize River, the formation of the soil changes very
abruptly from limestone to a poor sandy waste, on which thrive only
pines and a few of the stunted varieties of hardy trees, as well as
great stretches of coarse grass. Here are to be found outcroppings
of granite, and, at a few points, surface beds of slate. Gold, too, has
been found here in small quantities.
To the east and southeast the Maya mountains are massed around
the Victoria Peak (height, 3,700 feet) . To the west and southwest the
228 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
rain forest undulates in diminishing crests down to the southern
Peten region, thrusting out, however, a spur in the direction of
San Luis.
Except for a shortage of water the country is ideal for settlement,
possessing the three main requisites for settlement by the Mayas,
good soil, abundant game and a salubrious climate, owing to the high
altitude of the site. In fact the sites grouped around Mountain Cow
Water Hole are, as far as our present knowledge goes, the highest
cities in the whole Maya zone of dated monuments, the only site to
approach them in elevation being Copan, the altitude of which was
calculated by Popenoe (1919, p. 126) at 1,900 feet. Other calculations,
probably not so accurate, place the elevation at between 1,500 and
2,000 feet. On the other hand the site of Hatzcap Ceel, described
in Chapter II, is considerably higher than Mountain Cow Water Hole,
and may well be 2,250 feet above sea level.
The inhabitants of this region must have been cut off from practi-
cal communication with the cities to the south, such as Pusilha and
Lubaantun, although the latter is only some forty miles in a straight
line from Mountain Cow Water Hole; but the intervening country
is very broken and mountainous, unsuitable in many parts for habita-
tion and difficult to traverse.
Communications with the north were probably maintained
through the city situated at Camp 6 (p. 278), Minanha, and Benque
Viejo. To the west and northwest the country is easily traversed to
Ixkun, distant about thirty-three miles, and Ucanal, distant twenty-
seven miles. All of these sites were contemporaneous with the cities
of Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal Pichik.
However, to anticipate, in pottery types at least the Mountain
Cow sites are related to the cities in the Holmul-Uaxactun area.
Probably more excavation will reveal that the whole of the Peten
area north of Flores and the contiguous strip of western British
Honduras form with minor regional differences one major ceramic
zone.
That trade was extensive is shown by the excavation of quantities
of sea shells, pieces of coral, and painted pottery of certain types,
flint, possibly from the Holmul beds, obsidian that was probably
brought from the neighborhood of Zacapa in Guatemala, and jade,
probably imported from southwest Mexico.
Practically every hillside from between Arenal and Benque Viejo
in the north, and the Mountain Cow area in the south, is terraced.
Location and Environment 229
The terraces are faced with rough blocks of limestone, and vary in
width according to the slope of the hill on which they are situated.
They were, undoubtedly, erected to prevent denudation, irrigation
in this area being impossible. Cook (1909, p. 17) is of the same
opinion. Although I could find no positive evidence as to when
they were erected, I should be inclined to place the period as the
last three or four katuns of Cycle 9 and the first katuns of Cycle 10.
Potsherds found on these terraces belong to this period; but this is,
at the best, merely negative evidence, as only a superficial examina-
tion could be made. However, as the population was surely greater
at this time than in the earlier period, the assumption might be
made that the earlier and scantier population would have cultivated
the lower level lands, and only pressure of population led to the
terracing and cultivation of the steeper high slopes.
There is no information from historical sources as to what tribe
was inhabiting this region at the time of the Spanish conquest of
the peninsula. At that time the Mopans occupied the region directly
to the west, and one can presume that the area around Mountain
Cow, if inhabited at all during this period, was occupied either by
the Mopans or a closely allied people.
The Mopans, who at one time and another proved to be such a
thorn in the side of the missionary fathers, were on a low cultural
level. They spoke a dialect of Maya somewhat different from that
of Yucatan (J. E. Thompson, 1929, p. 37), and appear to have been
allies of, or on friendly terms with the Itzas of Tayasal during the
seventeenth century. We can only conjecture what people occupied
this area when Maya civilization was at its height.
It has been generally assumed that the cities of the so-called "Old
Empire" were occupied by Mayas, who spoke the Yucatecan dialect,
and that they abandoned this region, migrating north into Yucatan
during Cycle 9 and early in Cycle 10. A secondary migration to the
highlands of Guatemala, according to Morley (1920, p. 459), took
place at the same time and led to the erection of stelae at Quen
Santo. Morley believes that these Mayas are the ancestors of the
Quiche, Cakchiquel, and other highland tribes.
In objection to this theory one might suggest that seven hundred
years, or, according to Spinden's correlation, nine hundred years is
much too short a period for the development of languages so dis-
tinct as the Maya of Yucatan is from those of the Highlands of
Guatemala. Furthermore, the Highlands of Guatemala were prob-
ably occupied long before the rise of the Maya "Old Empire."
230 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Figurine heads and stone carvings found in the vicinity of Guatemala
City certainly antedate Cycle 9. A migration of culture does not
by any means imply that the bearers of that culture must have
migrated as well — an assumption that is too frequently made.
Furthermore, the evidence that Yucatan was not occupied at an
early date is ridiculously inconclusive. It is based on Mercer's
superficial examination of a few caves in Yucatan (Mercer, 1896).
As traces were found only of an occupation that is presumed to be
late, it was concluded that there had been no earlier occupation.
At best this evidence is merely negative, and applies only to a small
area, but it is nullified by the fact that caves do not appear to have
been used as dwellings by the Mayas, except in times of stress, and
most caves in the "Old Empire" region contain nothing more than
a few sherds of domestic use, and sometimes incense burners, con-
firming ethnological and literary evidence that they served as occa-
sional places of worship.
As a working hypothesis the following scheme is suggested. The
sacred 260-day almanac and the fundamentals of Maya civilization
were common to all the inhabitants of the Maya region. The area
of the so-called "Old Empire" was occupied by Choi-speaking peoples.
Some of these Chols passed up the east coast of Yucatan and popu-
lated Ichpahtun, Tulum, Coba, Kucican, and Macanxoc before the
close of the first half of Cycle 9. They emigrated from the Peten,
and took with them the typical architecture and art of this region.
In western Yucatan they probably came in contact with the Yuca-
tecan Mayas, who were at this time by no means uncultured.
There was no migration of people from the cities of the "Old
Empire" to the Highlands of Guatemala, but there was a current of
culture flowing in both directions. The "Old Empire" region was
never actually abandoned. A decay set in, possibly due to revolt
on the part of the rank and file against intrusive religious ideas
introduced by the priesthood and a tyrannous system of slave labor.
The priest class was destroyed, and the inhabitants reverted to their
old agricultural life, abandoning the erection of vast pyramids, com-
plex religious groups, and stelae. The old knowledge of mathematics
disappeared, but the layman's religion and a simple priesthood
survived. Disease and war may have reduced the population, but
never entirely wiped it out. That happened in the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries when smallpox, hookworm, influenza, and a
host of new European diseases ran like a prairie fire through the
Choi population, and the recent Itza-Yucatecan immigrants. Mean-
Location and Environment 231
while in Yucatan and in the Highlands of Guatemala the old order
survived in slightly modified form until the arrival of the Spaniards.
In Yucatan Mexican influences from the Vera Cruz area made them-
selves felt.
This skeletal reconstruction of Maya history is, of course, mainly
hypothetical. At least it has the advantage of accounting for a popu-
lation occupying the region of the Cycle 9 cities in the sixteenth
century. It explains certain artistic, architectural, and religious
differences between the "Old Empire," and the cities of western
Yucatan, and deals satisfactorily with the linguistic differences
between the Choi-Maya area and the Highlands of Guatemala, setting
back the split from the common ancestral tongue at least fifteen
hundred years, probably much longer. The theory that the inhabi-
tants of the "Old Empire" regions were Chols is not new. It was
first proposed by William Gates (p. 615) some ten years ago. Whether
the original inhabitants of the Peten were Chols or not is of no great
importance. Elsewhere (Thompson and Pollock) I deal at greater
length with migrations of culture into Yucatan. The time has
clearly not arrived when we shall be in a position to sketch anything
but a tentative outline of these movements.
On this theory the cities of the Mountain Cow area were inhabited
in ancient times by Choi-speaking Mayas.
During the 1928 field season the staff consisted of Maya Indians
from the village of Socotz under the foreman Jacinto Cunil, at one
period a couple of Ladinos, and myself. During part of the 1929
season Mr. Jorge Acosta of Mexico City served as an assistant
archaeologist. Mr. Amado Esquivel ("Muddy") was also employed
during part of that season, and the laborers consisted of twelve San
Antonio Indians and two Kekchis from San Pedro Colombia, Toledo,
under the foreman Caterino Bol, a varying number of Socotz Mayas
again under foreman Jacinto Cunil, a negress cook, and a negro
muleteer. The Indians are good workers, although not physically
as strong as negroes, willing and keen, and, if treated well, much
ethnological information can be obtained from them (Thompson,
1929, p. 29).
J. a
j_i CahalCunil
.in
Canal Pichik ^„
\ ICnt. It. li'iy')
Mountain \Cow Camp
Hatzcap Ceel
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Fig. 1
Map of Mountain Cow Water Hole and Surrounding Ruins
II. GENERAL DESCRIPTION OF THE RUINS
Tzimin Kax
Southeast of Mountain Cow Water Hole and within a radius of
half a mile lies scattered a series of small raised courts (Fig. 1). The
name, Tzimin Kax, which is the Maya term for the tapir or mountain
cow, has been given to the whole group. Altogether thirteen of these
courts were located, and there may well be others hidden in the thick
bush. They are as a rule roughly square in shape, and are in most
cases located on the tops of small natural hillocks. The original
builders appear to have chosen these small hilltops and extended
them by piling round them masses of stone and rubble up to two
or three feet higher than the natural level of the summit. The
whole was then leveled off, forming, on a small scale, a typical Maya
plaza. The method of construction is illustrated in the cross-section
of Plazuela I (Fig. 2, b). On top of these platforms were erected
small oblong or square mounds, which were invariably placed on the
edges of the platforms. In some cases the mounds occupy all four
sides of the platform. In other cases only two sides (Fig. 2, b), or
three sides are thus treated.
In this publication the term "plazuela" is used to denominate a
small raised court of this description. The word "plazuela" is the
Spanish diminutive of plaza, a word used archaeologically to describe
a Maya religious court around which mounds and pyramids are
grouped.
The average plazuela at Tzimin Kax measures approximately 25
meters in each direction. They are usually oriented within three or
four degrees of true north (the magnetic variation at Mountain Cow
Water Hole being 5.05 degrees). There is considerable variation in
the heights of the different plazuelas, but as a rule the floor is not
more than four feet above the natural ground level. Sometimes,
where a plazuela has been built on the summit of a natural hill,
where the slopes on the different sides are not the same, the edges
vary considerably in height. An example of this is supplied by
Plazuela I (Fig. 2, b). Here the slope from the summit of the hillock
is much greater to the east, with the result that the outside wall of
the plazuela on the east side is slightly more than 3 meters high,
but on the west side, where there is a much gentler slope, the wall
that bounds the plazuela has a height of only some 60 cm.
233
Fill'
■Section through
Pl&-z.uela. U 3.
Fill
Section through X Y
\chu\ltun I .
Plazuela. I 2>
5 ■*■ 3 2 1 o jr
Fig. 2
Crossnsections and Ground Plans, Tzimin Kax:
a, Plazuela II; b, Plazuela I
General Description of the Ruins 235
The outside walls are made of blocks of stone, very roughly faced
and quite unsquared. The interstices are filled with small chinked
material as in a typical Maya fill. Usually the corners of the out-
side walls are square, but occasionally they are slightly rounded off
(Plazuela I, Fig. 2, b). No evidence could be obtained to indicate
whether rounded corners represent a different period to the usual
square corners, but probably the two styles were contemporaneous.
The "fill" of the plazuelas is of typical Maya construction. Over
the natural rock is a very thin natural accumulation of humus. On
top of this is laid a bed of large limestone boulders and a small
amount of rubble, but the fill is loose (i.e. the spaces between the
boulders are not packed). This bed of large rock is carried up to
within approximately 10 cm of the floor of the plazuela. Above
this is a layer of packed fill. The material employed consists of
small limestone rocks tightly packed with mortar and rubble. On
this is laid the floor. The floors have, naturally, to a large extent
disappeared from the surface, and where a floor is visible close below
the surface, one can surmise that a later floor, since disappeared, had
protected it. Worthy of remark is the extraordinary slowness with
which debris accumulates in the Maya area. Despite the thick
tropical vegetation, the depth of the debris that has accumulated
since the abandonment of a site at a spot where there is no fallen
masonry, rarely exceeds a couple of inches. In view of the fact
that these sites must have been abandoned for at least a thousand
years, one must conclude that the humus deposit is so very low
owing to the high water content of the vegetation.
The mounds set on top of the plazuelas can be divided into two
main types, those that are low, flat and oblong in shape, and those
that are high and roughly square in shape. The ground plan of
Plazuela II (Fig. 2, a) illustrates well the two types. Mounds B, C,
and D belong to the first type, being oblong and averaging a meter
in height. Mound A belongs to the second type. It is square
in shape and almost 2.5 meters high with sides that slope in like
the sides of a pyramid. Indeed, it might well be described as a
small pyramidal structure. The mounds on all the plazuelas of
Tzimin Kax conform to these types, and in describing one plazuela
one describes all. The sides of the low oblong type are fre-
quently faced with poorly made walls of two or three tiers of roughly
faced unsquared limestone blocks. Sometimes a stucco floor passes
through the center of the low mounds, indicating that at one period
the mound had been lower. Occasionally one tier wall of the same
Fig. 3
Cross-section and Ground Plan of Mound A, Plazuela II, Tzimin Kax
General Description of the Ruins 237
type of masonry runs along the backs of the tops of the oblong
mounds, and rarely along the sides. The fill of these mounds is the
same as that of the plazuelas, consisting of a bed of loose fill covered
with a bed of packed fill. Numbers of sherds were found in the
packed fills. These, where identifiable, invariably belonged to the
Holmul V period. However, by no means all of the low mounds
were excavated, and it might be that among the unexcavated ones
were some that contained sherds of other periods. There is no
evidence as to the purpose these mounds served, but presumably
wood and thatch buildings formerly stood on top, and they were
nothing more than house substructures. One could hazard, further-
more, that the houses or temples that stood on top were not for the
common people, for the amount of labor involved in building the
plazuela and the richly painted potsherds point to occupants of
wealth and rank.
Mounds of the second type, that is, those that are roughly square
and of pyramidal type, are far less common than mounds of the first
type. In a number of cases burials were found either in these mounds,
or below the plaza floor directly in front of them. They are most
frequently situated on the east side of the plazuelas, although this
may have been nothing more than chance. Frequently there is a
floor running across the mound about halfway between the base
and the top. This would seem to indicate that originally the mounds
served as substructures, on which small temples or houses were
erected. Subsequently the building was abandoned or destroyed,
and earth and soil heaped up on top.
A ground plan and cross-section of Mound A of Plazuela II is
shown in Fig. 3. This proved to be the richest mound excavated
at Tzimin Kax, for, with the vaulted chambers in front, there were
no less than six burial groups associated with it. It will be noticed
that the mound was built after the construction of the present
plazuela floor, for this floor passes under the mound and was cut
through to enable the different burial chambers to be constructed.
Just above vaulted Chamber II there is a second floor, presumably
constructed at the same time as the tomb it covers. Then, at some
later date, the level of the mound was raised and a third floor added.
Subsequently debris, possibly from some small shrine, covered this
floor to a depth of a few inches, although possibly there may have
been yet another floor on the summit, which in the course of centuries
of exposure has disappeared.
238 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Evidence of the occupation of the Tzimin Kax group during two
periods — Holmul I and Holmul V — is given in Chapter IV. Most of
the mounds and possibly some of the plazuelas belong entirely to
the latter period. Tzimin Kax is not in the current archaeological
sense of the word a Maya city, for the large religious structures,
stelae, and palaces are wanting. However we have here, in all prob-
ability, a typical residential site, occupied by the wealthier Mayas.
The large number of burials found at the different plazuelas does
not conflict with this surmise, for Landa (section XXXIII) relates
that it was customary in Yucatan for the dead to be buried under
the houses. The same custom is still practiced by a number of Maya
tribes including the Choi (Starr, p. 74), who bury children under the
floors of their huts. This same custom, I was informed, is still
practiced in the district around the source of the Cancuen River.
Among the Cakchiquels the high priest was also buried in his house
(Sanchez y Leon, p. 27). The Kekchis, too, have the custom of bury-
ing their dead under the floors of the "ermitas" (Sapper, 1897,
p. 275). Blom (1927, p. 361) reports burial under the floors of the
huts among the Bachajon Tzeltals. It is thus clear that hut burial is
a very widespread Maya custom, and it does not seem unreasonable
to suppose that the burials under the floors of plazuelas, or in the
mounds themselves, are those of the actual inhabitants, who after
death were buried under their own dwellings.
Presumably the inhabitants of Tzimin Kax, during Holmul V
times at least, resorted to Cahal Pichik and Hatzcap Ceel for reli-
gious ceremonies. Evidence will be presented to show that the three
sites were all occupied during the Holmul V period.
Cahal Cunil
The name Cahal Cunil has been given to another series of small
plazuelas lying to the northeast of Mountain Cow Water Hole
(Fig. 1). The name, which is Maya, means the town of Cunil, the
site having been discovered by the foreman of the workers, Jacinto
Cunil, a Socotz Maya. The distance separating Cahal Cunil from
Tzimin Kax is not great, but it seemed best to differentiate the two
sites by giving them separate names, as an earlier culture, which is
probably pre-Holmul I, was found at Cahal Cunil, and this was not,
apparently, represented at Tzimin Kax. However, both Holmul I
and Holmul V also occur at Cahal Cunil. Cahal Cunil comprises
about five scattered plazuelas, of the same general size and with the
same arrangement of mounds as at Tzimin Kax. Undoubtedly
General Description of the Ruins 239
Cahal Cunil was another residential site of the same type as Tzimin
Kax.
Cahal Pichik
The site of Cahal Pichik lies some six hundred yards west of
Mountain Cow Water Hole, just north of the trail between Moho
Tree and this place. The name means "The Town of the Emerald
Toucanets," the site taking its name from the large number of birds
of this species (Aulacorhynchus prasinus prasinus) noticed by Mr.
Oliver Austin in the vicinity of the ruins.
The site was surveyed with a theodolite by Mr. N. G. B. Guy of
the British Honduras Survey Department. The plan of the site
shown on Fig. 4, as well as the plan of the ruins of Hatzcap Ceel
and the general map of Mountain Cow Water Hole area, is the work
of this gentleman. The task of surveying the ruins, involving, as it
so frequently did, the estimating of the original corners of the mounds,
which were badly destroyed in most cases, was a difficult one.
Furthermore this was a branch of surveying never before attempted
by any member of the British Honduras Survey Department. Mr.
Guy is, therefore, to be congratulated on the exceptionally fine results
he achieved.
Cahal Pichik is built on sloping ground, the natural level of the
ground being much higher at the north end. As a result of this
natural feature, the north end of the city is divided from the south
end by being built on a raised plaza almost 5 meters higher than
the rest of the ruins. On this small plaza (Group II) are situated
seven mounds, only one of which, Pyramid Q, is of any importance.
The remaining eleven mounds are grouped around an extensive
plaza with a breadth from east to west of 63 meters, and a
length from north to south of 55 meters. The plaza is artificially
leveled off, the height above ground level varying from a meter
or more to a few centimeters owing to the slope of the natural level,
to which reference has already been made.
This plaza, which, with its accompanying mounds, forms Group
I, was the ceremonial center of the city, for in it had been placed
seven plain stelae, five in front of Pyramid A, and two on Mound G
(see chap. III). On the south the plaza is flanked by Pyramid A,
an imposing structure with a present height of some 12 meters and a
north and south base line of 36 meters. The pyramid was divided into
eight or nine stepped terraces, which are now in a very collapsed
condition. The corners appear to have been angular, but owing to
their very damaged condition it is not possible to be certain of
.x^N,
'^'ifiiinfifffrtniittWmM^r^
ft
VO» SO o
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Fig. 4
Ground Plan of Cahal Pichik
General Description of the Ruins 241
even that. The interior consists of the usual loose fill of large lime-
stone rocks. The summit of the pyramid is flat, measuring 11 meters
from east to west and 9 meters from north to south. This was
presumably reached by a stairway up the north or front face, but of
this there now remain no traces. There are no signs of any structure
on the summit. There were, however, three floors laid one on top of
another, the top one being some 25 cm below the present level. The
floors are uneven and poorly made. The 25 cm of soil above the first
floor probably indicate that originally the top of the pyramid was
surmounted by a wooden temple with thatched roof, such as are
known to have existed in the Maya area. The soil is, apparently,
mixed with a fair quantity of powdered stucco, such as one might
expect to collect from the collapse of stucco covered jacal walls. The
accumulation of 25 cm is too deep to have been natural at such an
exposed spot, and too uneven to have been formerly covered by yet
another floor which has now disappeared.
Pyramid B flanks the west side of the plaza, and was undoubtedly
the most important structure in the group. The pyramid, which
appears to have consisted of three terraces with rounded corners, is
42 meters square at the base, and a little over 13 meters high. The
summit was crowned with a building, the back wall of which has a
present height of 2.50 meters, making a total height for the pyramid
and superstructure of 15.50 meters. The stairway, which once must
have existed on the east face, has entirely disappeared.
The building was of a peculiar type. The back wall, which was
8 meters long, was made of stone, well faced, but not cut square or
matched at all for size. From the ends of the back wall short sections
of side walls project forward for a distance of almost a meter,
enclosing an area obviously too narrow for a room. The presumption
was that these side walls were carried farther forward by pole wall
extensions. This surmise was confirmed by finding that the floor,
which was of firm, well-made stucco, extended forward 8.10 meters
from the back wall. There was no sign of a front wall, so, presumably,
this also was made of poles and, possibly, wattle covered with stucco.
Above the whole extent of the floor was a quantity of pulverized
stucco, in which were imbedded a few small flattish faced stones of
various sizes and a number of stucco ornaments. The stones were
not numerous enough to have formed a vaulted roof, and further-
more the sections of pole wall would not have been sufficiently strong
to bear the weight of a roof of this type.
General Description of the Ruins 243
Flat roofs were not unknown in the Maya area, and I have already-
described one from the site of Lubaantun (Thompson, 1927, p. 308),
which belonged to the "Old Empire" period. Although no pole impres-
sions were found in the plaster in the present case, one stucco orna-
ment, the back of which is in an excellent state of preservation, has
a concave depression running the whole length of the back, and would
fit very easily onto a pole. It does not seem too imaginative, then,
to suppose that the roof of the temple of Pyramid B consisted of a
series of parallel poles, laid on beams, and covered on the under side
with stucco ornaments, and with a covering of small flat stones and
plaster on top. Only a few stucco ornaments were in a good state of
preservation, most of them having disintegrated into dust, but one or
two of those that were partly preserved appear to have hieroglyphs,
in particular one piece, now in the British Museum, which resembles
the cauac glyph. Against the center of the back wall there was a long
bench or altar of stone-faced rubble covered with a coating of excel-
lent stucco. This was about 5 meters long, 1.05 meters high, and just
short of 1 meter wide. It was surmounted at each end by sloping
balustrades made of the same material and also covered with stucco.
Under this was found another bench or altar of the same type, but
lacking the flanking balustrades, and in the fill between were sherds
of a coarse ware used for bowls exactly similar to those described from
the fill of Pyramid Q at Hatzcap Ceel (p. 259). Beneath the section
of back wall behind the center of this altar or bench was found
Votive Cache 4, described on page 276. Their position against the
center of the back wall of the room would indicate that these struc-
tures were probably altars rather than benches. Immediately be-
neath the floor of the room was a second floor, which ended where it
met the inner altar, showing that it was contemporaneous or posterior
to the inner altar, but older than the outer altar. A hypothetical
reconstruction of this building is given in Fig. 5. The room is
shown covered with stucco, except for one section (F), where the stones
of the short flanking wall are shown exposed, and the pole work,
which presumably carried the walls forward, is exposed (H). No
attempt is made to show the stucco work on the ceiling.
Pyramid E is the third highest structure at Cahal Pichik. It
stands partly on Terrace L and partly on the ground level. The height
above plaza level is 9.50 meters, of which 3 meters are accounted
for by the height of Terrace L. The pyramid was originally terraced
and had square corners, but owing to collapse it is impossible to say
how many of these terraces there were. There are traces of a stairway
244 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
leading up from Terrace L on the west side, but no traces of any
building on top.
Mound I is a low mound 2.25 meters high, with the northern half
surmounted by a second mound 2.25 meters higher, on which stood
a building. This structure, like that of Pyramid B, appears to have
been made of a mixture of stone and jacal construction. Structure I
appears to have consisted of two rooms, which were divided by a
wall running east and west made of poorly matched and roughly
faced stones. The wall has a length of 10 meters, a width of 55 cm,
and a present height of 2 meters. There is a doorway in this wall 85
cm wide, not placed in the center of the wall, for it is 1.25 meters
nearer the west end. The front, or north, room has the same breadth
as the medial wall, and a depth of 2.50 meters. It is enclosed on the
south side by another wall with a doorway of the same breadth, also
asymmetrically placed. This front wall is only 45 cm thick, and has
a present height of only a little more than 1 meter. Of side walls to
this chamber there is no trace, save for a row of unf aced stones of vary-
ing sizes placed along the east and west edges of the floor, where one
would naturally expect to find side walls, so as to connect the ends of
the front and medial walls. The only indications of the back room
are the floor of well-made plaster, and the thick deposit of pulverized
stucco and small stones covering it. Undoubtedly, in the case of this
building the side walls of the front room and the side and back walls
of the back room were made of poles and wattle. The modern Mayas
of British Honduras frequently lay a line of stones against the outside
base of their pole walls, and presumably the line of stones along the
sides of the floor of the front chamber marks a similar type of con-
struction. The roof must have been flat and coated on the under
side with stucco, thus accounting for the large quantity of pulverized
stucco encountered. The construction is similar to that employed
in the building on Pyramid B.
A second floor was discovered 50 cm below the floor of the house,
and immediately below this floor was found Votive Cache 7 (see
p. 277) just north of the doorway between the two rooms.
There is a possibility that Mounds K and J formed a ball court.
If such were indeed the case, the ball court must have been small,
as Mound J is a few centimeters short of 3 meters high, and
Mound K reaches a height of barely 2 meters. Both mounds are
flat on top, and there are no signs of any structure on their summits.
The length of the east face of Mound K is 18.50 meters. The west
face of J is slightly longer, projecting a farther 1.50 meters to the
General Description of the Ruins 245
south. In the belief that the space between these two mounds
might have constituted a ball court, excavations were made to lay
bare the floor. This was a difficult undertaking, for the stucco floor
had been largely destroyed by roots. Although in some spots the
floor was plainly visible, in others the only indication was the creamy
discoloration of the soil through the pulverization of the stucco. A
cross-section of the space between the mounds is given in Fig. 6, a,
and it will be noted that the flat section flanked by sloping sides
associated with "Old Empire" ball courts is present. Under the slope
of K an earlier floor was picked up for a short distance. This
would indicate that the plaza was in occupation some time before
Mound K was erected. The interiors of both mounds consisted of
loose fill. No rings were discovered, but in view of the resemblance
to the ball court close to the castillo at Coba (Thompson and Pollock)
it is more than probable that the space between these two mounds
at Cahal Pichik served a similar purpose.
Mound F, which adjoins Pyramid A, is also surmounted by a
structure. The mound, which is 1.50 meters high, stands on Terrace
L, the height of which is 3 meters. The structure was apparently of
the same jacal type already noted in Structures B and I. There is no
front wall, and the side walls are vestigial. The front room, to judge
by the floor, had a width of 4.50 meters. The length was 5.40
meters. A wall of this length and with a present height of slightly
over a meter divided this front room from a narrow back chamber,
4.80 meters long and only 1.10 meters wide. This inner room was
40 cm above the level of the front room, and was reached by a small
door, 1.59 meters wide and 92 cm deep. The back and side walls
of this back chamber were also made of dressed and roughly squared
stone. The front room was, presumably, roofed with thatch and had
side and front walls made of poles. Under the floor of the front room
ran two earlier floors, the first 33 cm, the second 50 cm below it.
These floors stopped at the back wall of the chamber. Under the
floor of the back chamber was an old refuse dump, consisting of
bones, ash, broken domestic pottery, and a few whole vessels
embedded in a very rich black soil, presumably formed by the waste
food dumped there. Among the objects found here were a number
of fragments of vessels with internal handles of the type illustrated
in Fig. 10, d. Their purpose is unknown. The remaining sherds
belonged to domestic ware of a non-distinctive type.
Mound C, which faces Pyramid A across the plaza, has a height
of 2.90 meters. The summit, which is crowned by a long building, is
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General Description of the Ruins 247
approached by a stairway, 14.60 meters wide, which extends along
practically the whole of the south, or plaza, side of the mound.
The building consists of one room, the same length as the stairway,
and 2.95 meters wide. The floor of the building, which is of the usual
hard plaster type, is raised about 15 cm above the level of the top
step of the stairway. There is no front wall, but the side and back
walls, which have a present height of 1.25 meters, are made of roughly
faced and almost unsquared stones. The floor was covered by a
thin deposit of debris, higher close to the back wall, where it had
been increased by stones that had fallen from the wall, and only a
scant 10 cm toward the front of the room. Again, to judge by the
scant debris and lack of a front wall, we appear to be dealing with
a building with a thatched roof and a front wall of jacal construction.
Under the floor of the room there were three earlier floors, that
appeared to extend across the whole breadth of the mound. They
were 77 cm, 1 meter, and 1.34 meters, respectively, below the present
floor of the chamber.
Mound H, although of relatively little importance, supplied an
interesting example of the continuous building and rebuilding prac-
ticed by the Mayas. The mound has a present height of 3 meters,
and is surmounted by a low wall, nearly 18 meters long, which
runs almost the whole length of the top of the mound, and has a
present height of 75 cm. This wall, which has a door in the center,
is set back about 2 meters from the north edge of the summit, and
1.57 meters north of it there is a row of stones running parallel
and forming the north edge of the floor. The floor runs under the
wall to the south edge of the top of the mound. Possibly the wall
served as a medial wall of a jacal construction, consisting of a large
room behind, and a narrow corridor in front. Such a structure
would answer well to the description given by Bishop Landa of a
house of the nobility. He writes:
"They cover their houses with straw, of which they have a great
deal of good quality, or with palm leaves. The roofs are very steep
so that rain does not penetrate them. Then they make a wall down
the center, running lengthwise and with doors in it. The inner of
the rooms thus formed, which they call the shoulders of the house,
holds their beds. The other half of the house, which is the front
room, they whitewash with very fine lime, and owners of nobility
decorate them with frescoes. This front room serves as a reception
room for guests. It has no door, but the whole of the front is open.
However, the roof comes down very low as a protection against the
248 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
hot sun and rain storms, and some say as a protection against attack."
(Landa, XX).
Villagutierre (book VIII, chap. 12) also remarks that some of
the houses at Tayasal had a stone wall about a vara high, and above
that level the construction was of wood and thatch. Presumably
the roofs of Structures C, F, and H were thatched and pent-shaped,
as in none of these structures was there enough accumulation of
pulverized stucco and rubble to suggest a flat roof.
Under the top floor of Mound H were seven more floors. The
four top floors extended entirely across the mound, the four bottom
ones stopped 1.20 meters south of the medial wall, suggesting that
the mound originally ended at this point, and was extended to its
present depth when the fifth floor was constructed.
Counting from the top downward the floors were the following
heights above plaza level.
Floor
1
2
3
4
Meters
Floor
Meters
2.90
5
2.21
2.87
6
2.08
2.79
7
1.75
2.62
8
1.12
Obviously several of these were merely repair floors, notably
numbers one and two.
The only other mound of first rank at Cahal Pichik is Q. This,
the only mound of importance on Plaza II, had a height of 6.75
meters. There is no structure on the summit, but four floors were
discovered. The top three were close together, with spaces of four
or five centimeters between them, the bottom floor 50 cm lower.
Under the second floor was found a small votive cache described on
page 277. Cahal Pichik yielded extraordinarily little non-domestic
pottery, and, as the stelae are all plain, the dating of the site is not
too sure. However, the pottery vessels associated with the caches
in both Cahal Pichik and Hatzcap Ceel are of the same type (see
chap. Ill), and on that basis the two sites can probably be classed
as contemporaneous. The architecture, such as it is, would support
contemporaneity.
Hatzcap Ceel
The ruins of Hatzcap Ceel lie a few yards less than a mile east
by south of Mountain Cow Water Hole (Fig. 1). The city, the
name of which means "cold dawn," is divided into two groups.
The larger (Group I), consisting of twelve mounds, is built around
a large ceremonial plaza (Fig. 7). The smaller group (Group II),
General Description of the Ruins 249
consisting of five mounds, is perched on top of a natural hill some
120 meters southeast of the main group.
In the main plaza, which is irregular in shape, were found the
stelae described in Chapter III. On the left of the plaza is situated
Pyramid A, the highest mound in the complex, and behind it is a
small lagoon.
This lagoon, which is approached by a flight of steps, undoubtedly
served as the water supply of the city. During the month of May,
both in 1928 and 1929, the lagoon was dry, but at the close of the rainy
season in January, 1929, the surface of the water was just level with
the top step. The fact that the lagoon dries up in May of a normal
year combined with the fact that no chultuns or depressions that could
have served as reservoirs were located would point to the climate
of this region havir?- been damper during the period of the occu-
pancy of the city th'.n it is today, or, more probably, that the dry
season was damper, due to a more even distribution of the annual
rainfall.
Pyramid A seems to have been originally terraced, but the sides
are badly collapsed and it is now impossible to state how many
terraces the pyramid possessed, nor can one distinguish any stair-
way, although one presumably existed in former times on the east
face. The pyramid has a height of 10.40 meters, and on the flat
summit were the remains of a small structure that added another
2 meters to the total height. Unfortunately the structure was
entirely destroyed by a landslide in the course of excavation before
measurements could be obtained. Below the floor on which the
building stood were two other floors at a depth of 25 cm and 1.32
meters respectively.
Pyramid F stands on a long terrace, and has a total height above
the main plaza of 10 meters. The sides originally consisted of three
or four terraces, but it was impossible to ascertain the exact number
without fuller excavation. Presumably, too, there was originally a
stairway on the west side, but of this no traces now remain. There was
a small temple on top, the walls of which stood to an average height
of only about a meter (Plate XXVI, Fig. 1). The temple consisted
of a single room, which was entered by a doorway on the west side.
The room measured 5.35 meters long and 1.75 meters wide, and was
covered by a cream stucco floor in a good state of preservation
1.20 meters below the summit of the mound prior to excavation.
The walls were made of roughly dressed, poorly squared stones,
and were covered with several coatings of cream colored stucco.
.^..../'I/'/////,..
/JjTi/ji/ii^
General Description of the Ruins 251
The debris was greater in quantity than in the case of the buildings
at Cahal Pichik, the floor being covered to a height of 1.20 meters,
as noted above, but the walls, presumably, had an original height
of at least twice this, and their collapse would account for almost
all the debris, which consisted to a large extent of fallen stone. Had
the roof, however, been of the corbeled type, the debris would have
been much greater and would have filled the room to the level of
the spring of the arch, and one must presume that the roof, in this
case also, was not of the vaulted stone type despite the narrowness
of the chamber.
The floor of a second chamber was found 1.20 meters below the
floor of this first building, the space between being occupied by loose
fill, which consisted of very large boulders, and a small layer of close
fill on top. The walls of this lower chamber had been razed down
to a height of only 31 cm. They were 60 cm thick, and were covered
with a hard red stucco covering. The back wall was immediately
below the back wall of the upper chamber, but the lower chamber
was much narrower, having a breadth of exactly 1 meter. The
chamber was of the same length as that above, and a doorway in
the center of the west wall, 1.80 meters wide, led on to a terrace
with a good cream stucco floor, which extended a distance of 2.25
meters to the west edge of the terrace.
A third floor was found 1.25 meters below the floor of the lower
chamber, and below this floor, and immediately below the center of
the doorway of the lower chamber, was a small circular cyst, 60 cm
in diameter, 75 cm high, and roofed with three flat limestone slabs.
In the cyst was Votive Cache 3 described on page 275.
The ceremonial plaza is flanked on the south side by Mound D.
This has a height of 5.10 meters, and is approached on the north
side by a flight of steps, which, when the city was flourishing, must
have afforded a magnificent spectacle, but which at the present time
presents an appearance of desolation and destruction owing to the
bodily upraising of the stones by tree roots (Plate XXVI, Fig. 2).
The stairway, which is approximately 12 meters wide, consists of .a
series of steps made of unusually large stones. Below are given
measurements of four of the largest, but the general average falls
little below these.
Length Tread Rise
cm cm cm
1 101 64 24
2 94 71 24
3 92 64 19
4 89 64 23
252 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
The employment in architecture of stones of such size was rare,
but not unknown, in the Maya area. Stones of equal dimensions
were used in stairways at Coba, in terrace walls at Lubaantun, as
cornice stones at Chichen Itza, and were also employed at other
cities. The transportation must have presented a serious problem.
There has been considerable speculation as to the method
employed by the Mayas to move great masses of stone or wood, and
in this connection there is a passage in Peter Martyr, which throws
considerable light on this problem. Peter Martyr (Decade V,
chap. 10), was speaking of Mexico, but doubtless the same method
was employed in the Maya area. As the passage has never, so far
as I know, been quoted, I give it in full :
"With their Copper Hatchets, and Axes cunnyngly tempered,
they fell those trees, and hewe them smooth, taking away the
chyppes, that they may more easily be drawne. They have also
certayne hearbes, with the which, in steed of broome, & hempe,
they make ropes, cordes, and cables: and boaring a hole in one of
the edges of the beame, they fasten the rope, then sette their slaves
unto it, like yoakes of oxen, and lastly in steede of wheels, putting
round blocks under the timber, whether it be to be drawn steepe up,
or directly downe the hill, the matter is performed by the neckes
of the slaves, the Carpenters onely directing the carriage. After the
same manner also, they get all kind of matter fitte for building,
and other things apt for the use of manne."
From this it seems very probable that the Mayas transported
their stelae and large stones from the quarries to the point of erection
by means of rollers.
On each side of the stairway, the mound, which is some 53
meters long, is faced with stepped back terraces, probably four in
number. A wall, set back about 3 meters from the top of the stair-
way, runs along the center of the summit. It has a present height
of 1.20 meters. A floor extends in front of the wall and passes
under it, continuing behind, and thus obviously marking an earlier
construction. There are traces of a second wall about 1.5.0 meters
in front of, and parallel to the first wall. The space enclosed by these
two walls forms a long narrow corridor. The summit of the mound
behind the first wall is filled with "close fill" to the present height
of the wall. The purpose of this construction is unknown, for it is
too narrow to have served as a dance platform.
There is a possibility that the space between Mounds C and D
served as a ball court. C runs parallel to the west side of D, although
General Description of the Ruins 253
its height is only about 4.75 meters. It will be noted that a small
mound, marked D' on the map, has been added to the northwest
corner of D. Possibly the purpose of this addition was to extend the
west face of D to the length required for a ball court. A similar
addition occurs in the case of ball court I at Coba (Thompson and
Pollock).
The length of the space between the two mounds is 21 meters,
the flat section down the center being 6.50 meters wide (Fig. 6, b).
Excavation was extremely difficult as the floor had almost entirely
disappeared, and its position could only be judged by the faint, and
at times uncertain, line of demarcation between the upper layer of
earth containing a large percentage of vegetable matter, and the
lower layer, in which pulverized plaster and small lumps of limestone
gave a lighter color to the whole. It will be noticed that the cross-
section bears a strong resemblance to the supposed ball court at
Cahal Pichik. The width of the central flat section is practically the
same in both cases. The length, too, is in both cases roughly the
same (Hatzcap Ceel 21 meters, Cahal Pichik 18.5 meters). The first
slopes are practically equal, and in both cases the east wall appears
to run up in a straight line from the point of contact with the slope,
although this is not certain in the case of the Hatzcap Ceel con-
struction (shown in dotted line), as a serious landslide had taken
place at this point.
As in the case of the supposed Cahal Pichik ball court, no rings
were found, but at the north end of the passage, between the ends of
D' and C was found Altar 2, described on page 264. The altar had
been let into the ground, with its face flush with the plaza floor.
Possibly the date of the inscription (9.19.0-0-0, 9 Ahau 18 Mol)
marks the period when the supposed ball court was dedicated.
Burkitt in his paper on the archaeology of the Highlands of
western Guatemala shows ground plans of a number of ball courts.
In almost every case there is an altar-like structure at one end of the
court, bearing the same relation to the ball court as Altar 2 does
to this supposed ball court at Hatzcap Ceel. See also the discussion
by Blom (1928) of "Old Empire" ball courts.
The north end of the ceremonial plaza is partly closed by Mound
H. This resembles D in that the top is surmounted by a narrow low
platform that extends the whole length of the mound. The front
was originally step-terraced to the summit, a height of 4.25 meters.
There is a transversal wall running the whole length of the mound,
which is set back 3.20 meters from the south edge. This wall, which
254 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
was 1.27 meters high and 96 cm thick, formed the outside of the
above-mentioned platform. The platform, which consisted of "close
fill," was 1.25 meters wide and was contained on the far side by a
facing wall, similar to that in front. Again the object of such a
platform, which resembles that on the summit of D, is not clear.
Pyramid E, southeast of the ceremonial plaza, was in a very
collapsed condition. On the summit, which stood 6 meters above
plaza level, were the remains of a very much destroyed building with
low stone walls. Unfortunately three great trees, a pick and two
mahoganies, had taken root on the summit, almost completely
destroying the structure, and making excavation difficult and costly.
Walls of an earlier building were found below, but the presence of the
enormous roots, lack of time, and shortage of funds precluded a
detailed excavation.
Mounds K and K', which are about 2 meters high, form a sort of
parapet to the plaza on the north and east sides. There is a low wall
along the outer edge of K, and on the far side the ground slopes away
rather steeply. One might suppose that the mounds formed some
rampart for defense against attack from outside, but the sides where
the ground is level and therefore presumably easiest to attack, are
unprotected, as far as one can judge from present conditions. Never-
theless, one must not forget that when the Spaniards traveled through
this area, they found towns defended by hedges of henequen. Indeed,
the capital of the Chinamitas was called Tulunqui, which means
"fortress of henequen" (Villagutierre, book VIII, chap. 11), for the
town, which contained more than 8,000 inhabitants, was surrounded
by a hedge of henequen. Still it would be rash to assume that the
Maya cities of the "Old Empire" were thus fortified in the absence
of further evidence.
No other mounds of the main group present features of impor-
tance. Of the second group (Group II), situated on the hilltop to the
east, Mound N proved of most interest. Outwardly this mound,
which had a height of 4 meters, showed no feature of marked interest.
Excavations on the north side at the base revealed only "loose fill"
composed of boulders, rather larger than usual. Excavations at the
top brought to light a low wall with a present height of some 60 cm
running along the top of the mound from east to west. This wall
was in the center of a well-made plaster floor, which covered the
whole of the top of the mound. Some 8 cm below this was another
floor, which only covered the center of the mound in a narrow strip
running from east to west. A farther 85 cm below was the apex of a
Fig. 8
Mirror and Burial Chamber, Hatzcap Ceel: a, Iron Pyrite Mirror from
Votive Cache 2; b, Vaulted Burial Chamber, Pyramid N
256 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
vaulted chamber, which occupied the center of the mound down to
plaza level. The vaulted chamber, which was made of stone, measured
2.54 meters long, 2.54 meters high, and 1.42 meters wide (Fig. 8, b).
The walls were built of chink masonry interspersed with larger
roughly faced stones. The vault, instead of finishing in the usual flat
capstone, had a pent shaped top, which was formed by large flat stones
resting one against the other. This is a not unusual variant of the
corbeled roof, and occurs sporadically at a number of widely sepa-
rated Maya cities. Obviously the building had been constructed
solely to serve as a tomb, for there was no doorway, and no means of
entering except by removing a section of the roof. An interesting
feature was the presence of five stones that jutted out from both ends
of the chamber on the inside. They had obviously been placed there
during the construction of the building to serve as a ladder to enter
and leave the tomb. It was very disappointing to find that such a
well-constructed and large vault contained practically no funeral
furniture. On the floor of the vault, touching the middle of the south
wall, were two unslipped bowls with flat bases and everted rims
(Cat. Nos. 188126 and 188127), the first placed mouth downward
on top of the second. Height 9 cm ; diameter 22 cm. The lower bowl,
now in the British Museum, contained a quantity of ash and a small
clay figurine. The ash was examined by Mr. H. W. Nichols, Associate
Curator of Geology at Field Museum, who found it contained a high
phosphatic percentage, indicating that the material was, in all
probability, calcined bone. The figurine was of unbaked clay,
apparently not even sun-dried, and broke into a large number of
crumbling fragments on being removed from the bowl. The figure,
which was extremely crude, represented a seated man with his legs
stretched out in front of him, but with the knees slightly flexed
outwards, so that the soles of his feet almost touched.
Cremation by certain classes of the community was a widespread
Maya custom, and has been reported from a number of different
sites in British Honduras. The bowls are of the same ware as the
HH sherds which apparently date from the Holmul V period (p. 283).
This would suggest that cremation was also practiced during this
period.
There was another floor 1 cm below the floor of the vault. This
was, apparently, the original plaza floor, and, as far as one could
calculate, about 10 cm below the present plaza level.
Next to the vaulted burial chamber was another mound, which
proved of interest. This was Mound M, which had a height of a little
General Description of the Ruins 257
over 6 meters. The sides had completely collapsed, and there was
no evidence as to whether they had been originally terraced, or
whether there was, originally, a stairway on the northwest side.
Excavation on the summit revealed a roofless room with doorway
on the northwest side (the axis of the room was 200°, true north).
The walls, which were made of the usual poorly dressed and un-
matched stones, have a present height of 2 meters and were 1.27
meters thick. The room was 7.95 meters long, and 2.64 meters wide.
The doorway was 2.12 meters wide.
The chamber was filled to the present height of the walls with
debris, consisting of stones, pulverized plaster and sascab. This
would indicate that the building was originally roofed with a typical
Maya corbeled arch, a surmise strengthened by the ground plan of
the room. Unfortunately, in the Peten area it is impossible to make
use of the presence or absence of the boot-shaped vault stones as an
indication as to the type of roof used, as these appear to be confined
to Copan and northwestern Yucatan. Resting on the floor in the
doorway of the room were the fragments of three incensarios
adorned with grotesque faces (Plate XXVII), of a type similar to
that found in Vaulted Chamber III (p. 310). This burial belongs to
the Holmul V period as will be seen later, and we can, therefore,
presume that this temple was in use during Holmul V times, and that
this period, too, saw its abandonment.
Together with the incensarios were found sherds of a bowl covered
with spikes, somewhat similar to the Lake Amatitlan type, though
the bowl was much larger, and, apparently, globular. G. Mason
(Fig. 30) illustrates a vessel of this type found close to the pine
ridge some fifteen miles northwest of Hatzcap Ceel, and sherds of a
similar ware were found by E. H. Thompson at Xkichmook.
Beneath the center of the back wall of the building was found
Votive Cache No. 2 described on page 274.
Beneath the floor of the chamber were found seven other floors.
These were arranged in the following manner:
Floor 1, the floor of the chamber, was 1.92 meters above Floor 8.
Floor 2 extended under the building and to the back of the terrace.
This would suggest that this was the original top of the mound, on
which the building was subsequently erected. It was 1.59 meters
above Floor 8.
Floor 3 was a short floor which apparently ran from the front
edge of the terrace to underneath the middle of the front wall of the
chamber. It was 1.35 meters above Floor 8.
258 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Floor 4 was also a short floor, extending, apparently, from the
front edge of the terrace to underneath the inside of the front wall
of the chamber. It was 1.19 meters above Floor 8.
Floor 5 was uncovered from immediately below the doorway to
below about the center of the chamber, where it ceased. Possibly
it extended to the northwest edge of the mound. It was 98 cm
above Floor 8.
Floor 6 started just inside of an imaginary line continuing the
inside of the doorway downwards. Almost immediately below the
center of the chamber it curved upward, forming a bank about 15 cm
high. It continued at this higher level to the east edge of the mound.
Height above Floor 8, 72 cm.
Floor 7 extended across the whole of the mound, and was 32 cm
above Floor 8.
Floor 8 extended from the center of the mound to the east edge .
Calculations show that this floor was a few centimeters over 2
meters above plaza level. Below the floor there was a layer of loose
fill of unknown depth, as excavation was not attempted at a lower
level. A point is reached in excavation in the Maya field, where the
returns in material or information are infinitesimal in comparison
with the cost, and such work can only be undertaken by institutions
which do not depend on popular support for their existence. Pottery
in small quantities was found at different floor levels, but without
exception it was coarse, poorly-made ware that would throw no
light on the time that elapsed during the raising of the pyramid
level by the addition of seven floors, pottery such as was made by
the Mayas in all stages of their civilization from early times to the
post-conquest period.
Pyramid Q is the highest structure in the eastern group. It
stands on an irregularly shaped terrace raised about 2.50 meters
above the general plaza level. The summit of the pyramid stands
5.50 meters above this terrace, with a total height above plaza level
of 8 meters. The sides of the pyramid consisted of set back terraces,
of which there were originally in all likelihood four, each set in some
40 cm.
On the summit was an accumulation of earth and debris 45 cm
deep, and below this a hard stucco floor. Below this there were five
other floors at a few centimeters' interval, the space between the top
and sixth floor being only 41 cm. The sixth floor, which starts at the
back (east) edge of the summit, curves downwards at right angles
General Description of the Ruins 259
about 1.25 meters from the east edge, continuing to the west edge at
a level 35 cm lower, thus forming a kind of stucco covered bench or
altar. Standing on this and roughly in the center was Votive Cache 1
described on page 270, the richest votive offering found during the
two seasons' work.
Excavations started from the back into the center of the pyramid
revealed the usual "loose fill," which was, however, more compact
than is usually the case. Running through this were several strata
of ash, charred wood, and potsherds, each about 5 to 10 cm in
depth. The charred wood was examined by Mr. Llewelyn Williams,
Assistant in Wood Technology at Field Museum. He reports that the
wood is in all probability pine (Pinus cubensis). Hatzcap Ceel is
distant only a few miles from the open "pine ridge" country, where
this tree, as the name indicates, is abundant. Pine wood was ex-
tensively used throughout Central America in pre-Columbian days.
In Mexico it was used by the priests to blacken themselves, and held
in high esteem as it was offered to the gods (Acosta, book V, chap. 26).
The Popol Vuh relates that resin was offered to the important
deity, Tohil (Jimenez, p. 42). Pine needles are to this day offered
by the Indians of Guatemala (Lothrop, 1929, No. 1). In addition to
its sacred use, the pine was the principal source of illumination in
pre-conquest times in Central America; indeed, it is so used in many
of the remoter Indian villages to this day. The numerous potsherds
found with the ash and charred wood were, without exception, of
low bowls of coarse unslipped ware. Several of them still had pieces
of the charred wood and lumps of ash attached to the inside. This
would indicate that in some cases the wood had been burnt in them,
but this is not very strong evidence, as the ash may have come in
contact with the potsherds only after both had been dumped together
to raise the level of the pyramid. This type of sherd has been dis-
tinguished by the letters HH and is similar to that found in the fill
of the altar of Pyramid B at Cahal Pichik.
No other mound in this group presents any feature worthy of
particular attention. At the base of the slope leading up to this group
on the side of the ceremonial plaza was found Altar 1. According
to the guide, who showed me the altar, it had originally stood in the
plaza of Group II. This question is dealt with in the discussion of the
monument on page 261.
In addition to the four major sites briefly outlined in this chapter,
there are a number of other small groups scattered around Mountain
Cow Water Hole, but none of these are of any size or importance.
260 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
There is a group between Cohune Ridge and Mountain Cow Water
Hole, just north of the trail and about one mile southeast of Cohune
Ridge. Another, and larger, group lies close to the old Mengel
Company's camp at Chapayal (also known as Chaparral), and other
ruins were reported two "jornadas" south from Mountain Cow
Water Hole by chicleros, who were working in that direction during
the 1928-29 field season.
After the sites had been already briefly described under their
present names, I learned that Hatzcap Ceel should have been spelled
Hatzcab Ceel, but rather than cause confusion I have allowed the
name to stand as in the form in which it was first published.
III. MONUMENTS AND VOTIVE CACHES
Monuments
altar 1
At Hatzcap Ceel were found two carved altars and six plain stelae.
Altar 1 was found during the 1928 field season at the west foot of the
slope leading up to Group II (p. 259). The guide, Jesus Guerra, a
mahogany lumber man, states that originally, he had heard, this
altar stood in the middle of the plaza of the outlying group, but two
of the laborers employed by the Mengel Company moved it down
to its present position in order to transport it to El Cayo, as they
understood that an American (Dr. Morley?) paid large sums of money
for monuments with inscriptions. It had been dragged down to its
present position with the intention of loading it on a mahogany
truck and transporting it to Camp 6, but its weight made this a very
difficult task, and the stone had been left there alongside a mahogany
truck pass. This must have been about 1924 or 1925, as the truck
pass had been abandoned for a considerable period, and was over-
grown with young trees to such an extent as to be recognizable only
with difficulty. The original discoverer's name was not learnt, but
he was from El Cayo and was known in the mahogany camps as
"El zarco" (the dark-haired man with blue eyes).
Personally, I feel that the altar more probably came from the
ceremonial plaza in Group I. When shown to me by Jesus Guerra
it was about equidistant from the two plazas, but with easier trans-
portation from the ceremonial plaza. Furthermore the other monu-
ments without exception were found in the ceremonial plaza, and it
seems more credible that this altar also formed one of the group,
rather than that it stood alone.
The altar, when found, measured 90 cm from top to bottom, and
56 cm from the edge to the break (Plate XXVIII). Unfortunately
half of it was missing, and this missing piece included the whole of the
principal figure with the exception of an outstretched arm, the hand
of which grasps a curved baton or weapon. Baton-like objects are
frequently portrayed on the stelae of different cities. The closest
resemblance in this region is to be seen in the object held in the hands
of the principal figures of lintel 6 at Yaxchilan. In this case the
objects are clearly jaguar claws. A resemblance in general shape can
also be seen to the manikin scepter, and possibly the baton on this
altar at Hatzcap Ceel is a late development of the manikin scepter
261
262 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
to the point where only the general shape has been retained. A
parallel to such modification is supplied by the ceremonial bar, the
center of which develops from the writhing body of a snake to a
straight bar.
The bottom left-hand corner is occupied by a seated captive
figure in profile. His right foot is tucked under him, and his left
leg is drawn up close to the body with the knee flexed. The head,
which is screwed round so that it looks over his right shoulder, is
well carved. The hair is worn straight back, and hanging down to
the shoulder, and the ear that is visible has an ornament. The
hands are bound behind the back, the right hand being tied to
the left arm by a rope, which is bound round the wrist and round
the arm above the elbow. The left hand is hidden behind the right
arm, to which it is similarly bound with a rope. A small incised
glyph close to the prisoner's back probably indicates that he is a
captive, for the long hair, one of the characteristics of prisoners in
general, is plainly marked. The use of long hair as a symbol of
captivity probably originated in the frequent method of portraying
capture by showing the captor dragging his prisoner by the hair.
The figure is portrayed in a manner very similar to that of the left
hand prisoner on Stela 1 at Ixkun, a monument also dating from the
great period.
Above and to the left of the prisoner are ten glyphs arranged in
two groups of six and four glyph blocks, lettered A, B, C, and D.
Al reads 13 Ahau. The coefficient has been squeezed over to the
right, as the space immediately above the top left hand corner of
the glyph is occupied by the raised circular panel.
Bl is a rather unusual variant of the month glyph Uo. The
usual cross-bands are present, and the cross-hatching, the distin-
guishing sign of the month Uo, has been clearly marked. S. G.
Morley (1920, pp. 67 and 290) reads an almost identical sign as Zip,
ignoring the presence of the cross-hatching, and basing his reasons
on the similarity of the sub-fix to that of the undoubted Zip glyph
on stela N, Copan. However, this latter glyph lacks the cross-
hatching, and therefore might well be Zip.
The fact that the calendar round date 13 Ahau 13 Uo is a Hotun
ending is additional evidence for accepting the glyph as Uo. There
is no Hotun ending on a date 13 Ahau 13 Zip at any time within
the widest limits possible for the erection of the altar, but 13 Ahau
13 Uo ends the period 10.0.5-0-0. This date, furthermore, is only
twenty-five tuns later than the date of Altar 2, and is in the same
Monuments and Votive Caches 263
general period as the known dates from Benque Viejo (10.1.0-0-0),
Ucanal (10.1.0-0-0), and Ixkun (9.17.10-0-0 to 9.18.10-0-0), the three
nearest dated cities to Hatzcap Ceel, and the only cities in the Mopan
drainage at which dated monuments have been found.
The inscription continues in A2 with an Ahau day sign with a
coefficient which may be either 6 or 7. In the photograph the two
outside elements appear to be crescents, such as were used for
decorative purposes, but a close examination of the original reveals
that this crescent effect may well be due to the uneven pitting of
the stone, the surface of which has flaked off, for where the surface
of the stone is intact, there is no sign of any crescent. Furthermore
the element between the outside dots or crescents is longer than its
companions. The decorative elements are frequently longer than
the numerical dots, but rarely, if ever, shorter. Consequently, the
whole reads best as 7 Ahau, with 6 Ahau a good alternative. The
previous Hotun ending is the important cycle ending date 10.0.0-0-0,
7 Ahau 18 Zip, and it seems very probable that the glyph block A2
refers to this event. If the coefficient is read as 6, the date probably
referred to is 10.0.10-0-0, 6 Ahau 8 Pop, the Lahuntun following the
Calendar Round date with which the inscription opens.
B2 bears a very close resemblance to the glyph which serves as
a secondary series introducing glyph. The two dots usually found
in the glyph have here been replaced by a jagged line, but there
seems no reason to doubt that this is merely conventionalization.
The glyph undoubtedly serves to unite the two dates.
A3 is of unknown meaning, and B3 is similar to the Kan glyph
except that it lacks the cartouche.
The inscription continues in Cl-Dl, where a Calendar Round date
is given. Unfortunately both glyphs are so modified that they are
difficult or impossible to read. As the month sign in Dl has a
coefficient of 19, the day sign must be either Imix, Cimi, Chuen,
or Cib. Imix and Chuen can certainly be eliminated, and the glyph,
if day sign it is, must represent either Cimi or Cib. In favor of the
former is the incised line in the bottom left hand corner, which may
represent the bared jawbone characteristic of this day, but this is
at best a very doubtful identification. The coefficient is clearly
10. The month sign is equally difficult, for it bears no resemblance
to any recognized variant. C2 and D2 are also glyphs, the meanings
of which are unknown.
The altar, then, was erected to commemorate the Hotun ending
10.0.5-0-0, 13 Ahau 13 Uo, which according to the correlation followed
264 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
at Field Museum (Thompson, 1927) fell on the day February 18,
a.d. 835. This date does not occur on any other known monument
throughout the whole Maya area.
altar 2
Altar 2 at Hatzcap Ceel was found at the north end of the passage
between Mounds C and D, practically on a line drawn between the
north end of C and the north end of the extension of Mound D
referred to on the map as D' (see Fig. 7). It has already been sug-
gested that this passage between the mounds may have served as a
ball court, and the finding of the altar at one end would tend to
confirm the surmise, for it was apparently a Maya custom to associate
round altars with ball courts, as in the Highlands of Guatemala, at
Cancuen, and possibly Lubaantun. Altar 2 was found set in the floor
of the plaza with its face level with the surface of the plaza. The
altar, which is round, has a diameter of 56 cm and a depth of about
15 cm (Plate XXIX). The top is carved with an inscription occupy-
ing twenty glyph blocks arranged in four columns of four glyphs
respectively. The glyphs are unfortunately very worn. The carving
can never have been in very high relief, but the glyphs appear as
though they had been worn down not by weathering, but by friction.
Possibly their present smooth appearance is due to their having been
walked over constantly in ancient times.
Al is squeezed in against the panel that encircles the inscription,
and the space is less than half that of a normal glyph. The glyph
is too eroded to yield any information.
B2 has a coefficient of 9 attached to a very worn glyph, the upper
part of which might be the Cycle sign.
A2 has a coefficient of 19 on the left of a glyph which can be
recognized without much difficulty as the normal form of the Katun
sign.
B2 is very worn. It appears to be a rather elongated Tun sign
of the normal form. The coefficient might be zero.
A3. The outline of the main glyph block shows the cartouche of
the normal form of the Uinal. The coefficient looks like three large
dots with the center dot the largest of all. This almost surely repre-
sents a worn zero. There is a superfix, which is probably ornamental,
and two dot elements to the right.
B3. The glyph is contained in a cartouche and there is a tail
below. The sign undoubtedly represents the Kin. The coefficient
to the left looks like an eroded bar, but might be one dot flanked
Monuments and Votive Caches 265
by two crescents. Stretching one's imagination rather one might
conceive of the coefficient being a very much flattened zero sign.
A4 is very worn. One would expect to find a day sign here, if
this is indeed an Initial Series, but the glyph in question bears no
resemblance to any day sign, not being enclosed in a cartouche.
There is a coefficient of 0 or 3 to the left.
B4. The lower half of the glyph is similar to the lower part of
Glyph F of the Lunar Series. This element also occurs occasionally
in Glyphs C, D, and E of the Lunar Series.
A5. Occupying the corner, this glyph has been squeezed into a
small space. From the glyph that follows it, one might hazard
that it is Glyph X of the Lunar Series. This might be the form of
Glyph X only found when the coefficient of Glyph C is 2.
B5 is clearly Glyph B of the Lunar Series. The rodent's head
and the crossed band rectangular element are perfectly clear, although
the ending bracket is here replaced by two dots. The ending bracket,
although usually found with Glyph B, is sometimes absent.
CI is clearly Glyph A of the Lunar Series with a coefficient of 9.
Dl is the corner of the inscription, and is illegible.
C2 appears to be Spinden's sacred fire symbol with flames curling
up above and an ending bracket to the left.
D2. A face made out of a cauac sign with a vertical element to
the left which might be a coefficient of 10, but is more probably
non-numerical.
C3. There is a coefficient to the left which reads best as 9, but
might be 7. The glyph is a head form.
D3 appears to be a head.
C4. With this glyph we are once more on safe ground. It records
very clearly 9 Ahau.
D4 is equally clearly 18 Mol.
C5 is the Katun sign with a coefficient of 19, but there is no
ending sign.
D5. This glyph is squeezed in against the panel. It appears to
be ornamental.
The last three glyphs supply the date of erection of the monu-
ment—9.19.0-0-0, 9 Ahau 18 Mol, the equivalent of June 28, a.d.
910 in the Goodman-Thompson correlation.
The question next arises as to whether the glyphs from Bl to
B3 form an Initial Series. Actually we have a reading of 9 attached
266 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
to a doubtful glyph, 19 attached to a glyph that is very probably
the Katun sign, a possible 0 Tuns, a Uinal glyph with a coefficient
that is probably zero, and a Kin sign with a very doubtful zero sign
attached. The next glyphs are too worn to yield any information,
but in B5 and CI we have unmistakably the last two glyphs of the
Lunar Series. These two glyphs are never found save with an Initial
Series, and their presence is a sure indication that the first glyphs
form an Initial Series. Furthermore no Initial Series is known with-
out a terminal date, but the only possible glyphs that could express
a terminal date are either D2 and C3 or 9 Ahau 18 Mol given in
C4-D4. The former may be ruled out for two reasons. Firstly
because they bear no resemblance to any day sign or month sign,
and secondly because there is no secondary series to connect them
with the terminal date of the inscription. The Calendar Round date
9 Ahau 18 Mol, on the other hand, is in agreement with the tentative
reading of the Initial Series with the exception of the Kin coefficient,
which is a very doubtful zero. Under these circumstances the
Initial Series is best read as 9.19.0-0-0, 9 Ahau 18 Mol, the terminal
date being separated from the Initial Series by a Lunar Series and
five other glyphs. Although it was not a Maya custom to separate
the terminal day sign and month glyph in this manner from the
Initial Series, at Quirigua and Copan both signs sometimes followed
the Lunar Series, and at Naranjo on Stelae 8, 13, and 14 several glyphs
intervene between Glyph A of the Lunar Series and the month glyph.
These Naranjo dates are respectively ten, thirty, and twenty Tuns
earlier than the date of Altar 2. As this custom was in force at
about the same time at a city so close to Hatzcap Ceel as Naranjo,
we may infer that this method of recording dates spread from
Naranjo, a Maya city of first rank, to the relatively small and pro-
vincial site of Hatzcap Ceel, and was there further modified by
moving the day sign from its usual position before the Lunar Series
to its present position after the intervening glyphs.
The Katun 9.19.0-0-0, 9 Ahau 18 Mol is recorded on monuments
at the following cities: Uaxactun, Quirigua, Piedras Negras, Naranjo
(2), and Tonina. At the first three sites the dates are recorded as
Initial Series, at Naranjo by Period Endings, and at Tonina by a
Calendar Round date.
Altar 2 is twenty-five Tuns earlier than Altar 1, and possibly the
five Hotun intervals between these two dates were marked by
uncarved stelae. One must also take into consideration the possibility
that Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal Pichik alternated in raising monuments,
Monuments and Votive Caches 267
as Morley believes may have been the custom in some Peten Maya
cities. In that case the fifteen known monuments from the two
sites would have been erected in the course of three and one-half
Katuns. Placing the known dates in the center, this would mean
monuments were erected every Hotun ending from 9.18.0-0-0 to 10.1.
10-0-0. Such an arrangement is, naturally, one of pure conjecture.
All the remaining monuments both at Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal
Pichik are plain. The custom initiated by Mr. Frans Blom of
designating plain stelae with a letter to mark the group in which
they were found combined with a separate series of consecutive
numbers for the group will be followed.
UNCARVED MONUMENTS
At Hatzcap Ceel, in addition to the two altars already described,
there were found six plain stelae or altars grouped around Mound G
in the principal plaza of Group I. Five of the monuments were
placed just in front of the west face of Mound G, an insignificant
low platform facing Pyramid A (Fig. 7). The sixth monument was
in the center of the east face of Mound G. All six monuments were
made of limestone, and were well carved with even smooth surfaces.
Al was found at the southwest corner of Mound G. It had
fallen face forwards, breaking into three major and half a dozen
minor pieces. The top was squared off with the corners slightly
rounded — a feature met with in stelae from Ixkun, Benque Viejo,
and Pusilha. Height 2.42 meters, width 45 cm, depth 30 cm.
A2 is probably an altar. It was found lying in front of Stela Al
as though still in its original position. However, there is a small
possibility that it was a short squat stela set at right angles to
Stela Al, but as this is an unusual position for a stela and the dimen-
sions are unusually small, it can be taken as practically certain that
it was an altar. Originally it appeared to have been covered with a
coating of blue stucco, for a small piece about an inch square was
found still adhering. It has been generally assumed that plain
stelae were originally covered with stucco, on which were painted
the glyphs, but in the vast majority of cases the climate militates
against the conservation of any of their original covering. The shape
is oblong and the corners are rectangular. Length 1.48 meters,
breadth 1.07 meters, height 28 cm.
A3 was in front of the center of the west face of Mound G, facing
west, and was the highest stela in the city. Unfortunately when
268 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
falling it had broken into a large number of fragments. The top
was slightly rounded. Height 2.80 meters, width 80 cm, depth 28 cm.
A4 was also, presumably, an altar. It was found two or three
meters north of A3 lying flat and unbroken with its long axis parallel
to G. It is oblong in shape and the corners are rectangular. Length
1.45 meters, width 95 cm, height 30 cm.
A5, another altar, was located at the northwest corner of Mound G
about 1 meter south of the corner and with its long axis at right
angles to Mound G. It was broken in two pieces and was oblong
with rectangular corners. Length 1.65 meters, width 90 cm, height
32 cm.
A6 was found almost touching Mound G in the center of the east
side. It was a stela, and had broken in three pieces at least, the
cross-section being slightly oval. The butt was still in position
showing that the stela had been broken by the fall of some large
tree. Height of the recovered fragments 1.45 meters, width 68 cm,
depth 27 cm.
Of the eight known monuments, then, from Hatzcap Ceel, seven
were found in Group A, and the eighth may well have come from this
same group.
At Cahal Pichik no carved monuments were located, but there
were seven plain monuments in the principal plaza (Group I). Of
these Nos. Al to A5 were in line about 5 meters in front of
Pyramid A. The remaining two stelae, A6 and A7, were placed on
Mound G, a low platform very similar in shape and size to
Mound G at Hatzcap Ceel, where, as explained above, all the
plain monuments at that site were found.
Al was found broken in several pieces and had obviously fallen
forward. It was the westernmost of the line in front of Pyramid A.
The top was squared off and the corners slightly rounded. Height
1.94 meters, width 83 cm, depth 30 cm.
A2 was also broken in pieces when found, but appears from its
shape and position to have been an altar. The main block was lying
immediately in front of, and at right angles to, Stela Al. The
breaks, which consist of slices off the corners and both ends, also
support the assumption that this monument was originally an altar
placed horizontally in the position in which it was found. Length
1.40 meters, breadth 77 cm, height 30 cm (Plate XXX, Fig. 1).
A3 was found immediately east of Al. It was broken into a
number of fragments, which were difficult to fit together. A few
Monuments and Votive Caches 269
fragments of white stucco were found still adhering, none of them
larger than an inch square. When erect it probably faced east or
west, as the fragments were roughly in an east-west line. Height
of recovered fragments 1.70 meters, breadth 93 cm, depth 32 cm.
A4 is oval in cross-section. When found the lower half was still
standing, and the top half was found lying immediately in front.
The stela was located in front of the northeast corner of Pyramid A
and in line with Stela A. The stone was, as in the other cases, of
limestone, but of a much harder quality, and more of a marble than
in the case of the other stelae. The top was sharply curved, almost
coming to a point. Height 2.94 meters, breadth at widest point
67 cm, depth 44 cm.
A5 was found broken into many fragments, which were scattered
around the base of A4. The stela, for such apparently it was, was
rectangular in cross-section. The recovered fragments had a total
height of 1.75 meters, but some were so shattered as to make it
impossible to fit them together again. Breadth 78 cm, depth 44 cm.
A6 was found with the lower half still standing on Mound G
close to the southeast corner. Excavation revealed that this mound
had originally been of a low rectangular shape with its sides, a meter
high, faced with well cut and well matched stones. In fact the
masonry was the best encountered at this site. The monument
had been erected with its back touching the east face of this containing
wall about one meter from the south corner. Subsequently the mound
had been enlarged by the addition of some two meters of fill on all
four sides. The stela was left in position with the result that it
was buried in the addition to a height of about a meter. The stela
is almost round in cross-section and the top is rounded off. This was
the only stela not excavated to the base. The portion above ground
has a height of 1.75 meters, breadth 45 cm, depth 34 cm.
A7 was found close to the northeast corner of Mound G, in line
with A6. Apparently it had been placed in position after the addition
to the mound, for there was no sign of a base extending down to the
floor. The monument was completely shattered into small fragments
and it is impossible to give any measurements. The material was a
dark slate with a high percentage of quartz, in this respect resem-
bling Altar 1 at Hatzcap Ceel.
Votive Caches
In a large number of Maya cities votive caches of pottery, jade,
shell, flint, or obsidian are found immediately below the stelae. Such
270 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
is the case at Uaxactun, Naranjo, and Benque Viejo, all of which
sites are probably in the same cultural area. Indeed the only carved
stela at Benque Viejo (Xunan Tunich), at the base of which were
found two eccentric flints, is not only in the same drainage, but
practically contemporaneous with the dated monuments at Hatzcap
Ceel. One would, then, expect to find votive caches below the stelae
and altars at Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal Pichik, but such was not the
case.
The bases of all the stelae and altars at the two sites were
examined, with the exception of Altar 1 at Hatzcap Ceel and Stela
A6 at Cahal Pichik, but in no case was any cache or sign of votive
offering found. Votive caches were also frequently placed in pyramids
and below the floors and walls of temples.
No votive caches were found at Tzimin Kax or Cahal Cunil,
presumably because these sites were primarily residential as opposed
to religious centers. At Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal Pichik, however, a
large number of votive caches were located. These are numbered
and described below.
VOTIVE CACHE 1
Votive Cache 1 was found in Pyramid Q of Group II at Hatzcap
Ceel. As already explained on page 259, the cache was found resting
on a kind of bench below five other floors. The cache, which was
contained in a vessel, was surrounded by the usual fill, and had
obviously been placed there in position close to the back of the
pyramid and halfway between the north and south edges before the
construction of the floor above, as there was no sign of the floor
having been broken to allow of the insertion of the cache after its
completion. Above this spot would have been the center of the
back wall of a fair sized temple. It may well be that originally
Pyramid Q was crowned by a jacal temple, in which case this cache
would have been located so as to lie directly beneath the center of
its back wall. In Plates XXX, Fig. 2, XXXI, XXXII and XXXIII
are shown the contents of the cache. The tall vase contained all the
objects except the large jade ear-plug (Plate XXX, Fig. 2), which
served as a top to the vessel, the real top being placed leaning up
against the side of the vessel. The vessel (Cat. No. 188137) is made of
poorly baked unslipped and unpainted pottery. Tall, cylindrical jars
of this type with lids seem to have been very commonly used for
votive caches at Hatzcap Ceel, and we shall find them associated
with other caches. Inside the contents were piled up with a consider-
able admixture of earth. On top was the long celt with hieroglyphic
Monuments and Votive Caches 271
inscription (Cat. No. 188135), which is illustrated in Plate XXXIII.
This celt had been broken into three pieces which allowed of
its insertion in the vessel. The material is a hard green black
diorite, highly polished, and with a good cutting edge. The cross-
section is elliptic. On the front are incised eleven glyphs in two
columns. The left hand column (A) has five glyphs, the right
hand column (B) six. None of the glyphs are surely decipherable,
but several are recognizable. B5 represents a hafted celt and the
following Glyph A6 is probably an Ahau sign. The hafted celt placed
in the eye represents the number six, and possibly standing alone
in this manner it may have the same meaning. In that case the two
glyphs together might just possibly mean 6 Ahau. B6 is the jaguar
glyph, the jaguar being the god who ruled over the month Pop.
Although there is no precedent for reading an inscription in this
manner, and such a reading must be taken as purely tentative, the
three glyphs might read "6 Ahau falling in the month ruled over
by the jaguar god." Actually the Lahuntun ending 10.0.10-0-0, 6
Ahau 8 Pop fills this requirement and furthermore is only five years
later than Altar 1. Other glyphs can probably be identified. A2
probably represents the head of the black god, Schellhas' God M.
The nose is similar as, too, is the treatment of the eye. If this
identification is correct, it would be a happy one, for God M, accord-
ing to Schellhas (p. 35), is a war god, and his head would be very
appropriate on a stone ax. B3 possibly represents the head of a
rabbit. B4 may represent a hand holding a glyph, a common Maya
combination. The ax is 27 cm long, 8 cm wide at the widest point,
and 3 cm deep across the short axis.
The large jade ear-plug (Cat. No. 188134), which as already
stated served as a cover to the vessel, is of poor quality light green
jade with very little polish. Possibly the specimen had been exposed
to fire as there was a considerable number of brown black stains
on the surface, when it was found. A peculiar feature was the
pentagonal ridge behind, which served to hold it in position in
the ear. Frequently ear-plugs are found singly and not in pairs.
Among the modern Santa Cruz de Bravo Mayas the chiefs wear a
single gold ear-plug as a sign of rank and possibly this was an ancient
custom, and a reasonable explanation of the finding of single ear-
plugs in caches. The specimen under discussion is one of the largest
yet reported from the Maya area, having a width of 12 cm, a height
of 11.5 cm, and a depth of 3.4 cm. The corners are slightly rounded
272 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
and there are a number of incised parallel lines at the base of the
surface.
Another, but smaller, ear-plug was also found inside the vessel
(Cat. No. 188136). This specimen, which is of a dark green jade
of good quality, has a very deep flange. On the under side of the
rim is a dab of red identified by Mr. Nichols as cinnabar, and
an incised line cuts across one part of the under side, forming the
cord of a segment. It would appear that it was originally intended
to cut off the segment and possibly square the rim of the ear-plug,
but this intention was abandoned after the first line was partly cut.
Diameter across rim 6 cm, depth 2.5 cm.
One of the most interesting objects found in the vessel was
the jade amulet (Cat. No. 188139) with human face shown in
Plate XXXI, Fig. 17. A drawing of the amulet is shown in Plate
XXXII, Fig. 3. The material is a polished, dark apple green jade of
excellent quality. Of interest is the triangular appendage to the face,
which may have been a bird's beak similar to that of the Tuxtla
statuette; indeed the stylistic treatment of the two objects is in
certain respects similar. Lothrop (1926, I, p. 93) believes that the
inspiration of the Tuxtla statuette must be sought among the
Chorotega, in which case the amulet under discussion may have been
imported from the same people, possibly from the vicinity of the
Nicoya peninsula or the great lakes; the style at least is un-Maya.
A drawing of the back is also shown in the same plate (Fig. 4). This
clearly shows two different techniques. The hollow was made by first
drilling with a hollow drill of bamboo or bone and presumably using
sand as an erosive. After this hollow had been drilled to only a slight
depth, a larger sized drill was employed and a spot nearer the head
was chosen, although partially overlapping the drilling already made.
Next a cord was passed through the upper side perforations and
worked up and down, cutting with the aid of sand a straight horizontal
line. In this way the material to be removed was divided into three
pieces, and could then be chipped off without danger of breaking the
whole object. The method of manufacture is clear in this case be-
cause the lines which were used for fracture were ground deeper
than they were required, and, with the exception of the top half of
the smaller circular drill, were still visible after the three pieces had
been chipped off and the surface ground smooth. The specimen is
now in the British Museum (length 6.5 cm, breadth 4.5 cm, depth
1 cm).
Monuments and Votive Caches 273
Another interesting jade amulet from the cache is shown in Plate
XXXI, Fig. 15. This specimen (Cat. No. 188154) represents a
monkey. The carving is rather crude, and the jade has been sub-
jected to fire, for the back, when found, was crumbly, small uneven
fragments breaking off. Height 3 cm, breadth 4 cm, present depth
2.5 cm.
There were also three small jade figurines, all of the same general
type and averaging about 3 cm in length and about 1.5 cm in width
(Cat. Nos. 188140, 141151). All have small round holes for the
eyes, a small hole or incised triangle for the nose, and have the
arms bent so that the chin rests on the clasped arms, shown by two
diagonal incised lines marking the line between arms and stomach.
A small wedge removed from the base and a nick at the waist line
mark the legs. There is a transversal perforation for suspension.
The work is extremely crude. In addition to the jade figurines there
were found nine shell figurines of a similar type (Cat. Nos. 188142-
188150), several of which are illustrated in Plates XXXI, Figs.
8-11, and XXXV, Figs. 2-7. The treatment is practically the
same as that of the jade figurines, except that in all cases the feet
are turned out. In some cases the face is shown only by two con-
verging lines which presumably represent the nose; in others the
eyes are shown by small holes. Some have holes bored for suspen-
sion, but others lack them. In all cases the arms are bent at the
elbows, so that the hands rest on the chest or immediately below the
chin.
In addition to these shell figurines there were half a dozen small
unperf orated shell buttons (Plate XXXI, Fig. 6), four shell amulets
crozier shaped, one perforated and the other plain (Plate XXXI,
Figs. 1, 2, and 5), two wedge-shaped amulets (Plate XXXI, Figs.
3 and 4), some forty gastropod shells perforated to be worn as a
necklace, a small shell globular button bored through the center
(Plate XXXI, Fig. 7), and several shells, either unworked or with a
single perforation for suspension. Among other objects of marine
origin were a piece of coral (Plate XXXI, Fig. 16) and a piece of
pumice stone. An object of interest from the cache was a circular
disk of slate (Plate XXXI, Fig. 13) with beveled edge. Similar
disks of sandstone seem to have been highly prized by the Mayas, for
they were used as centers for mosaic disks (Carnegie Year Book,
1928, p. 297). Possibly the slate disk under discussion formed the
center of a small feather mosaic disk set on wood, of which no trace
now remains. The specimen has a diameter of 7.5 cm. A peculiar
274 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
implement of soft limestone (Plate XXXI, Fig. 18) was also found
in the vessel. The surface shown in the photograph is slightly con-
vex, the back is straight. Its purpose is unknown. In addition there
were also a few small jade beads. Fragments of dorsal spine bones
of small fish, a few small bones from the paws of a jaguar, or possibly
a puma, and some bones of an unidentifiable bird complete the
contents of the cache. The bones suggest a food offering.
VOTIVE CACHE 2
This was found underneath the center of the back wall of the
temple on top of Pyramid M at Hatzcap Ceel. The cache had been
placed in a large urn (Cat. No. 188435) with a lid. The vessel
is of the same general type as the urn of Votive Cache 1, although
much larger. The vessel is made of a sandy paste of rather coarse
quality, and is covered on the outside with a deep red slip, but
only the lid is slipped on the inside (Plate XXXIV, center). The
base, which is flat, shows traces of something having been burnt on it.
One would suspect copal, but no waxy substance was found, nor was
there any distinguishable smell. One of the jade beads, however,
that formed part of the contents, showed traces of having been sub-
jected to considerable heat. There is a hole on one side just below
the rim on to which the lid fits, and a second hole a quarter way round
the circumference. Presumably there were two further holes opposite
these, making a total of four, but pieces of the vessel are missing at
these points, and the question can not be settled. The sides are very
slightly convex. Height with lid in place 26 cm, diameter 22 cm.
The urn had broken into a very large number of pieces, and the
contents spilt out on to the ground. These consisted of nine tubular
and globular jade beads, one of which, a tubular bead 5.5 cm long
and with two raised bands in the center, still retained traces of red
pigment. One of the globular beads was of considerable size, having
a diameter of some 6 cm. There were two small jade figurines of the
same type as those found in Cache 1, with hands resting on the breast
and features and limbs shown by shallow incised lines. A small jade
ear-plug completed the tally of jade objects. In addition there were
two shell beads, a shell figurine (Plate XXXV, Fig. 8) a number of
unperforated sea shells, a piece of coral, and a small piece of pottery
5.4 cm square with beveled edges and slightly concave, as though
made from a sherd of a large olla. The piece was unslipped and
unpolished on the top surface, but the back was covered with a good
Monuments and Votive Caches 275
red polish. We shall return to this piece in the discussion of the
contents of Votive Cache 3.
The cache was obviously placed in position before the building of
the temple, for it lay immediately below the floor of the temple, which
ran unbroken below the back wall. It is accordingly earlier than the
incensarios described on page 257.
VOTIVE CACHE 3
Votive Cache 3 was found below the floor of the lower temple of
Pyramid F at Hatzcap Ceel, and immediately below the center of the
doorway (see p. 251). It differed from other caches in that it was
placed in a specially built cyst 60 cm in diameter, 75 cm high, and
roofed with three flat limestone slabs. The votive offerings were
placed in a handsome urn (Plate XXXIV, left). This, the largest
container of votive offerings found, is made of a good sandy paste
covered with a red slip on the outside. There are eight small holes
for suspension set in pairs at even intervals around the circum-
ference, immediately below the rim on to which the lid fits. Height
with lid about 45 cm, diameter 30 cm. The vessel is almost cylindri-
cal, but the sides taper very slightly towards the top. Inside was
another vessel of rather coarse unslipped ware with flat base and
everted lip, and in this were placed the offerings. These consisted
of eight small shell beads, six small jade beads, three shell figurines
of the same general type as those found in Votive Cache 1 and the
jade figurines in Caches 1 and 2. The arms are bent at the elbows
and shown clasped under the chin and the feet are turned out at
right angles (Plate XXXV, Fig. 9). In addition to this there were
four cephalopods, only one of which was perforated for suspension,
and an iron pyrite mirror.
This mirror (Cat. No. 188443) consists of some twenty-two
small squares of Limonite pseudomorph, a weathered concretion of
limonite around a form of pyrite nucleus, which were found in a
fairly good state of preservation, and possibly another ten, which
were almost entirely oxidized to nothing. Mr. Nichols states that the
original pyrite has entirely disappeared, having been converted into
the limonite concretion, which in turn is in process of mutation into
oxidized iron. None of these squares were in position, but several
of them were resting on a small square piece of pottery that appar-
ently formed the matrix. This piece of pottery, which is 6.5 cm
square, undoubtedly was a sherd from a large olla, which had been
subsequently cut square, and the sides cut diagonally so that they
276 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
sloped towards the back. Having once been a sherd of an olla, the
face was naturally slightly concave, but as a concave surface would
not have made a satisfactory bed for the pyrite squares, the outside
had been rubbed down until the whole of the front presented a fairly
flat surface on which the iron pyrite squares could be laid. As a
consequence of this the face shows an inner circle where the slip of
the original sherd is still visible, whereas on the rest of the face it
has been ground off. Fig. 8, a, is a drawing of the mirror showing
the probable manner in which the pyrite squares were arranged. It
will be recalled that a similar piece of pottery was described as
having been found in Votive Cache 2, and in view of the finding of
the mirror just described, it would seem that the pottery square
from Cache 2 also was originally the matrix of a mirror. Cache 3
was particularly well protected from damp and roots, and for that
reason the limonite concretions were in most cases in a fair state of
preservation. Cache 2, on the other hand, was more exposed to damp
and seepage owing to the fact that the urn had broken and had not
originally been placed in a cyst. There were, however, on the base of
the urn and even on the face of the pottery square accretions of
oxidized iron, such as might be left were iron pyrites, after being
transformed into limonite concretions, to corrode away entirely.
In view of this additional evidence, it does not seem unreasonable
to suppose that Cache 2 also originally contained a mirror.
Votive Cache 3 can be dated with some accuracy, for on the floor
immediately above it were found two sherds of the painted ring-bowl
ware, with designs such as were very abundant during Holmul V
times painted in red and black on a yellow ground. The cache could
not be later, therefore, than Holmul V.
VOTIVE CACHE 4
This was found immediately below the center of the back wall of
the temple behind the altar of Pyramid B at Cahal Pichik (see p. 241).
The cache was not contained in a large urn with lid as in the previous
caches discussed, but was placed in a low flat-bottomed bowl with
everted lip, on top of which was placed a second bowl of exactly
similar size (height 6.5 cm, diameter 17 cm), shape and texture.
These vessels are of rather coarse ware of a deep red color, unslipped
and unpainted (Cat. Nos. 188177-78, Plate XXXVI).
The contents were a jade bead and a jade amulet. The amulet
(Cat. No. 188180) is carved with a head in profile of the typical
Maya coarse type with large nose and heavy features. Height
Monuments and Votive Caches 277
4.3 cm, breadth 4.5 cm. It is perforated with a transversal hole close
to the top, and undoubtedly was a prized possession. Unfortunately
it had, apparently, been exposed to fire, and was slightly cracked
and discolored.
VOTIVE CACHE 5
This was found under the bottommost of the three floors on the
summit of Pyramid A at Cahal Pichik towards the back of the
pyramid and about midway between the east and west sides. It has
already been suggested (p. 241) that there may have been a wooden
structure on the summit, and if that were indeed the case, the cache
would, one would imagine, have been directly beneath the center of
the back wall of such a structure. The contents were found in a
cylindrical vessel (Cat. No. 188199) of coarse unslipped ware of
the same general type as those used to contain Votive Caches
1, 2, and 3. However, in one respect it differed from the others, in
that there were four handles placed below the rim at equal intervals.
These had been made separately and attached to the main body
subsequently, with the result that they had fallen off, and do not show
in the plate (XXXVII). The lid, instead of being straight sided,
was bowl shaped, but fitted well on to the rim of the jar. Height of
vessel with rim 15.5 cm, diameter 13 cm.
Inside were twelve pieces of jade, all of them carved as tubular
or globular beads with the exception of two small and well made
ear-plugs and a small triangular amulet with a crudely incised face
on the front. There were, in addition, three or four shell beads and
two small halves of a bivalve with holes for suspension (Plate
XXXVII).
VOTIVE CACHE 6
This cache was found under the second floor of Pyramid Q at
Cahal Pichik (see p. 248). There were no signs of any structure on
the summit of this pyramid, but the cache was about halfway be-
tween the east and west edges of the summit and not far from the
back or north edge. The objects, which were a small jade ear-plug,
a small jade bead, and two perforated shells, were found in a pottery
bowl of coarse unslipped and unpolished dark red ware with an
almost flat base and everted lip. Height 7 cm, diameter 22 cm
(Cat. No. 188171).
VOTIVE CACHE 7
Just north of the doorway leading from the front to the back
room, and under the lower floor of Mound I was found Votive
278 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Cache 7. This was contained in a tall cylindrical jar with lid of
the type described in connection with Votive Caches 1, 2, and 3.
The votive offerings consisted of two small figurines, one of jade,
the other of slate. The jade figurine (Plate XXXV, Fig. 10) is of
the same type as those found in Caches 1, 2, and 3. The slate figurine
(Plate XXXV, Fig. 11) is also stylistically closely related to this
group of figurines. The nose is indicated by an inverted incised angle,
and the eyes and mouth are shown by parallel horizontal incised
lines. The hands are clasped across the chest, and a vertical incised
line marks off the two legs. There is no perforation for suspension.
VOTIVE CACHE 8
This, the most spectacular of the votive caches, was found in
Pyramid B at Camp 6, about twelve miles northwest of Mountain
Cow Water Hole (see Fig. 9). Pyramid B was about 10 meters high,
and there was no trace of any structure on its summit, or remains
of any floor. The cache was found about the center of the mound
some 40 cm below the surface, where the loose fill began. The spot
was marked by a large accumulation of very black earth, which
would suggest that it was accompanied by a large food offering,
possibly of maize or meat. The contents were placed in a large jar with
a flat base and slightly barreled sides (Plate XXXIV, right). Height
25 cm, diameter 20 cm. The ware is coarse and unslipped, but on
the front in low relief is a crude human face and two rosettes, one
on each side. Resting on top of this and placed upside down, was
a flat-based bowl with everted lip of the type found in Votive Cache 4.
On top of this again rested two large oyster shells. Inside the jar were _■
found the three very fine pieces of jade shown in Plates XXXVIII,^j*
and XXXII, Fig$. 1. fOtiWH The jade figurine shown in Fig. 1
of Plate XXXVIII and in Plate XXXV, Fig. 13 (Cat. No. 188021)
is again of the same general type as those already described. The
treatment of the arms and legs is similar, although the carving
is in very low relief. The nose is shown by two incised lines meeting
at the bridge. The eyes alone differ, for the lines, instead of being
parallel, meet at the outer corners. A hole has been bored vertically
from the crown of the head, but only reaches down a little over
1 cm. The jade is a light green color. On the back was a yellow-
ish stain with a little sticky black material adhering. This was
scraped off and upon being held under a flame gave off a faint
odor similar to that of burning rubber. The material was very
scanty, and possibly not sufficient to make the test certain, never-
Fig. 9
Ground Plan of Camp 6 Ruins
280 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
theless I was expecting to smell the odor of copal, and, therefore, the
rubber smell did not, presumably, originate in my imagination. The
burning of rubber was not an unusual practice in Central America.
Palacio (p. 31) describes the burning of a deer's heart with copal
and rubber during a special dance, and doubtless the custom was
once widespread. The figurine has a height of 6 cm, and is 3 cm wide.
The mask (Cat. No. 188023), shown in Plates XXXII, Figs. 1
and 2 and XXXVIII, Fig. 2, is undoubtedly the finest jade object yet
found in British Honduras. The specimen, which is now in the British
Museum, is of light apple green jade of excellent quality. The
small holes that serve as the pupils of the eyes and as nostrils may
have originally contained fillings of shell, obsidian, pyrite, or some
such metal, the nostril holes possibly serving to hold a nose plug
in position. The workmanship is sophisticated and worthy of
the best Maya traditions. The drawing of the back illustrates once
more the extensive use of the hollow rotary drill with sand. The
position of the holes on the rim — one on each side above and three
at the base — suggests that the mask was worn suspended on the
breast with a second ornament suspended from it. This was a
frequent Maya custom as a glance at the principal figures on the
stelae plainly shows (height 7.5 cm, breadth 6.5 cm, depth 2.5 cm).
The last object found in the cache was a well-made jade ear-plug
(Cat. No. 188022) shown in Plate XXXVIII (Fig.3). This also
is made of pale apple green jade of excellent quality (diameter 6.5
cm, depth 2 cm).
votive cache 9
This cache, also, was found at Camp 6. Pyramid A at this site
is situated on the south side of the plaza, and both from its position
and size may be considered the principal pyramid in the group
(Fig. 9). It has a height of some 10 meters, and is surmounted
by a small block-like structure of rubble faced with poorly dressed
stone. This stands in the very center of the summit of the pyramid.
Length 3.35 meters, breadth 1.17 meters, height 1.85 meters.
The pyramid was divided into a series of terraces, the exact
number of which it was impossible to ascertain with exactitude owing
to their collapse at the upper levels, but as far as one could judge
they must have numbered four. In addition to the terraces there
was a series of buttresses, somewhat similar to those of the principal
pyramids at Tikal, but with the difference that, whereas the latter
extend almost to the corners of the terrace faces and give the effect
Monuments and Votive Caches 281
of being recessed corners, at Camp 6 the buttresses do not extend
so close to the ends of the faces (Plate XXXIX, Fig. 1). The corners
of the pyramid are also slightly rounded off, a feature not met with
at Tikal, but found associated with the buttress supports at Coba
(Thompson and Pollock).
On the surface of the summit, in the vegetable mold that had
accumulated since the abandonment of the site, were found the
remains of an incensario of the same general type as those shown
in Plate XXVII, although not so elaborate. Beneath the floor that
covered the summit of the pyramid and underran the small structure
were found a number of sherds of a painted ring-based bowl of the
kind which are shown in Chapter IV to belong to the Holmul V
period. This is of interest as it serves to place the cache within
certain limitations of time. There were four other floors below the
one that passed below the structure. The second is 2.5 cm below the
top one, the third, fourth and fifth, 1.97 meters, 2.43 meters, and
2.55 meters respectively lower than the top floor. The cache was
found placed in a flat based bowl with everted lip, which rested on
the bottom floor. The bowl (Plate XXXIX, Fig. 2, f ) was very similar
to that found with Votive Cache 4 (Plate XXXVI), except that the
ware was of better quality, and it had been covered with a dull
brown slip (height 6 cm, diameter 17 cm).
Inside were found two shell beads, two jade beads, and three shell
figurines. Two of these figurines (Plate XXXIX, Fig. 2, c and g) are
of the same type and technique as those already discussed from other
caches, although somewhat more bold. The third (Plates XXXIX,
Fig. 2, c, and XXXV, Fig. 16) is of somewhat different type, but
is obviously stylistically related to the rest. The arms, instead
of being bent at the elbows and resting on the breast, hang down
at the sides, and the feet are not turned out. The vestigial appear-
ance of the arms and the absence of any nose would suggest archaic
art, but its association with other objects already roughly dated
precludes such an attribution.
VOTIVE CACHE 10
This also was found at Camp 6 at the bottom of a small mound
situated about 1.5 km to the west of the main group. The mound
was found to contain a very high percentage of sherds, almost
all of which could be attributed to the Holmul V period. The
mound was made of earth, and this would suggest that the sherds
antedated the mound, and had found their way into it when earth
282 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
containing them was brought to build the mound. At the very-
base was found a well-made olla in many pieces, with a design of
slashed "coffee beans" in* relief and stick depressions arranged in
half moon designs. Resting on the base of the olla were three
figurines, two of slate and the third of shell. All three are of the
same general type as those already discussed, having their arms bent
at the elbows and with the hands clasped across the breast and
feet turned out (Plate XXXV, Fig. 12).
COMPARATIVE STUDY OF CACHES
An examination of the contents of these various votive caches
reveals a general resemblance extending to all of them. Below are
tabulated the principal characteristics, an x marking the presence of
the feature, a space its absence.
Tabulation of Votive Cache Contents
Votive
Cache
Small Crude
Figurines with
Arms Clasped
on Breast
Urn of
Cylindrical
Type with Lid
Flat-based
Vessel with
Everted Lip
Pyrite
Mirror
Stratigraphical
Information
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
x(?)
X
1
Jand8
3
2
3
4
i Found above sherds of coarse unslipped ware of marked type referred to as HH.
2 Found below sherds of coarse unslipped ware of marked type referred to as HH.
3 Found below sherds of Holmul V resting on floors.
4 Found below sherds of Holmul V which, mixed with earth and clay, formed part of the fill above
and around cache, and may, therefore, have been earlier than cache.
5 Found below temple floor, on which rested incensarios almost surely of Holmul V period.
Seven out of the ten caches contained the distinctive little
figurines, which, whether of jade, slate, or shell, conformed to the
same general type. Furthermore five of these seven were also dis-
tinguished by having a container, which was in the shape of a slightly
barrel shaped cylindrical urn. The containers of four out of the
other five were flat based vessels with everted lip made of coarse
unslipped pottery, but in two cases both these distinct types of
pottery were found together in the same cache. This shows that
the two types were at least partially contemporaneous, which in
turn is supported by the marked similarity in type of the figurines.
It can be taken then, that all the caches, with the exception of
Monuments and Votive Caches 283
No. 10, are contemporaneous within fairly wide limits. Votive Cache
10, however, contained three figurines, two of which belong stylisti-
cally to the same group, and allow us to put this cache, too, in the
same group as the other nine.
Two of the caches — Nos. 3 and 9 — were found under Holmul V
pottery with one or more floors shutting off the caches from the
pottery, but in the case of Cache 10 there is a probability that the
cache was later in date than the Holmul V pottery found above it.
Cache 2 was found under incensarios (Plate XXVII), which very
probably date from Holmul V times. This would suggest that
as the caches both antedate and postdate Holmul V finds, they
were contemporaneous with this period. Finally Caches 1 and 2
are later than the coarse pottery known as HH, but in the case of
Cache 4 sherds of HH ware are later than the cache. This again
suggests that the caches and the pottery are contemporaneous.
Unfortunately there is no evidence to indicate when pottery of the
HH type was being manufactured, except what is suggested from
its relation to the caches.
There is ample evidence to show that Holmul V extended over
a long period in the upper Mopan drainage, and was contemporaneous
with intensive development at Tzimin Kax and Cahal Cunil.
Unfortunately little pottery that can be definitely assigned to one
period was found at either Hatzcap Ceel or Cahal Pichik, but such
as there is belongs, with the exception of some sherds on the summit
of Pyramid N at Hatzcap Ceel, to the Holmul V period, showing
that these two sites were occupied, and probably intensively
developed, during this period. This is an added argument for assign-
ing the caches to the Holmul V period.
Shell figurines of a similar type and size were found by Dr.
Maudslay in a votive cache in Mound 4 at Copan (Maudslay, Text,
p. 20; Plates, Vol. I, plate 21). The vessel in which they were con-
tained is of the cylindrical shape already found associated with caches
in the Mountain Cow region, and the crude face in the front bears
some resemblance to that of the front of the jar which served as
the container of Votive Cache 8 at Camp 6. Unfortunately there is
no means of dating the cache at Copan, beyond the fact that as it
is in the great plaza, the date is probably late. In that case these
figurines probably occurred in a Copan period contemporaneous with
Holmul V.
IV. BURIALS
Holmul I Period
CHULTUN A, TZIMIN KAX
Chultun A in Plazuela I at Tzimin Kax was discovered owing
to the caving in of one of the sides. Its location may be seen by
a glance at Fig. 2, b. The circular limestone slab over the mouth was
still in position about 15 cm below the original floor level. At this
point the plazuela floor is only some 30 cm above live rock. Conse-
quently the neck is partly excavated out of the limestone rock, and
partly built up through the artificial "fill" by means of a circle of
roughly dressed stones.
There are two possibilities deducible from this construction of
the neck. The chultun may have been excavated prior to the con-
struction of the plazuela, and, being still required after the plazuela
was built, was made accessible by raising the mouth to within a few
centimeters of the floor level by lining the edge with roughly dressed
stones as indicated. Alternatively the chultun was hewn out after
the construction of the plazuela. However, the interest depends
not so much on the period when the chultun was constructed, but
on whether the burial contained in it antedates the construction
of the plazuela. This is extremely unlikely unless it was a Maya
custom to open the graves of the deceased at certain intervals for
offering food or for other purposes. For had the chultun been used
as a burial chamber prior to the construction of the plazuela, and
not been reopened at intervals, then there would have been no
purpose in extending the funnel through the plazuela "fill." We
may presume, therefore, that the chultun, possibly after its use as
a water reservoir, grain bin, or for some other purpose, was used
as a burial chamber by the same people who built the plazuela, or
their successors.
Inside the chultun beneath the debris of the collapsed side were
found the three vessels shown in Plate XL.
The vessel on the left (Cat. No. 188027) is presumably a pot stand,
as it is similar in shape to a vessel excavated at Holmul with another
vessel resting on it (Vaillant, 1928, Fig. 212). It is made of poor,
coarse red ware, unevenly fired so that it shows a black line down
the center of the paste. There is no slip. Instead the outside was
originally covered with a thin white stucco. Subsequent thin coats
284
Burials 285
of red, yellow, and finally a dull blue-green, stucco were painted
over. Most of this stucco has disappeared, but a few traces still
remain. Height 11.2 cm, diameter 12.2 cm.
The tetrapod bowl (Cat. No. 188025) in the center was covered
with a rich orange slip. On the inside this is relieved only by an
overlap of the red of the rim, and a thin red line immediately below
this. The base is slightly concave. The design on the side is painted
red outlined in black on a cream base. The legs, which contain pellets
to produce a rattle, and the under side of the base are painted
orange. The clay is well mixed and evenly fired of a light sandy
color with a touch of pink in it. This specimen, which fell to the
British Honduras Government in the division of the finds, is now in
the British Museum. Height 15 cm, diameter 29 cm.
The vessel on the right (Cat. No. 188026) has also been covered
on the outside with an orange slip. The design is in black, the band
below being red. The inside, of a dull sandy cream color, is unslipped.
This specimen is now in the British Museum. Height 13 cm, diameter
17 cm.
The skeleton was in a very bad state of preservation, and could
not be saved. It appeared to be lying on its left side with the
head pointing northeast, the legs flexed and slightly drawn up.
Although the soil was carefully searched only some half dozen teeth
were found, and the burial was probably secondary. The tetrapod
was set on the north side of the chultun, the bowl on the east side
close to the head, and the bowl-holder in the southwest part close to
the feet of the skeleton.
i
The pottery associated with this burial belongs to the same period
as that of the earliest pottery found by Dr. R. E. Merwin at Holmul,
which Dr. G. C. Vaillant of the American Museum of Natural
History has styled "Holmul I" (Vaillant, 1928, Part III, Chapter
IX; and 1930). The tetrapod (Cat. No. 188025) and the bowl-holder
(Cat. No. 188027) can without hesitation be assigned to this period,
and as the bowl (Cat. No. 188026) belongs to this same burial, and is
therefore contemporaneous, it, too, can be classified as Holmul I.
In this publication the names given by Vaillant for these different
periods, Holmul I to V, are retained, although with the reservation
that such a designation does not necessarily imply contemporaneity
of styles at the two sites. Tzimin Kax is situated in a peripheral
region, and the time sequences of pottery types may have been
retarded or even merged in this area.
286 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
chultun b, tzimin kax
Chultun B was found a short way to the west of Plazuela X. In
shape it resembled Chultun A. The mouth, which was situated in
the center, was 60 cm in diameter, the chultun itself being 1.20 meters
deep. A low ledge of limestone was left on the floor of the chultun,
forming a wall separating an arc of about one-third of the diameter
of the chultun. This appeared to have been designed as a separate
receptacle, but was empty.
Almost immediately below the mouth of the chultun, and resting
on the floor, was found a fragment of a cranium. A few inches to the
south of it was a piece of rib, and a few inches to the north of it a
fragment of what was probably a femur. The scanty remains would
indicate that the burial was probably secondary.
In Plate XLI are shown the three vessels found in this chultun.
The vessel in the center (Cat. No. 188168) is a tetrapod of the
type associated with Holmul I. It has been covered both inside and
out with a red slip of a deep port wine shade. The legs, which like
those of the tetrapod in Chultun A are shaped in the form of a
woman's breast, are fuller and rounder than those of the former.
One of them contains a pottery ball to serve as a rattle. There is a
thin band of black paint passing along the top of the rim, and what
appear to be a few traces of brown-black paint on the base of the bowl.
The paste is practically identical with that of the other tetrapod
except that it is slightly ruddier in color. Height 15.5 cm, diameter
29.5 cm.
The vessel on the left (Cat. No. 188170) is of peculiar interest
owing to the fact that it has a design similar to that of the early
"archaic" sub-lava culture from El Salvador. Dr. S. K. Lothrop of
the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, illustrates
pottery with this design from Santa Elena, El Salvador (Lothrop,
1927, Fig. 5). However, the vessel from Chultun B lacks the
thickened and everted lips. The composite silhouette is much simpler
and there is a vestigial ring base. The slip is a deep orange-red and
the design, which consists of five radiating series of six wavy parallel
lines, is of a faded black. The ware is poorly baked. Height 8 cm,
diameter 21.5 cm.
Apparently this design must have been very widespread at an
early period. Field Museum possesses a small vessel (Cat. No.
188621) from Playa de los Muertos, Uloa Valley, Honduras, which
closely resembles the specimens from Santa Elena, El Salvador. It
Burials 287
has four small conical legs, thickened and everted lip, encircling
groove, and elaborate design of parallel wavy and curved lines of
faded black on a dull orange-brown. Probably this form of decoration
together with four feet continued into Holmul I times in the southern
Peten area in a slightly modified form.
The vessel on the right (Cat. No. 188169) with restricted orifice
and incised and relief decoration on an unslipped ware is not typical
of the Holmul I period. It is, to anticipate, typical of the culture that
preceded Holmul I in the northern and central Peten area, and has
been found also in the lowest levels at Uaxactun. Sherds of vessels
of this type were found at Cahal Cunil, and they are discussed on
page 328. Nevertheless this type of ware continued in use after
Holmul I was in full swing. There were a number of rotted bones and
a few teeth, but not sufficient to account for a primary burial.
CHULTUN C, TZIMIN KAX
Chultun C at Tzimin Kax was found below the floor of Plazuela VI.
It had been exposed through the root of a tree which had dislodged
the chultun cover, and caused a certain caving in of the sides.
Inside was found a skeleton in a very poor state of preservation. It
appeared to have been placed resting on its right side with the knees
slightly flexed, the left hand stretched out in front of the face, the
right hand above the head. The skull was in a very poor condition,
but appeared to have been twisted round so that it lay face down-
wards pointing to the southwest.
A number of vessels were found with this burial. In Plate XLII
are shown three of the principal finds.
The vessel in the center is a tetrapod (Cat. No. 188101). It
is covered with a rich orange slip on which is painted on the inside
a fish in red outlined in black. The rim is painted with a red band,
and there are two further narrow black bands immediately below
the rim on the inside. The tops of the legs are also painted red
on the outside. The colors employed are of the same shade as
those of the tetrapod and globular bowl with everted lip from
Chultun A. The feet are of a shape also met with at the earliest
period of Holmul associated with the same low sides (see Vaillant,
1927, Fig. 218). They contain clay pellets that rattle. The vessel
is made of a well mixed sandy brown paste, slightly finer than that
of the tetrapod of Chultun A, and evenly fired. It was found close to
the feet of the skeleton. Height 10.5 cm, breadth 26 cm.
288 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
The vessel on the right (Cat. No. 188105) is another bowl-holder
of the Holmul I type but more elaborate. It is covered with the same
rich orange slip noted in the tetrapod, and the same shade of red is
employed as a band at the two rims. Nine small triangles have been
cut away in the neck of the vessel and these are enclosed in lightly
incised triangles. The paste is similar to that used in the tetrapod
and is evenly fired. This vessel was found close to the left hand of the
skeleton. Height 12.25 cm, diameter 14.75 cm.
The globular vase on the left (Cat. No. 188103) is of a type
hitherto unreported from the earliest Holmul horizon and is in
many ways more typical of the fifth period. The vessel appears to
have been covered originally with the orange slip typical of Holmul I
at Tzimin Kax, but of this there now remain only the faintest traces,
and those only on the inside. The outside, also, was originally
covered with an elaborate design in black and red, but only a little
of this now remains, not sufficient to give any clue to the pattern.
The paste is of a different quality, a little coarser and not so well
fired. Height 11 cm, breadth 17.25 cm.
Plate XLIII shows about two-thirds of a flanged bowl (Cat.
No. 188104) that was found in Chultun C also close to the feet of the
skeleton. The type is somewhat reminiscent of the vessel (Cat. No.
188169) from Chultun B. The shape is the same and the decoration
of the two vessels is not dissimilar. The simple band in relief with
vertical "thumb-nail" marks in No. 188169 is here replaced by a
scalloped flange with transversal lines on the upper surface. Above
this flange is a series of inverted semicircles in very low relief re-
sembling the three in relief on No. 188169. Finally the insides of the
lips of both vessels are decorated with broad shallow incised bands.
No. 188169 has only one incised band, the vessel under discussion
from Chultun C three such bands. In short the vessels can be
assigned without hesitation to the same general period.
Some sherds of a biscuit-barrel shaped bowl with incurved rim
(Cat. No. 188106) were found in the same chultun, but are not
illustrated. The vessel was covered with a deep orange slip. Below
the rim the design is painted in red and black. A band of petals is
carved in low relief below. The paste is well kneaded and evenly
fired. The outline of the original shape is suppositious as to height,
as the center of the belly of the vase is missing.
There was also found in this same chultun a ring-based plate of
the period corresponding at Tzimin Kax to Holmul V. This vessel
(Cat. No. 188102) was probably originally covered with a slip of light
Burials 289
orange of different texture to that of the tetrapod and bowl-holder
in the same chultun, judging by similar vessels found in other graves.
Traces of a design in red and black are visible on the upper inside,
but not sufficient to allow of its reconstruction. The vessel is made
of a poor red paste, poorly fired, of a different texture to that of the
tetrapod and bowl-holder. Height 5.75 cm, breadth 24 cm. This
vessel is so untypical in shape and texture to the general run of the
Holmul I period pottery, that one is almost inclined to think that
both it and the barrel shaped bowl are intrusive. Possibly a more
satisfactory explanation is that the burial falls at the period of tran-
sition from Holmul I to the later period corresponding to Holmul V.
This conclusion is borne out by the presence in the chultun of a
number of shell ornaments. These shell ornaments (Plate XLIII)
are found frequently in burials of the later period, but have not
hitherto been reported from Holmul I graves with the exception of
shell beads reported from a Holmul I burial at Santa Rita (Gann,
1918, p. 75). Altogether ten of these shell objects were found in the
chultun, and in such a position (between the left hand and skull of
the skeleton) as almost to rule out the possibility of their being
intrusive. Some of these shell ornaments in this and other burials
are perforated for suspension, but the majority are not so treated.
Often, though not invariably, they are found in pairs. Of the ten,
two were in the shape of nine pointed stars, one was a six pointed
star, and the remainder discoidal. All were plain with the exception
of two of the circular ornaments. These show an incised design con-
sisting of a circular center with four arms radiating from it with
pear-shaped objects set between. Enclosing this are two bands with
alternate plain and incised squares. Finally at the rim there are a
number of incised lines stretching to the edge of the first band. The
whole was originally brightly colored. Traces of red, yellow, and a
brown or faded black are visible. Apparently the yellow was used to
cover the unincised parts, while the red was used to cover the incised
sections, the faded black serving as an outline for the red. This is
shown by the black being found beneath the red, and it would appear
that the black was first painted on, then the red was painted over the
black with a thinner line. On the back there is a coating of some
resinous substance, which undoubtedly served to glue the disk into a
frame, which was possibly of wood. As the back of the disk is convex,
owing to the original shape of the shell, the matrix must have been
specially cut to receive it. There are two holes for suspension near the
top, nevertheless there is no doubt that the shell was attached to a
290 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
matrix, possibly to be worn as a breast ornament, or as a face for
a wooden ear-plug. The other eight ornaments no longer show any
trace of this gum, but several show the marks of tools used in shaping
them. There is a series of tool-made grooves about 4 mm wide on
the back of one of the discoidal ornaments, which were surely made
during the process of thinning down the disk, and would have served
secondarily as a rough surface, to which the gum would adhere.
In addition to these shell disks and stars a gastropod with the
top sliced off and six holes bored down the side was also found in the
chultun. Two of the holes were unfinished.
No other burials of the Holmul I period were found at Tzimin
Kax.
VAULTED CHAMBER I, CAHAL CUNIL
In Plazuela I at Cahal Cunil true stratification was encountered,
two burials being found one above the other, and separated by two
floors. The relations between the two burials are discussed on page
330. The under burial, which naturally represents the earlier of the
two, consisted of a vaulted chamber containing pottery of the same
Holmul I period as was found in Chultuns A, B, and C at Tzimin Kax.
The vaulted chamber, in which the pottery was found, was
situated directly beneath Mound N. It had an internal length of
2.34 meters, a breadth of 88.5 cm, and a height from the floor to the
vault slabs of 72.5 cm. The walls of the chamber consisted of unfaced
and unsquared stones, mostly of small size, and chinked with small
fragments of stone. No traces of stucco adhered to the walls, and
it is doubtful if the walls were originally so treated, for the debris on
the floor did not appear to contain stucco dust such as usually forms
where stucco has peeled off the walls. The regular Maya vaulted
arch was employed to roof the chamber, the slabs placed to roof the
gap between the two vaults being of an unusually large size. They
averaged 84 cm in length. One of them was spotted on the under
side with dabs of what appeared to be a pale red paint, but may have
been caused by stains from some lichen.
The chamber was built running northeast to southwest at an angle
of thirty-eight degrees off true north. This is in agreement with the
general axis of the plazuela. The apex of the vault was 34.5 cm
below Floor 3 of the plazuela. This floor had disappeared immedi-
ately above the center of the grave, but the gap was 30 cm smaller
than the breadth of the vault, thereby showing that it would have
Burials 291
been impossible for the vault to have been made after the laying
down of this floor.
Below the floor of the grave there was a stratum 7.5 cm thick of
rough limestone blocks, then below this again a thin uneven layer
of black earth, varying from 1 cm to 10 cm in depth, which rested on
live rock. No sherds or artifacts were discovered in this belt below
the tomb.
The vault contained seven pottery vessels, five of which are shown
in Plate XLIV.
The vessel on the left at the top (Cat. No. 188402) belongs to the
typical Holmul tetrapod group. The slip is a highly polished deep
red. The feet are mammiform, and contain clay pellets that rattle.
The ware itself is made of a rather crumbly paste, poorer in quality
than that of the tetrapod of Chultun A, Tzimin Kax. The lip,
which is everted, is slightly thickened. Height 10.25 cm, breadth
19 cm. Another tetrapod bowl from the same vault of similar shape,
ware and color is now in the British Museum.
The bowl with expanding foot on the right at the top (Cat. No.
188403) is also of a shape met with during Period I at Holmul (Vail-
lant, 1927, Fig. 214). Originally it was covered with a red slip, but
this has been badly pitted by erosion. The paste is of rather poor
quality of a brick red color. Height 9 cm, breadth 20.5 cm.
The small jar in the center (Cat. No. 188404) is almost totally
un-Maya in shape and feeling. Around the shoulder are small semi-
circular incised lines similar to those found on many of the cooking
pots of this and the preceding period. The clay used is of a peculiar
soapy nature unlike that used in any other vessel of this general
area with which I am acquainted. This soapy feeling, easily notice-
able to the touch, applies not only to the slip, but the paste as well.
The slip is somewhat thick and comes off easily in flakes, like paint
flakes off an old piece of iron. The color of the slip is a dull sandy
brown, the paste a yellow flecked with gray. Height 7 cm, breadth
7 cm.
Below on the right is shown a cooking pot with everted lip (Cat.
No. 188406). The vertical handles are three in number, and through
them passes a "thumb-nail" marked band in relief, which clearly
represents a cord. In this instance this identity is established by
the two sections that hang down halfway between the handles and
undoubtedly represent the hanging ends of the cord. The vessel
typologically belongs to the preceding period (see page 325). It is
made of a poor coarse paste, and was badly fired, being a light brick
292 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
red on two sides and fired black on the other two sides. There is
no slip. Height 12.5 cm, breadth 12.5 cm.
Below on the left is a unique vessel (Cat. No. 188405). The
bowl is flat-based and stands on four small solid legs of the diameter
of a dime at the base, about 0.75 cm high, and slightly conical. In
the center of the bowl squats a very naturalistic toad complete
with warts. Both the toad and the frog were intimately connected
with thunder and rain god worship (Thompson, 1930, p. 150) and
possibly this vessel was used in connection with some religious
ceremonial. Both the bowl and the toad were originally covered with
a light red slip, but of this practically no traces now remain. The
bowl is made of an unusually coarse clay that is extremely gravelly
and with a consistency almost like concrete. The vessel has been
unevenly fired. One side is badly overfired, and the other shows
slight black markings. Height 7 cm, breadth 21.25 cm.
There was a further cooking pot of the olla type (Cat. No.
188407) in the vault made of a coarse unslipped paste, which is
also somewhat gravelly. The color is a mauve-black. There is no
decoration, but the pot is provided with an unthickened everted
rim. Approximate height 10.25 cm, approximate width 13.5 cm.
A pair of large jade ear-plugs now in the British Museum (Field
Cat. No. 278) was also found with the pottery. One was smashed
in fragments, the other had a diameter of approximately 6.5 cm.
Together with these were two long tubular beads each of a light
ay green jade and 16 cm long. There was also found an obsidian
knife flake. The only skeletal material found in the burial vault was
two or three small pieces of bone that might have been human, but
were too fragmentary to be identified.
This burial supplies evidence, then, that during Holmul I times
the Mayas were already utilizing excellent jade, although undecorated.
BURIAL III, CAHAL CUNIL
Immediately beneath Floor 3 of Plazuela I at Cahal Cunil, and
about 2 meters east of the south half of Mound N was found a very
interesting burial (see Fig. 16). The tomb, which was lined with
stone and built at an angle of thirty-one degrees magnetic, was 1.75
meters long, and had a total depth of 81 cm. The sides were not
parallel, but starting at the northeast end with a width of 50 cm,
gradually widened until they were 59 cm apart at the center, then
converged again until at the southwest end they were only 54 cm
apart. There was no arched vault, but the roof consisted of a series
\gr
Burials 293
of flat limestone slabs laid across the top. These slabs were of con-
siderable size, the measurements of two of them being 1.12 meters
long by 56 cm wide, and 1.30 meters long by 43 cm wide respectively.
They varied in thickness from 5 to 15 cm, and were joined together by
mezcla. The floor of the tomb was covered to a depth of 28 cm with a
dusty soil, in which were found the remains of seven skeletons. The
northern half of the tomb was occupied by two of these, which had
been seated facing north with outstretched legs crossed, in one case
above the knees, in the other case a little above the ankles. The
remaining five skeletons had been jammed into the southwest half of
the tomb, first two abreast, then a single skeleton, then two more
abreast at the end. The skulls, which all faced toward the northeast
end, were found associated with the ribs, but the long bones were in
inextricable confusion. The articular surfaces had been destroyed in
most cases, and only one skull was in a sufficiently good state of
preservation to be retained. In the division of finds this skull fell to
the British Honduras Government, and was sent to the British
Museum. There it was examined by Dr. G. Elliot Smith of the Insti-
tute of Anatomy, University College, London, and Corresponding
Member of Field Museum, who very kindly sent me the following
information:
"The skull is that of a youth of from eighteen to twenty years of
age, whose skull shows the same type of deformation [as that
described on p. 321] but in a more extreme form, in particular the
asymmetry of the occipital region is very much more extreme than
it is in the older person [p. 321]. It is not possible to determine the
precise age, but as the third molar was only recently erupted and the
other teeth show no sign of wearing, I should think the smaller figure
that I have given you is more likely to be the correct one. The sex
is male."
Obviously seven corpses with the flesh still adhering could not
have been placed in this narrow tomb, and the burial of most, if not
all, of the bodies must have been secondary. There was, unfortu-
nately, no funeral furniture, save one large sherd of an olla, on which
rested the skull described above. There is no distinguishing character
in its shape that would enable this sherd to be assigned to any partic-
ular cultural period. Actually the ware is the same as that of most
of the smaller ollas found in the fill under Plazuela II at Cahal Cunil
(p. 328 and Fig. 18). The paste is the same rather coarse gravel
colored a very striking red brown. The polished surface is the same
rough violet black color. This ware appears to pertain to two periods.
294 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
The deposit under Plazuela II probably belongs to a pre-Holmul I
period (p. 330) and the ware is also found on the Holmul I horizon.
The small olla (Cat. No. 188407) from Vaulted Chamber I, Cahal Cunil,
is of exactly similar ware (p. 292), and this burial actually belongs
to the Holmul I period. As Vaulted Chamber I, Cahal Cunil,
and Burial III, Cahal Cunil, are in the same plazuela and under the
same floor (Floor 3), they are probably of the same date. Thus we
can assign this burial with some certainty to Holmul I, noting at the
same time that in the Mountain Cow District multiple burial,
secondary burial and head deformation occur in the Holmul I period.
SUMMARY OF HOLMUL I BURIALS
Around Mountain Cow Water Hole there flourished a culture,
the pottery of which is similar to that found in the earliest period
at Holmul in general shapes but the ware and decoration are inferior.
The discovery of these four groups of pottery considerably expands
the types that comprise this culture. This culture was shown
by Vaillant to have preceded Holmul II to V at Holmul, and evidence
is given on page 330 that in the Mountain Cow Water Hole district
Holmul I was earlier than Holmul V. The intervening periods II
to IV do not seem to occur in this area. This would not appear to
be due to an abandonment of the locality over a considerable period,
as in Chultun C at Tzimin Kax both periods occur in what is probably
a transitional stage. Possibly Holmul I continued to flourish in this
peripheral region after it had disappeared in the type locality. It is
even possible that its first appearance in the Mountain Cow area
was subsequent to its disappearance at Holmul through a delayed
diffusion to the former locality from its original center, wherever
that may have been. Head deformation, secondary and multiple
burials, worked jade ornaments, obsidian blades, and vaulted burial
chambers are found in this period.
On the other hand, in the Holmul I period around Mountain Cow
cooking pots are found that belong also to the preceding period
(p. 330). Vessels of this type occur in four of the five groups of Hol-
mul I material described above. The tetrapod shapes and the decora-
tion on one vessel in particular (Cat. No. 188170) are in all probability
a survival from the "archaic" cultures, widespread over middle
America.
In the tabulation of burials of Holmul I period given below the
following shapes occur at the type locality:
Burials
295
Tetrapods with mammiform legs and round bottomed bowls
(Vaillant, 1927, figs. 205-208).
Tetrapods with slightly tapering legs and flat low sided plate
(op. tit., fig. 218).
Bowl-holders (op. tit., fig. 212).
Bowls with expanding feet (op. tit., fig. 214).
Tabulation of Burials of Holmul I Period
A
B
c
I
III
T.K.i
T.K.
T.K.
C.C.i
c.c.
Chultun
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
1
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X3
?
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
7
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X
X2
X
1
X
X
Stone chamber
X
Tetrapod
Breast shaped feet
Cylindrical feet
Bowl stand
Globular jars with constricted neck
X*
Incised and modeled relief on jars
Globular bowl
Ring based bowl without flange
Hard, well fired paste
Paste of not very good quality
Good, hard slip
Slip of poor quality
Worked shell objects
Stone implements
Jade objects
Head deformation
X
Single burial
Secondary burial
X
Multiple burial
X
i T.K. designates Tzimin Kax, and C.C. Cahal Cunil.
2 One obsidian knife blade only.
3 Slip not so good as burial in Chultun A.
* One sherd of olla only.
Holmul V Period
Mound A of Plazuela II at Tzimin Kax yielded a crop of burials
of the Holmul V period. This mound (Fig. 2, a, and Fig. 3) was
situated on the east of the plazuela, and it may be no more than
coincidence that so many burials seem to have been associated with
mounds on the east side of plazuelas.
VAULTED CHAMBER II, TZIMIN KAX
This vaulted chamber was situated in the center of Mound A of
Plazuela II. It was the most elaborate found, being provided with a
lateral passage and stairway leading down into the chamber
296 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
(Fig. 10, a). The tomb was built running north and south with
an angle of four degrees magnetic. The walls of the chamber and
the false arch were very well made of roughly dressed slabs of lime-
stone of different sizes, but usually rather flat. These stones were
evenly laid so as to form a fairly flat surface. Chinks and holes
between the stones had been filled in with small fragments of lime-
stone. The corners of the vault were slightly rounded. The lateral
passage and steps were also covered with a Maya vault. Presumably
the whole interior had once been covered with a coat of stucco, but
of this no traces now survive, although the dust and soil on the floor
of the tomb might well, to judge by its color, have been formed to a
certain degree by powdered stucco plaster, that had fallen from the
walls and roof.
The upper sections of the two ends of the chamber slope in just
as the vault of the sides. This is not an uncommon feature in Maya
construction. At the corner where the stairway debouches on to the
chamber both arches were prolonged till they met. This is the usual
Maya method of dealing with this architectural problem, and is best
exemplified by the vaulting in the "Castillo" at Chichen Itza.
Unfortunately the entrance at the mouth of the lateral passage
had partially collapsed. Apparently the mouth had been sealed up
in ancient times with a short wall of stones, but the upper tiers
had been removed, possibly by the uprooting of a large tree, the
roots of which had forced their way between the stones. Conse-
quently the contents of the tomb had been badly damaged by the
acids exuded by the decay of the numerous leaves that had been
blown in and by the droppings of generations of bats. More serious
damage had been done by rodents, which from time to time had
used the chamber as their den. They had smashed many of the
pottery vessels into fragments, and would appear actually to have
removed fragments from the chamber. Many vessels were found
only half complete, although every kerosene can load of soil was
carefully worked over by hand. In fact sherds of vessels were found
outside the chamber that fitted on to fragments found inside. The
former were found just below the surface. The entrance of the vault
was too small, when discovered, to admit of the entrance of a person
who could have removed them from the tomb.
Scattered around the chamber and mostly in fragments were
found twenty-five complete and incomplete vessels, a shell necklace,
a stone ax, a spearhead blade, a small jade ear-plug, a jade button,
two very small jade beads, thirteen shell buttons of varying diameter,
O 1 2 3 -*- ^
l 1 i i i i_
JO
<Sca,l<z for e- oi
d
Fig. 10
Ground Plans and Cross-sections, Tzimin Kax: a, Vaulted Chamber II; b, Vaulted Chamber I.
c, Pottery Vessels from Burial IV, Tzimin Kax.
d, Vessel from Mound F, Cahal Pichik
298 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
and some fragments of obsidian knife-blades (Cat. Nos. 188053-
188084 and 188123-188155). The principal shapes encountered are
shown on Plate XLV and Fig. 11.
The commonest shape found in this grave, or indeed on this
cultural horizon, is the ring-based plate. Of the twenty-five vessels
found in this chamber no less than eleven were of this type. There
are small variations as to size and as to depth. Most of them are
around 29 cm wide and from 5.5 to 6 cm high (Fig. 11, k). These plates
were originally all painted in red and black on an orange ground,
but the paint in most cases has disappeared from almost all, if not
all, of the surface and there remains only the unslipped paste worked
down to a smooth surface. The paste is poor and unevenly fired.
The color ranges from a deep black to a dull light red, and the vessels
in their present slipless condition are semi-porous.
Where the design has partially survived it is clear that in every
case it was divided into two zones by means of bands of black and
red paint of varying thickness that pass around the interior dividing
the rim from the base. The rim zone was occupied either by a series
of similar bands or simple geometric designs. The base of the interior
of the plate was occupied by designs also executed in red outlined in
black on an orange base. These designs appear to have been paint-
ings of reptiles, animals and other subjects treated in a very con-
ventionalized manner. However, in no case are the designs from the
center of the plates from this vault sufficiently preserved to allow
of the identifications of the subject. No. 188068, now in the British
Museum, has a design that might represent a conventionalized
feathered serpent. No traces of paint are noticeable on the outsides
of these plates except for a single red band directly below the rim.
They are very often carelessly made, the rims sagging down at
various points in a warped manner. Undoubtedly the potters relied
for their effect very largely on the painted designs, and now that
these have disappeared with the lapse of centuries the plates have
a poor appearance.
In one case (Cat. No. 188070) there is a small groove encircling
the interior of the plate about 3.5 cm from the rim. This undoubtedly
served the same purpose as the painted bands which divide the rim
decoration from that of the center of the plate.
In another case (Cat. No. 188119) there is the same interior
incised groove combined with a flange which encircles the exterior
of the plate at the same distance from the rim. This plate is now
in the British Museum.
^7=
^o'-
er
XT
fimirniTHnr
H
Fig. H
Pottery Shapes, Vaulted Chamber II, Tzimin Kax, Holmul V Period
One-sixth actual size
300 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
The second commonest shape found in this chamber is that of
the flat-based cylindrical jar. Of this type nine examples were
found in this burial, most of which were fragmentary. They can
be subdivided into two groups, those with high sides and narrow
diameter and those with low sides and wide diameter.
The jar (Cat. No. 188067) shown in Fig. 11, a, is typical of the
first group of which only four examples were found in this burial.
The vessel was made of a thin paste of rather poor quality and under-
fired. It was covered with a black slip which tends to rub off leaving
a ruddy brown surface which shades to olive. Height 18.5 cm,
diameter 10.25 cm.
The second jar of this group of vessels with high sides and narrow
diameter is No. 188072. The paste is of very good texture and has
been well fired. The outside was covered with a light cream slip
on which had been painted horizontal red bands below the rim.
Below these the surface had been divided into panels by vertical
red bands. Each panel contained a design in red and black on the
cream background, but of this nothing now remains save a few
daubs of red and some black spots on cream bands outlined in black.
The vessel, when new, must have borne a strong resemblance in
shape and color to a cylindrical jar from Yalloch now in the Museum
of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, and illustrated by Gann
(1918, plate 26). The base is unfortunately missing from No.
188072, and it is, therefore, impossible to give the original height.
Present height 15 cm, diameter 9.5 cm.
The base and fragments of the rim of a third jar of this sub-group
were also found. The vessel (Cat. No. 188227) was made of a poor
paste badly fired and was covered with a deep umber red slip. At
least one vertical groove ran from top to bottom of the outside, but
this was the only decoration. Diameter 10 cm.
The last jar of this sub-group (Cat. No. 188118) is remarkable for
its great height. It is made of fairly good paste rather thick and
covered inside and out with the black slip that tends to rub off, but
which in this case has a certain polish. Height 22.5 cm, diameter
11 cm.
Of the second group composed of cylindrical jars of wide diameter
and comparatively low sides five examples were found in the vaulted
chamber. All of these except one had been covered with the black
slip that tends to rub off leaving a dirty olive brown surface.
A typical example is that shown in Fig. 11, d. This jar (Cat.
No. 188177) differs, however, from the rest found in this chamber in
Burials 301
having the base very slightly rounded; all the rest have the base
perfectly flat. A scarcely noticeable vertical curve exists, a feature
not found in the other jars. The vessel is made of a poor paste badly
fired, and is slipped both inside and out with the black slip to which
reference has already been made (height 15.5 cm, diameter 14.25 cm).
A feature of peculiar interest is found in the cylindrical jar (Cat.
No. 188288). Close to the base three small circles have been cut out
to a depth of about 0.25 cm. These are not quite complete, the base
cutting off a small arc. Two of them are joined together, the third
is separate (Fig. 11, c). Presumably they were filled with some
decorative element which has now disappeared, possibly a different
colored clay, pieces of carved wood, bone or shell. The technique
might be described as crude cloisonne1. The vessel is made of a fairly
good clay, fairly well fired and covered with the usual dull black slip
that tends to rub off (height 16 cm, diameter 12.5 cm).
A few fragments of a jar of wide diameter were found with a white
cream slip with a red band just above the base. The sides are very
thick (75 mm) and the paste is of yellow sandy color.
Sherds of a jar (Cat. No. 188123) recovered show that incised
lines were also employed at this time. The jar, which is incomplete
(Fig. 11, b), has been poorly decorated; the lines are not parallel and
the spacing between them is uneven. The vessel was underfired and
the paste is black all the way through. The slip is of the easily
rubbed off black variety. A section from the middle of the jar is
missing and it is therefore impossible to give the height, but it must
have exceeded 19 cm. The diameter is 12.5 cm.
Fragments of two or three other cylindrical jars were found, but
in no case does sufficient remain to allow of a reconstruction of their
shape.
Probably the finest vessel found in the tomb is the tripod bowl
(Cat. No. 188073) shown on Plate XLV, Fig. 3, and Fig. 11, 1. This
vessel is now in the British Museum. The design on the inside is
red outlined in black on a cream base. The design, unfortunately, is
somewhat effaced. The legs, the sides of which are rather thick
and decorated with a cutaway in the shape of a cross, are hollow
(height 7 cm, diameter 25 cm).
The second tripod bowl (Cat. No. 188064), shown on Plate XLV,
Fig. 1, is covered with the same black slip of poor quality already noted
in connection with the cylindrical jars. Both this bowl and the one
previously described are provided with flaring flanges with deeply
incised vertical lines. Height 6.75 cm, diameter 26.75 cm.
302 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
The only other tripod vessel found in this chamber is the bowl
(Cat. No. 188077) shown on Fig. 11, g. This is a vessel of poor paste
covered with a well burnished red paint, which, however, flakes off
very easily. The base is slightly rounded, and the legs are solid.
Height 7.5 cm, diameter 21 cm.
Two round-based bowls were also found in the vaulted chamber.
Both are straight-sided.
The first (Cat. No. 188063) is made of an underfired paste which
was originally covered with a cream slip (Fig. 11, e). Over this had
been painted a design in red outlined in black and enclosed in hori-
zontal bands. Practically all this design has disappeared. All that
remain are traces of horizontal bands and some diagonal lines in
red. Height 11.25 cm, diameter 15.25 cm.
The second bowl (Cat. No. 188093) is of the same shape, but the
paste is of better quality. It was covered with a bright red slip
which has largely disappeared. Height 13.75 cm, diameter 16 cm.
The bowl (Cat. No. 188066), shown on Fig. 11, h, has a very
slightly rounded base. It was originally covered with the same
black slip that tends to rub off to a dirty brown and which was used
so frequently to cover the cylindrical jars. The clay was very badly
kneaded as it is full of small holes and was also underfired. Height
9.25 cm, diameter 20 cm.
A bowl of the same general type (Cat. No. 188074) is shown on
Fig. 11, j. This had been covered with a light red slip of high polish,
which easily rubs off. Height 7.5 cm, diameter 23.25 cm.
The bowl (Cat. No. 188071) with flaring rim shown on Fig. 11, f,
does not appear ever to have been slipped. The walls are thick
and the paste is a dull red brown. The firing is uneven, the base
and one side having been overfired. The base is flat. Height 6.5
cm, diameter 21.25 cm.
The last shape found in this grave is represented by a very
beautiful shallow bowl (Cat. No. 188092) shown in Plate XLV,
Fig. 2. The vessel is made of a rather soft clay poorly and unevenly
fired. The inside and the upper half of the outside are covered
with a bright well-burnished red slip. The slip on this vessel is the
same as that used to cover vessels 188077 and 188074. Height 5.75 cm,
diameter 25.75 cm.
On Plate XLVI are shown a number of the smaller objects found
in the vault. The necklace has, of course, been restrung, the per-
forated shells having been found scattered all over the floor of the
Burials 303
chamber. They belong to the Olividae family, and must have been
brought from the coast in trade. The leaf-shaped spear-point is of
a honey-colored flint and a very fine example of pressure flaking,
having at its point of greatest thickness close to the butt a thickness of
a little less than 4 mm. Length 15.5 cm, breadth 6.25 cm.
The ax-head is made of granite and is remarkable for the back-
ward curve of the cutting edge. As a general rule Maya axes from
this area, or indeed, to the best of my knowledge, from any area,
have either a straight cutting edge, or one that is convex, but with
a symmetrical curve in relation to the sides. This specimen is now
in the British Museum.
A small jade ear-plug (Cat. No. 188088) not shown on the plate
was also found. This is of a very beautiful apple green color, and
is now in the British Museum. It is wide at the top, but the sides
slope inwards to form a short line at the base. There are two incised
lines forming a Saint Andrew's cross, and the back was pierced trans-
versally, but one of the holes has broken away.
With these objects were found a number of scattered and broken
fragments of bones and three almost complete sets of teeth. Unfor-
tunately, the teeth, which were the only skeletal material worth
saving, were thrown away in error before they could be examined
with care. Their large number would suggest multiple burial,
which was probably secondary.
VAULTED CHAMBER I, TZIMIN KAX
This burial was found below the eastern edge of Mound A of
Plazuela II, the mound in which Vaulted Chamber II was found
(Fig. 3). The edge of the mound covered the top of the chamber
when it was found, but this may have been due to the side of the
mound having collapsed to a certain extent. In all probability the
chamber was originally made just touching the front of the mound.
In any case the vaulted chamber was constructed in relation to
Vaulted Chamber II, as they are parallel, and the pottery types of
both chambers belong to the same period.
The tomb was oblong with the corners slightly rounded. The
length was 1.80 meters and the breadth at the south end 90 cm,
but this tapered down to a breadth of 53 cm at the north end. The
total height was 1.02 meters, the spring of the vault occurring at a
height of 66 cm from the floor. The widest end pointed to seven
degrees west of magnetic south (Fig. 10, b).
304 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Inside were found the very damaged remains of a skeleton lying
apparently on its left side with skull at the south end and placed
midway between the two walls of the chamber. The knees were
flexed and almost touching the west wall about halfway down the
side. Below the knees the legs were turned back so that the feet
rested in the center of the tomb and about 30 cm from the north
end. No teeth were found in the tomb, although a very careful
search was made. This would suggest secondary burial.
Close to the remains of the skull and placed upside down was
the ring-based bowl (Cat. No. 188051) shown in Fig. 12, b. The paste
is of poor quality and very lightly fired. The inside was originally
covered with an orange slip on which the design has been painted in
red outlined in black. The decoration on the inside immediately
below the rim is somewhat worn, but appears to have consisted of
alternate sections in black and red. The red has almost entirely
disappeared. The saurian-like monster depicted may be meant to
represent Itzam-kab-ain, "the whale with crocodile feet," an earth
deity mentioned in the legend of the creation in the Chilam Balam
of Chumayel (Martinez, 1910). Height 8.5 cm, diameter 30 cm.
Resting on its side and with its mouth against the west wall
about the center was found the second vessel (Cat. No. 188050) shown
in Fig. 12, a. The vessel is a ring-based bowl of fairly good ware. The
design on the inside was painted on an orange base in black and red.
It represents a bird's head, and may be that of a heron known to
the Mayas as sakbok (cf. Tozzer and Allen, plate XV, fig. 1). Height
8.25 cm, diameter 23.5 cm.
Close to the feet of the skeleton were found the fragments of a
tall cylindrical jar (Cat. No. 188052) of the same type as those
already described from Vaulted Chamber II. The jar had been
smashed into a thousand pieces by the fall of some stone, and was
beyond repair. The paste is rather friable and underfired, there
being a black line down the center. On an orange base a design
had been painted in red outlined in black. It is impossible to recon-
struct the design, and one can not say more than that it contained
a number of spirals and curves and appears to have been very similar
in shape and decorations to a Holmul V vase (Vaillant, 1927, fig. 242).
Nothing else was found in the tomb except part of the broken hand
of a metate.
VAULTED CHAMBER III, TZIMIN KAX
This burial vault was also associated with Mound A of Plazuela
II. It was to the south of, and in line with, Vaulted Chamber II, to
^
Fig. 12
Pottery Shapes, Vaulted Chamber I, Tzimin Kax, Holmul V Period
One-fourth actual size
306 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
which both in size and shape it is very similar (Fig. 3). Unfortunately
the contents of this burial, too, had been badly damaged by a large
feline, probably a jaguar, which had used the vault as its lair after
the collapse of two of the vault slabs. Its skeleton was found about
a foot above the floor of the burial, mixed up with broken pottery.
Inside the vault were found pieces of pottery of various types.
Ring-based bowls of the type found associated with the two previous
burials also occurred in this tomb (Cat. Nos. 188363, 188366, 188371,
188372; Fig. 13, f). There are two further vessels of this type now
in the British Museum (Cat. Nos. 95 and 125 of Second Expedition).
They are similar in every way to the flangeless kind illustrated on
Fig. 11, k.
A ring-based bowl with flange (Cat. No. 188347) found in the
vault is shown on Fig. 13, k. The vessel is made of a poor friable
clay, which was apparently covered with a brown-orange slip, but
of this there remain practically no traces. The flange is exceptionally
wide and the lip of the vessel is everted. The shape is somewhat
reminiscent of Holmul II (Vaillant, 1927, fig. 227). Height 9.5 cm,
diameter 23.75 cm.
Figure 13, h, shows another type of ring-based bowl (Cat. No.
188344). This vessel is made of a better clay than that usually
employed during this period, and was covered with a deep red slip
both inside and out. Height 7.25 cm, diameter 23.75 cm.
Another type of ring-based bowl (Cat. No. 188365) from the same
vault is shown on Fig. 13, j. This vessel is incomplete, but enough
remains to allow of its reconstruction. The paste is rather coarse,
and unevenly fired. There is a small groove below the inverted rim.
Height 13.5 cm, diameter 30.5 cm.
Yet one more variation of the ring-based bowl was encountered
in this burial. This is the plate (Cat. No. 188349) with ring-base,
three small conical feet with rattles, and vestigial flange shown on
Fig. 13, e. The vessel was originally covered with a dull red slip,
of which little now remains. Height 4.75 cm, diameter 20.5 cm.
In addition to this vessel combining three legs with a ring-base,
there were two other tripod vessels in the grave. The first (Cat. No.
188348) is shown in Fig. 13, d. The shape is typical of the Holmul V
period (Vaillant, 1927, fig. 215 and Joyce, 1927, p. 103). The
paste is well made and evenly fired. It is covered all over with a
heavy creamy white slip on which a design was originally painted.
Of this, unfortunately, there remain but few traces. On the inside
■ ' — ■ — *
2ais»ie?>K»iai3
sts
5 @ C
I
^J
Sy-v^cr
s'
'SOS/lX.fJS'TTtZ.
Fig. 13
Pottery Shapes, Vaulted Chamber III, Tzimin Kax, Holmul V Period
One-eighth actual size
308 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
there remain only a series of parallel red stripes which start about
halfway down the inside and continue on to the base, and two
horizontal bands which encircle the side above the point where the
vertical stripes begin. The outside above the base was painted black
on the same creamy white base, and the legs, which are hollow and
contain clay rattle pellets, were painted red on creamy white. How-
ever, in neither instance does enough of the pattern remain to allow
of a reconstruction of the design. When new this vessel must have
been a very beautiful specimen. Height 13.75 cm, diameter 34.5 cm.
The other tripod bowl (Cat. No. 188350) is shown on Fig. 13, g.
The vessel has rather thick walls of a poor clay. It was covered with
an orange slip on which was painted both inside and out a design in
red and black. Few traces of this now remain, but it is possible to
note a red band on the inside and the remains of a curvilinear pattern
in black as well as two narrow black bands below the red. The legs
are hollow and contain pellets. Two of them have four vertical slits
made for baking purposes. The other leg has only two slits. Height
9.5 cm, diameter 23.75 cm.
Cylindrical jars were well represented among the contents of the
vault. The finest (Plate XLVIII) is now in the British Museum
(Field Cat. No. 103). The incised monkey is rather hastily executed,
but, if not examined too closely, would pass as a very naturalistic
representation of a spider monkey in a typical attitude. The jar is
covered with a black slip, and can be placed in the category of tall
cylindrical jars with narrow diameters (see p. 300). Height 26 cm,
diameter 11.5 cm. The band of hieroglyphs around the top is shown
in Fig. 14, c. Similar monkeys are found on pottery from Pusilha,
Copan, the Uloa Valley, Yoxiha, and other sites.
Another cylindrical jar with incised design is shown on Fig. 13, b.
This jar (Cat. No. 188343) is made of a poor rather gritty underfired
paste. It has been covered with an olive black slip of the type de-
scribed on page 300, which varies in color according to the intensity
of the firing, and the amount of rubbing and wear it has undergone.
On the outside it shades imperceptibly from a brick red through dull
brown to an olive black. The design is in intaglio, there being three
panels containing the same design. Height 16.75 cm, diameter
13.75 cm.
No illustration is given of an undecorated cylindrical jar (Cat.
No. 188342) as the shape is the same as that of the jar described
above. The paste and slip are the same, although in this case the
Burials 309
color is a more uniform olive black. The basic paste as in the above
case is black. Height 15 cm, diameter 13.75 cm.
On Fig. 13, c, is shown an exceptionally tall cylindrical jar with
flat base (Cat. No. 188370). The paste is of very poor quality, and
has been covered with the usual olive black slip. Height 21 cm,
diameter 13 cm.
Fig. 13, a, shows a drawing of another cylindrical jar (Cat. No.
188362) of poor paste and the same olive black slip, but with a slightly
rounded base. Height 17 cm, diameter 11.5 cm.
A squat jar with flat base and slightly flaring sides (Cat. No.
188379) is illustrated in Fig. 13, p. The paste has a light olive color
and has been very lightly fired. The walls and base, which are
exceptionally thick, have been covered with a light brown slip
shading into black. Where the slip has worn off, the paste presents a
very rough and coarse appearance, and disintegrates very rapidly.
Height 11.75 cm, diameter at top 16.75 cm.
There were four round-based bowls with straight sides. Of these
the finest, indeed the finest vessel found in the Mountain Cow area, is
shown on Fig. 14, a.
This bowl (Cat. No. 188346) is made of a sandy colored paste
which has been covered over with a pale cream slip. On this has been
painted the design in red outlined in black. The scene represents
men carrying birds on their backs. Originally they were probably
five in number, but only one figure is in a fairly good state of preserva-
tion. The men are shown with their heads turned to the left, but
their bodies face straight to the front. A grafite at Tikal (Maler,
1911, Fig. 15) shows a head-dress similar to that of the figures on the
vase. The short trunks worn by the men appear to resemble those
depicted on a number of stelae at Naranjo and other sites. These
stelae date from different Katuns of the great period, but the three
sculptures that appear to bear the closest resemblance are those
found on Stelae 6, 7, and 8. These three monuments date from the
period 9.17.0-0-0 to 9.19.0-0-0. The conclusion is elsewhere (p. 333)
reached on other grounds that this burial dates from about this
period. Probably the vessel is a trade piece, manufactured in some
other city and exported to Tzimin Kax. The birds which the men
carry on their backs can not be identified with certainty, but probably
represent ocellated turkeys. Above the main scene is a series of
identical glyphs representing a very conventionalized head with a
"wing element" behind, and in front a bar which may represent the
310 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
number five. Originally there must have been fifteen of these glyphs.
The bowl has a height of 14.5 cm, and a diameter of 15.25 cm.
The bowl (Cat. No. 188361) shown in Fig. 13, 1, differs from
the painted bowl just described in having the sides slightly curved,
the diameter below the center being a centimeter less than at the
rim. The vessel is made of a firm paste, well fired. The slip is the
usual olive black. Height 13.5 cm, greatest diameter 13.5 cm.
Another bowl of the same type (Cat. No. 188367) is shown in
Fig. 13, m. The paste is underfired and covered with the same olive
black slip, which in the bowl in question tends more to a ruddy brown
on the outside, possibly because of underfiring. In the case of all
bowls and cylindrical jars, the greatest heat appears to have been
applied on the inside. Height 11.5 cm, greatest diameter 13.5 cm.
Yet another bowl of this type, also underfired and covered with the
olive black slip (Cat. No. 188369), is not illustrated. This vessel has
never been repaired and it is, accordingly, impossible to give its
dimensions.
Two bowls with flaring sides are shown in Fig. 13, q and o.
The first (Cat. No. 188345) is a very fine example of Maya ceramic
art. The paste is of average quality, but rather poorly mixed, there
being many small holes in the texture. The inside is covered with an
orange cream slip, on which are painted two red bands, one broad
at the rim, the other narrower just below it. The outside of the vessel
is covered with a creamy white slip on which is painted in red and
black the design shown in the figure. The red is very deep and highly
burnished. The lateral elements of the upper design are, unfortu-
nately, partly obliterated. The base is slightly convex. Height
10.75 cm, greatest diameter 18 cm. The vessel may have been
imported.
The second bowl with flaring sides (Cat. No. 188364) is very
different. The paste is coarse and contains a high proportion of
gravel, and is badly underfired. The firing, too, is uneven, with the
result that one side is blackened. There is no slip, but the paste
varies in color on the outside through brown to black. The inside is
a uniform black. Height 12.5 cm, greatest diameter 25.5 cm.
With the other pottery pieces found in this vault were the remains
of an incense burner with wings (Cat. No. 188378). The incensario
was made of coarse pottery only very slightly fired, and had to a very
large extent disintegrated back into the soil. This vault was exca-
vated in January before the close of the wet season and when the soil
Fig. 14
Objects from Vaulted Chamber III, Tzimin Kax, Holmul V Period:
a, Polychrome Bowl; b, Restoration of Incensario;
c, Glyphs from Jar on Plate XLVIII
312 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
held a very high percentage of water. Due to the hole caused by the
collapse of two of the vault stones the water from the mound seeped
down into the vault destroying to a large extent porous pottery and
skeletal material. In fact those fragments of the incensario that had
not disintegrated entirely could be pared with a knife as easily and
with as little resistance as one would cut a piece of cheese. The
receptacle, presumably at the base, had been used to hold copal, for
on cleaning out the dirt in the corners a smell of copal was very
noticeable. This class of vessel has always been termed incense
burner or incensario, but previously this classification had been based
on surmise. This single example serves to prove that incense burners
of this type were in use in Holmul V times. As its contemporaneity
depends on this single find, it would be as well to state that fragments
of the incensario were found on the floor under skeletal material
and under pottery, and could not have fallen into the vault after the
collapse of the vault stones. A reconstruction of the vessel is shown
in Fig. 14, b. The nose is marked A, the receptacle B, and what may
possibly have been the eyes C. The outlined portion represents the
actual parts brought back to the Museum, the rest is reconstruction
based on the incensario shown on Plate XXVII and on other frag-
ments excavated but abandoned at Mountain Cow Water Hole.
The vessel was, apparently, supported in front by a "Tau" shaped
foot, marked D on the drawing. The back is concave to fit on the
round face of the jar. There were also found three or four rather
large sherds of ollas which are not illustrated, as they were found
above the rest of the grave material and may well have fallen into
the grave with other debris on the collapse of the two coping stones.
On Plate XLVII are shown a number of the shell gorgets and
ornaments found in the vault. The specimen in the shape of a six-
petaled flower is one of a pair, the other being in the British Museum.
There were also two further gorgets with cut-out designs of the same
general type, as well as others of diamond and star shape. These are
now in the British Museum.
No jade or stonework of any kind was found in the grave.
On the floor of the vault were the remains of six jawbones and
many fragments of long bones, unfortunately in too poor a state of
preservation to be recovered. The jawbones, fragments of skull,
and teeth occupied the center of the vault, and on top and around
were scattered large quantities of bones. The long bones indicated
that several skeletons had occupied the vault. Squeezed as tight as
possible not more than two bodies could have been buried in the vault
Burials 313
at one time. It does not seem likely that the vault was reopened
from time to time to allow of fresh burials, an unlikely procedure
when one considers that the grave was sealed with the usual cope-
stones, and that there appeared to be a few inches of mound over
these. One must, then, fall back on the conclusion that secondary
burial was practiced and that the skeletons, after being exposed to
the atmosphere or buried in an ant heap, were piled into the vault.
This is borne out by the fact that the majority of the teeth required
for six jawbones were not found. Against this it might be argued
that the jawbones were trophies worn by one or two warriors, as
Landa describes, but in refutation one can cite the large numbers of
long bones and the assumption that a warrior, who wore trophy
jawbones, would at least take measures to prevent the teeth falling
out. Finally attention has already been called to the probable
practice of secondary burial at this site in earlier times (p. 293) and
further evidence is presented on page 287.
A fine example of filed teeth was found among the skeletal
material (Cat. No. 188351) and is illustrated on Plate XLVII. The
two central incisors of the upper jaw are filed half across, and the outer
incisors as well as the canines are filed straight across. This method
of filing is that associated with the sun god (Schellhas God G), this
god being very frequently depicted with this form of tooth mutilation.
In addition to these teeth filed across several teeth were also
found in the same vault which had been filed downwards. Two
examples are shown on Plate XLVII.
On the same Plate is shown a tooth that is both filed at a right
angle and has been drilled for the insertion of a filling, which, unfor-
tunately, had fallen out and was not recovered. This was found
in the same vault.
BURIAL VII, TZIMIN KAX
Burial VII was found beneath the east mound of Plazuela XII
at Tzimin Kax. The burial was flush with the floor of the plazuela
on the west side of the mound. The grave itself was square in shape,
some 1.40 meters in each direction, and was enclosed by a single
line of undressed stones. There was no roof, the earth of the mound
having been piled straight on top of the burial.
In the grave were found seven pieces of pottery, four of which
are illustrated in Fig. 15, a, b, c, and f .
The pottery included two typical ring-based bowls with flanges
(Cat. Nos. 188472 and 18&173). The latter is illustrated in
314 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Fig. 15, a. It was originally covered on the inside with a dull orange
slip, on which had been painted a design in red, outlined in black,
but of this few traces remain- Concentric red and black bands
occupy the outer third of the circle below the rim, and a shallow
grooved line was made on the inside directly opposite the flange.
On the outside the orange slip covered the zone between the rim
and the flange and on it have been painted, in a very careless manner,
two red bands. The paste and firing is better than that usually
found in this type of ware. Height 8.25 cm, diameter 29.25 cm.
Height of No. 188472, 8 cm, diameter 31 cm.
Figure 15, b, shows a round-based bowl with slightly flaring
sides (Cat. No. 188475). This vessel is made of poor paste very
badly fired and the thin walls crumble to dust on the slightest
provocation. The vessel is decorated with vertical shallow fluting
and has been covered with a red slip both inside and out. Height
14.75 cm, diameter 17 cm. On Fig. 15, c, is shown a flat-bottomed
bowl with everted rim (Cat. No. 188474). The sides are rather
thick and made of a coarse fairly well-fired paste. The surface
was probably never slipped, only rubbed to bring the fine grains to
the surface. Height 7.25 cm, diameter 18.75 cm.
The last vessel illustrated (Cat. No. 188476) is an incomplete
cylindrical jar with flat base and slightly flaring sides (Fig. 15, f). The
vessel is of a rather poorish paste which has been rubbed smooth on
the outside and then covered with a stucco, cream-colored with red
bands. Subsequently it appears to have been covered with another
coat of stucco, this time of a gray-blue color. A number of sherds
belonging to a large cylindrical jar of Holmul V type were found in
a deposit of sherds of this period on a floor below a small mound
at Camp 6. This jar had been covered with a thin coating of fine
stucco, the colors employed being a vivid pink and a bright sky
blue, which had been arranged in bands. In neither of these two
cases had the vessels been slipped before the stucco was applied.
Another round-based vessel of rather coarse ware (Field Cat. No.
220) is now in the British Museum.
Together with this ceramic material were found three canine
teeth of a tapir, an obsidian blade, a small unworked chunk of rock
crystal, and an eccentric flint. The eccentric flint, the only one
found in the Mountain Cow district, has three arms, two forming a
crab claw arc, the third "Tau" shaped (Fig. 15, g).
Above the floor of the grave, which was uneven, were a number
of sherds which might possibly have formed part of the grave furni-
(
f
Fig. 16
Pottery Shapes and Flint, Tzimin Kax, Holmul V Period: a-c and f-g,
Burial VII; d-e, Vaulted Chamber X
Pottery one-quarter actual size, Flint actual size
316 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
ture, but more probably were imbedded in the soil which covered
the grave, for, as already explained, there was no regular roof to
this burial. These sherds are for the most part recognizable as
belonging to the Holmul V horizon, but there are a number belonging
to types of unknown period. Most striking of these were two or
three small sherds of a fine red lacquer ware with thin walls. On
these designs had been engraved in intaglio technique. The work-
manship is very fine. Indeed, these sherds would appear to have
formed parts of vessels imported from some other region, for this
type of ware does not appear to have been manufactured in the
Mountain Cow region. Sherds of ware in the same technique, but
coarser and not so skillfully executed, have been found at Lubaantun.
The ware probably dates from the Holmul V period.
The skeletal material associated with this burial consisted of a
few very rotted long bones. No teeth were encountered, so the
burial was probably secondary.
BURIAL II, CAHAL CUNIL
In the middle of Mound N and resting on the floor of the mound
was found a burial, the skeletal remains of which were very badly
rotted. All that one can say is that the burial was extended. This
burial is of importance in that it rests immediately above Vaulted
Chamber I, Cahal Cunil, and supplies evidence of the sequence of
cultures at this site (p. 330). With the burial were found two shallow
ring-based bowls (Cat. Nos. 188422 and 188424) of the usual type
supplied with flanges a short way below the rim. They are identical
in shape and ware with the ring-based bowls from Burial VII,
Tzimin Kax (Fig. 15, a). This ware is typical of the Holmul V
period, and has already been described from a number of burials
of this ceramic horizon. Number 188422 still retained traces of
the red paint used for the design. In addition there were three
straight sided cylindrical jars. One of these (Cat. No. 188421) was
flat-based and had the sides slightly convex, giving a slight barrel
appearance to the outline. This vessel was covered with the slip
shading from olive brown to black and easily rubbed off which we
have found associated frequently with Holmul V burials. The two
other cylindrical jars varied somewhat from the usual type. In
both cases the ware was of very poor quality, and very much under-
fired. In addition the sides were unusually thick and joined the flat
bases with a slight curve, and the lips flared outwards to a small
extent. No other grave furniture was found with this burial.
Burials 317
vaulted chamber x, tzimin kax
This burial was found under the floor of Plazuela VI at Tzimin
Kax, immediately in front of the small mound on the east side of
the plazuela. The grave had been excavated in the soft sascab below
the built up plazuela. On the east side a low wall had been built
up, and the almost flat vault rested on this on the east side, and
the unexcavated sascab on the west side. Apparently the pit had
been dug to remove sascab, and then had been found too large to
roof over, consequently the wall had been erected to carry one side
of the vault. Several of the slabs across the top of the vault had
caved in, and rain, seeping in, had damaged the skeletal material
and the pottery to a large extent. Indeed the bones were so rotted
and mixed up, possibly as the result of the action of rodents, that it
was impossible to state the original position the skeleton occupied.
In the grave were found two small very thin disks of a deep green
jade less than 2 cm in diameter, and perforated at the top for suspen-
sion (Plate XLIX, Fig. 3), a small jade ear-plug (Plate XLIX,
Fig. 1), two stone spindle whorls (Plate XLIX, Figs. 2 and 8), two
plain shell buttons with small perforations in the center (Plate XLIX,
Figs. 4 and 6), two shell oblong objects, slightly convex with four
holes bored from the sides to the back for suspension (Plate XLIX,
Figs. 7 and 9), and a shell disk perforated in the center with a band
of incised glyphs around the circumference (Plate XLIX, Fig. 5).
One or two of the glyphs are recognizable. One is the Kin glyph
and another bears a resemblance to the month sign Kayab. In
addition to these objects of shells and jade, there were two pottery
vessels. The first (Cat. No. 188091) is a globular vessel supported
on an expanding foot, an unusual shape hitherto not found in the
Mountain Cow area. The vessel is made of a coarse gravelly ware,
hard, but overtired on one side. The walls are rather thick, and
were originally slipped on the outside with a dull orange red slip,
which has almost entirely worn off. Height 12.5 cm, diameter 14 cm
(Fig. 15, e). The second vessel (Cat. No. 188113) was incomplete.
It is a shallow tripod bowl with an almost flat base. The legs are
solid, and squat "Tau" shaped. The clay is of poor quality, highly
porous. The vessel had been covered all over except the outside of
the base with a bright red slip, which has worn off almost entirely
on the outside, and on the inside is in poor condition. This slip is
typical of the Holmul V period in this area, and the shape of the vessel
was found in sherd deposits mainly of Holmul V period in various
mounds at Camp 6. Height 6 cm, diameter 28 cm (Fig. 15, d). The
318 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
only other pottery found in this grave was a sherd, the base of a
cylindrical jar with a flat base (Cat. No. 188114).
RELATIONSHIPS OF HOLMUL V BURIALS AT MOUNTAIN COW
The six burials discussed above clearly belong to the same general
period, although not necessarily contemporaneous in the exact sense
of the word. Pottery shapes and slips indicate a close homogeneity.
The assumption has been made that these burials can be grouped
stylistically with the fifth period from Holmul. Unfortunately this
period is but poorly represented at the type locality, but a number
of the Holmul V types can be recognized in the Mountain Cow
region. These are:
Tall narrow cylindrical jars with designs in red on a cream slip
(Vaillant, 1927, Fig. 242, and Gann, 1918, plates 26-28).
Squat cylindrical jars with flat bases (Vaillant, 1927, Fig. 241,
and Gann, 1918, plate 25).
Tripod bowls with cylindrical legs and flat or almost flat base
(Vaillant, 1927, Figs. 215-216).
The Holmul V pottery of Mountain Cow also has certain affinities
with the later of two burials found at Yoxiha, Chiapas, by Blom
(1926, Figs. 186-191). The handling of the monkey on the tall
cylindrical vase (Plate XLVIII) is very similar indeed to that on
tripod bowls from Yoxiha, and the cylindrical jar from this latter
site (Blom, 1926, Fig. 188) has many parallels at Tzimin Kax.
Similarly the tripod bowl shown by Blom (Fig. 186) bears a fairly
close resemblance to bowl 188350 illustrated on Fig. 13, g, although
the slip is different.
The Holmul V period seems to have persisted for a long time in
the Mountain Cow district. Sherds of the types of ware found in
these burials are very abundant everywhere at Tzimin Kax, Cahal
Cunil, and in and around the small house site mounds at Camp 6.
Pottery of this period has also been found in the ruins of Mucnal
Tunich (subsequently named Minan Ha by Joyce and Gann), in
caves on the pine ridge in the direction of San Antonio, Cayo District,
and has been described by G. Mason from caves on the pine ridge
in the vicinity of San Agustin (Mason, 1928, Figs. 2, 9, 10, and 23
are particularly typical of the Mountain Cow area). There are
certain of the Holmul V types which also occur at Lubaantun, and
sporadically at Pusilha.
Burials
Tabulation of Burials of Holmul V Period
319
Burial .
II
III
VII
Locality .
T.K.i
T.K.
T.K.
T.K.
C.C.i
T.K.J
Ring-based bowls without flange
Ring-based bowl with flanges
Globular bowls ,
Cylindrical flat-based jars
Cylindrical round-based jars
Shallow tripod bowls
Worked shell objects
Incised decorations on cylindrical jars
Paste of poorish quality
Poor non-adhesive slip
Stone implements
Jade objects
Incensario
Single burials
Secondary burials
Multiple burials
Vaulted chambers
x
x
X
X
J>
X
X
X
X
X
X
1T.K. indicates Tzimin Kax, C.C. stands for Cahal Cunil.
2 Obsidian knife blade only.
3 The evidence for this is based solely on an entire lack of teeth, admittedly not very conclusive.
In the other case the tombs could not have contained the number of corpses represented by teeth and
bones.
Miscellaneous Burials
In addition to the burials described above, which can be classed
by their contents as belonging to definite cultural periods, there are
a number of graves, the contents of which can not with our present
scant knowledge of Maya pottery be assigned to any definite period.
These are dealt with below. Although thus arbitrarily grouped
together, they must not be considered, necessarily, to be homogeneous.
CHULTUN D, TZIMIN KAX
Chultun D was found in the middle of Plazuela XIV, situated
on the top of a high hill about three-quarters of a mile east of the
main group at Tzimin Kax (see plan, Fig. 1). The plazuela presented
no features of interest. The two or three low oblong mounds grouped
around it were probably sub-structures for houses. Nearly in the
center of the plazuela was found Chultun D, a chultun of the usual
"chianti flask" type, the sides of which were very irregular owing to
the collapse of the sascab walls. On the floor was found a small heap
of very much rotted human bones, arranged in no particular order.
With the skeletal remains were found three vessels shown on
Plate L. The bowl with composite silhouette (Cat. No. 188097),
shown on the left, is made of a coarse paste with thick walls, which
were originally covered with a deep brown slip, but the vessel has
320 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
been very overfired with the consequence that it is black almost all
over. Diameter 21 cm, height 10 cm.
The small bowl (Cat. No. 188098), shown in the center, is of a
better quality ware, but has also been overfired, though not to the
same extent as the preceding vessel. It is covered with a dull red
brown slip, now largely worn off. Just below the neck oblique lines
have been carelessly slashed in groups of three, forming a crude
decoration. The third vessel (Cat. No. 188099) is shown on the right
of Plate L. The walls, very thick for so small a vessel, are of poorly
kneaded and unevenly fired paste covered with a thick dull brown slip.
BURIAL IV, TZIMIN KAX
This burial was found in Mound A of Plazuela II under the south
end (see Fig. 3). The burial chamber (IV) was poorly constructed
with undressed stones piled up to form a small vaulted chamber,
and held in position by liberal applications of mezcla. With such a
construction the walls were naturally uneven, and the vaulting, such
as it was, extremely irregular. Resting on the floor were the remains
of a seated individual, a youth to judge by the size of the skull, which
was not fully developed. There was no grave furniture with the
burial, but a hole in the east wall of the crude vault led into another,
even cruder chamber (Vault V), of slightly smaller dimensions, in
which were found a number of small crude pots with flat bases and
everted lips. Altogether sixteen of these were found in good preserva-
tion, in addition to a large number of fragments of others, which were
not saved. All are of the same type and are made of a coarse red
clay unslipped and unpolished, although they vary a little in size,
some being a little larger, others somewhat smaller. All those found
unbroken were in pairs, one pot being placed mouth downwards on
top of the other, as in the illustration (Fig. 10, c). Inside three of the
vessels were found bones. In the first were found the first, second
and third dactyls of a human hand, which to judge by their size
belonged to the little finger of a small woman or an adolescent. In
the second case only one bone was found. This proved to be the
second dactyl of a small adult's hand.
Dr. Gann (1914, p. 38) reports finding the terminal phalanx in
a vase from a burial near Progreso, a small site between Corozal and
Payo Obispo in the north of British Honduras. He also reports the
find of the terminal phalanx of "a Maya lady's little finger" with
the skeleton of a child of perhaps six years of age in a cave on the
road from Arenal to Camp 6, not very many miles, as the crow flies,
Burials 321
from Tzimin Kax (Gann, 1928, p. 72). Indeed, the custom of burying
either the first or all the dactyls of the little finger with a child must
have been a common Maya custom, for children's burials are not
common, and, when found, it is very easy to overlook so small an
object as this small bone unless it is placed in a vase. In the case
under discussion there seems little doubt that these small pots were
definitely related to the burial in the adjoining chamber. The third
chamber, which was also rudely shaped, was empty, but connected
with the middle chamber by a break in the wall similar to that con-
necting the latter with the chamber of the burial. In view of the fact
that the burial was found in the same mound as three burials of
Holmul V period, and in two cases under the same floor level, there
seems good reason to assign this burial, also, to the Holmul V period.
VAULTED CHAMBER IX, TZIMIN KAX
This vaulted chamber was found at the foot of the west side of
a small mound on the east side of Plazuela XII at Tzimin Kax. The
chamber, which was complete with the roof slabs in position, was
absolutely empty. In the loose earth above were found many sherds
of painted ring-based bowls and other ware typical of the Holmul V
period. The vault measured 1.93 meters long, 1.19 meters wide,
and 1.47 meters high. The tomb, which was built running at an
angle of 204° magnetic, was extremely well-made, and larger than
most of the others excavated. Possibly it had been prepared for
use, but never used.
VAULTED CHAMBER IV, CAHAL CUNIL
Under the middle of Plazuela III at Cahal Cunil, and unassociated
with any structure, was a vaulted burial chamber. It ran a few
degrees east of north and south and was immediately below the
present floor. The measurements were: 1.81 meters long, 90 cm
wide, and 90 cm high. The vaulting was very low, the spring of
the arch starting 23 cm from the floor. At the north end a skeleton
was placed lying crosswise with its head to the east, and both legs
close together tucked up with the feet close to the right trochanter.
The occipital region is deformed in a very asymmetrical manner.
The skull was examined by Doctor G. Elliot Smith, of the Depart-
ment of Anatomy, London University, and Corresponding Member
of Field Museum, who reports it to be that of an adult male of some
thirty years, showing marked antero-posterior compression. With
the burial were only three or four sherds. Two of these belong to a
cylindrical jar pertaining to the Holmul V period. They can not,
322 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
however, be used as evidence for the age of the burial for they
probably slipped into the burial accidentally after the partial collapse
of the roof.
BURIAL VIII, TZIMIN KAX
Immediately in front of the west side of Mound A of Plazuela I
at Tzimin Kax, and beneath the present plazuela floor was found
another burial. The skeletal material, which was in a very bad
state of preservation, lay in the ground with no walls or roof to
mark off the grave from the general fill. All the bones were in inex-
tricable confusion, and lay on the natural rock of the hilltop, which
at this point is only about 65 cm below plazuela level. Four jaw-
bones were found, and these were at a considerable distance from
any fragments of skull. Two loose incisors were found with fillings
of iron pyrites. At the south end of the burial were found the cara-
paces of three turtles, three small jade beads and a number of marine
univalve shells, which had been perforated for suspension and
undoubtedly once formed a necklace.
V. SEQUENCE OF CULTURES
Plazuela I at Cahal Cunil (see p. 238) presents certain evidence of
cultural sequence and stratification, which throws considerable light
on the problems of cultural development, and permits a reconstruc-
tion of Maya art periods independent of Holmul evidence, and at the
same time serves as a strong confirmation of the correctness of the
sequence of cultures worked out for that area by Dr. George Vaillant.
There would appear to be at least six constructional periods repre-
sented in this one plazuela. For clarity the vertical scale in the cross-
section of this small group has been drawn five times greater than
the horizontal scale. As a consequence there is a natural distortion
in the appearance of the mounds (Fig. 16). In the course of excava-
tion four floors were revealed, each representing a separate con-
structional period.
Floor 1 marks the first occupation of the site. The natural level
of the hilltop was built up with two layers, the lower of reddish-
yellow chunks of hard clay interspersed with small rocks, and above
this was built up an upper layer of "tight fill" made of small stones.
On top of this was laid Floor 1. Apparently it never extended across
the whole present width of the plazuela, for a little beyond half way
across it fades out, its present length probably marking the extension
of the first period of construction (Period I).
Floor 2, which was in all probability a repair floor, covers the
same area as Floor 1, for it fades out at the same spot as the latter
(Period II).
Floor 3 extends across the whole present width of the plazuela.
One must suppose that at the time that this floor was constructed the
plazuela was enlarged by the addition of more than half as much space
again to the east. Such an enlargement would account for the absence
of Floors 1 and 2 under this addition. It is true there is no recognizable
face or joint marking the line where the new part was added, but its
presence may not have been noted in the hurry of the last days' work,
for the excavation at Cahal Cunil was commenced during the last
week of the season, when plans to stop work were already completed
and could not be altered. Consequently the many problems that
presented themselves could not in every case be investigated with the
thoroughness they deserved, and all the trenching operations that
would have been necessary for a complete elucidation of many of the
aspects of cultural sequences could not be completed. Alternately
323
36"S
N
10 15 zorrt
Floor 4-
SticHy humu
Live rock
Floor 3
Ve-rt-lcal scaJe.
Fig. 16
Ground Plan and Cross-section of Plazuela I, Cabal Cunil
Sequence of Cultures 325
the east face of the original plazuela may not have been clearly
defined. This extension would have had to be built up from the
natural hill level. As soon as this was completed Floor 3 was laid
over the whole, uniting the old construction, also slightly raised, and
the addition into a plazuela of the present size (Period III).
Floor 4, which was subsequently added, marks a fresh raising of
the plazuela level, and covers the same area as Floor 3. It is the floor
in use at the moment the plazuela was abandoned, and being thus
on the surface and unprotected, it has been very badly destroyed by
roots (Period IV).
Floor 4 passes under Mounds 0, M, N, and Q, which are therefore
later in date (Period V).
• Mound P marks an addition to Mound Q, and accordingly repre-
sents a later period of construction (Period VI).
These six periods do not necessarily correspond to separate
periods of culture; they merely mark epochs of structural expansion,
which might have followed each other at very short intervals.
Luckily, however, they serve in some cases to mark off separate
cultural horizons.
Resting on Floor 1 and directly in front of Mound P were found
some sherds, which from their position must be earlier than Construc-
tion Period II. These consist of two types of ware. The first is
represented by sherds of a hard well-made and well-fired pottery of
better quality than any other pottery described in previous chapters
from the Mountain Cow Water Hole area. These (Cat. No. 188414)
pertain to a series of wide bowls as much as 40 cm in diameter, which
are characterized in most cases by a beveled ridge on the outside
immediately below the rim. There are also characteristic horizontal
ripple markings, often so faint as to be noticeable only by running a
finger along the surface. They are covered by a deep red slip of
almost metallic luster, which is well applied and does not easily rub
off (Fig. 17, b-d). The second type of ware was represented by
sherds from one deep storage vessel with incurved rim (Cat. No.
188415). The ware, which is thick, coarse, and porous in texture,
is of a dark brown color and unslipped and unpolished. The decora-
tion consists of a design in low relief representing a cord with ends
hanging down (Fig. 17, e). It will be remembered that a similar
design was found on a vessel of Holmul I period from Vaulted
Chamber I in this same plazuela (p. 289) and it was there suggested
that this design had probably been carried over into Holmul I from
an earlier period.
326 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
To this same period also belongs the fine bowl (Cat. No. 188409)
shown on Plate LI. This was found at the same level between
Floors 1 and 2, but immediately in front of Mound M. The vessel
was found in pieces, and had obviously been placed there after
being broken. The ware is a soft semi-porous clay rather lightly
baked and of a somewhat gritty texture. The vessel, which is a large
flat based bowl with everted lip, is covered inside and out with a rich
red slip, highly polished, but not quite so deep a red as the slip of the
sherds from the same level described above. The same horizontal
ripple marks occur just below the rim, and the vessel, which measures
45 cm in diameter and has a height of 15 cm, clearly belongs to the
same period as the sherds described above.
Other sherds were found in the immediate vicinity of Plazuela I,
which, while carrying no stratigraphical data, can obviously be
related stylistically to the sherds and vessel described above.
The first of these deposits that can be associated thus was found
in a chultun (E) lying about one hundred and fifty yards southwest
of the plazuela. The chultun may have served as a burial for a few
fragments of a human femur were found inside. The pottery con-
sisted of a broken vessel, about two-thirds complete (Cat. No.
188417), in the form of a round-based bowl of simple silhouette made
of a hard well-made and well-baked ware covered with a lustrous
firm slip shading from dark brown to black. As in the other case
ripple marks are faintly discernible below the rim, and there is the
same slightly soapy feel when running one's finger over the slip.
Together with this vessel were found two sherds of another bowl
(Fig. 17, a) of similar ware and slip, but with composite silhouette
made by a beveled edge below the rim, much more pronounced than
in the case of 188414. The sherd has been unevenly fired and shades
from a rich red brown to a full black. Finally there was found, too,
in the chultun about two-thirds of a straight sided bowl of coarse
porous ware with thick unslipped and unpolished sides, varying from
a gray black to black in color (Cat. No. 188418). Unfortunately the
rim of this vessel is entirely missing, but the small piece that would
have been closest to the top shows a shallow line probably incised
with a stick. No other pottery was found in the chultun, and as
the ware appears to belong to the same period and was found with
a jade bead and bones, the chultun probably served as a burial place
for a person of this period. The second lot of sherds stylistically
related to this group was found in a big pottery dump in a hollow
under Plazuela II at Cahal Cunil. There were no complete vessels,
i ss v / i
>t\ H> +
/Wt£
Fig. 17
Pottery from Cahal Cunil, Pre-Holmul I Period: a, Chultun E; b-e,
Sherds Resting on Floor 1, Plazuela I
328 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
but in many cases pieces could be fitted together, which would suggest
that the sherds were deliberately dumped there after breakage, and
not gathered from the surface to be dumped in this hollow at some
later period. A selection of the sherds is illustrated in Figs. 18
and 19.
They fall into three classes, sherds of ollas, bowls, and incensarios.
The ollas form the largest class. They differ in the texture of the
ware, shading from a coarse gravelly poorly baked ware, which is a
bright red brown color, up to pottery of excellent texture. The
fragment of the large olla (Fig. 18, e) is of particular interest, for
once more we see on it the cord pattern with dangling ends. The
majority of the olla sherds are lightly polished to a rough violet
black, and show pit markings arranged in straight lines with semi-
lunar curves arranged around small knob-like projections, practically
identical with the design of 188169 from Chultun B, Tzimin Kax,
which belongs to Holmul I (Plate XLI, right). One of the olla sherds,
which differs from the others in having an unpolished red slip
(Fig. 19, e), has incised horizontal lines, and many of the sherds
show vertical handles, in one case with pit markings on the handle.
The olla ware generally may be said to fall into a definite stylistic
group, possibly serving as a connecting link between the pottery of
our Period I, found between Floors 1 and 2 of Plazuela I at Cahal
Cunil, and Holmul I. Sherds from bowls are almost entirely of one
type (Fig. 18, a, d and f). The ware is well-made, well-fired and
evenly tempered and the sides are as a rule unusually thick. The
ware is covered with a rich red slip with a good lustrous polish. Some-
times this color is replaced with a red brown, which, when unevenly
fired, takes on a mottled purple appearance. Most of the sherds
appear to belong to wide mouthed bowls either straight sided or
with recurved sides bearing a similarity to 188409 described on
page 326. Practically all have shallow broad incised lines on the
inside of the lip, but the ripple marks are not recognizable in the
majority of these sherds. Tetrapods are represented by one sherd
showing two legs in such close proximity that they must originally
have been four in number. This sherd has a deep well polished red
slip, and is rather thick. The paste is of very good quality. Two
other sherds have legs (Fig. 18, b), but it is impossible to say if the
original vessels were tripods or tetrapods. One of the sherds is
covered on the outside with a very good black slip well polished,
but the inside is covered with a creamy white slip with a rather
soapy feel like Yucatecan slate ware.
Fig. 18
Sherds from Hollow under Plazuela II, Cabal Cunil
Probably Pre-Holmul I Period
330 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
A sherd of coarse gritty ware without any slip or polish is also
illustrated on Fig. 18, c. This probably formed part of an incense
brazier. Possibly this deposit of sherds contained ware from more
than one period, but some, at least, of the sherds undoubtedly belong
to the pre-Holmul I period. A certain classification of all of them
must depend on the discovery in more satisfactory circumstances of a
deposit of this period sealed off from a later period beyond a shadow
of doubt. For the present, however, these sherds may be tenta-
tively accepted as representing a homogeneous group that preceded
Holmul I.
If our assumption of the extension of the area of the plazuela to
the east after the completion of Floor 2 is correct, then Vaulted
Chamber I at Cahal Cunil represents a later period. The furniture
of this burial we have already seen (p. 290 and Plate XLIV) belongs
to Holmul I. After the completion of this vaulted chamber Floor 3
was laid down. Of the same date is another burial in the same
plazuela, Burial III at Cahal Cunil. This was found underneath
the same floor, and a little to the west of Vaulted Chamber I (see
p. 292). The grave was stone lined, but not vaulted, and it will be
remembered contained no furniture save a single sherd which can
be assigned to Holmul I, or the period that immediately preceded it.
Above Vaulted Chamber I was Floor 3, and above this again,
Floor 4, on top of which had been built Mound N. In the center of
Mound N was found Burial II at Cahal Cunil, which as already
shown (p. 316) belongs to the Holmul V period. Between the build-
ing of Vaulted Chamber I and Burial II there lapsed sufficient time
to lay down Floors 3 and 4 and build Mound N. In actual years this
may not have been a lengthy period, for Floor 3 was almost surely
laid down immediately after the construction of the vaulted chamber.
Floor 4 was probably a repair floor, and the mound may have been
built almost immediately after Floor 4 was completed.
In the space between the original Mound Q and the face of the
addition P were found a number of sherds, which appear to be of
mixed periods, and were probably collected from the surface and
thrown in as construction material. Nevertheless, the majority of
them belong to Holmul V period, consisting of sherds of ring-based
bowls similar to those already ascribed to Holmul V, of cylindrical
straight sided jars, one of which has been covered with painted
stucco, and sherds which probably belonged to shallow tripod bowls.
Among the finds was the lower part of a hollow figurine whistle,
roughly of the same type as those found in the Lubaantun district
Fig. 19
Sherds from Hollow under Plazuela II, Canal Cunil
Probably Pre-Holmul I Period
332 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
and possibly imported from that general area. At that time I came
to the conclusion that this type of figurine dated from the latter part
of the "Old Empire" period (Joyce, T. A., Cooper Clark, J., and
Thompson, J. E., p. 214). The discovery of this part of a figurine
together with Holmul V pottery serves to confirm the original dating,
but it must be remembered that there is a possibility that the sherd
deposit behind the face of Mound P is not homogeneous.
Three stylistic periods of occupation, then, are distinguishable at
Cahal Cunil. Two of these, Holmul I and Holmul V, were found in
perfect stratigraphical conditions that confirm Dr. Vaillant's inter-
pretation of the cultural sequences at Holmul. Another stylistic
period, which is given the temporary classification of "Pre-Holmul,"
was found under circumstances which point to its being earlier than
Holmul I, but are not conclusive. This period is similar, stylistically,
to that found under Floor 2 at Uaxactun (Ricketson, 1929, p. 322).
The three periods show a progressive degeneration in pottery, there
being a marked falling off from the well-tempered, well-fired pottery
of the pre-Holmul period, covered with good adhesive slips, to the
poorly baked vessels of Holmul V period, of poor ware with slips that
rub off very easily. Conversely there is a development of color.
In pre-Holmul all pottery is monochrome, during Holmul I period
at Mountain Cow polychrome vessels are rare, in Holmul V they form
the vast majority of the non-olla ware. Stucco slips are common to
both periods.
At Tzimin Kax both Holmul I and Holmul V are found. At the
other sites of Cahal Pichik and Hatzcap Ceel only Holmul V has
been found. In passing, mention should be made of the fact that a
piece of what is definitely porcelain was found close to the surface of
the summit of Pyramid A at Hatzcap Ceel. This was found under-
neath the rubbish from the collapse of the building on the summit.
The small fragment, which measures only 3 cm in each direction, was
examined by Mr. H. W. Nichols, who pronounces it to be porcelain
of rather poor quality, such as was used in Europe by persons of
lower class. Presumably it passed into Maya hands some time
toward the close of the seventeenth or early in the eighteenth century,
and may have been carried to its present position by some Mopan
Indian visiting the ruins to make an offering. It is well known that
the modern Mayas still make occasional offerings at the temples of
their ancestors.
Alternately Hatzcap Ceel may have continued to be occupied up
into Spanish times. This seems hardly likely, for in that case the
Sequence of Cultures 333
incensarios on the floor of Temple M at this site must be post-con-
quest— provided, of course, the temple had not previously collapsed —
and as they have been dated as belonging to Holmul V period this
would lead to the conclusion that Holmul V was also contemporane-
ous with the conquest. Furthermore, had these sites been occupied
until the seventeenth century objects of copper or even gold would
have been in fairly common use, and would have been found in the
course of the excavations.
Negative evidence, then, suggests that none of the Mountain
Cow sites were occupied after the introduction of metal among the
Mayas, and probably we shall not err in suggesting that these sites
ceased to be occupied by a permanent population some time during
Cycle 10. The votive caches can be linked up with the Holmul V
horizon (p. 283). Holmul V therefore represents the greatest, pos-
sibly the only, period of building activity at the two ceremonial
centers. Is it too great assumption that the period of greatest activity
in building coincided with the erection of the carved monuments?
At a Maya city where ceramic remains show several periods of
development, such an assumption would be hazardous, but as at
Cahal Pichik no recognizable period other than Holmul V is, so far
as we know, ceramically represented, and at Hatzcap Ceel the over-
whelming majority of recognizable sherd types belongs to Holmul V
period, we can assume with considerable expectancy of being correct
that building activity and the erection of carved monuments were
contemporaneous at these two sites. On this assumption Holmul V
can be dated as occurring around the close of Cycle 9 in the Mountain
Cow region. Our known dates in this region are 9.19.0-0-0 and
10.0.5-0-0. Holmul V, then, might have developed somewhere
around 9.15.0-0-0, and continued until well into Cycle 10 times. It
does not necessarily follow that the Holmul V horizon around
Mountain Cow coincided with the same period in other Maya cities.
VI. GENERAL SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS
The sites grouped around Mountain Cow Water Hole have a
greater elevation than any other site in the "Old Empire" region.
Within a radius of two miles there are two ceremonial centers and two
residential centers.
The ceremonial centers, Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal Pichik, are
Class 4 sites, which flourished at the close of Cycle 9. This is attested
to by two dated monuments and sherds of Holmul V period. The
architecture is poor. Most of the buildings were either of pure jacal
construction, or a mixture of stone masonry and jacal. The masonry
is of poor quality, the stones being poorly faced and not squared.
Vaulted chambers with the Maya false arch were known, but were
largely reserved for burial chambers. Superimposition of buildings
and floors points to a large number of constructional periods, but one
must not infer that they necessarily mark the lapse of long periods
of time. Pyramids are for the most part in a collapsed condition.
The highest have a height of some 12 to 13 meters. At each site
there are parallel mounds which may have formed ball courts
of "Old Empire" type without rings. Most of the pyramids of the
temple type yielded votive caches consisting of jade and shell
objects contained in pottery urns. In one of the caches at Hatzcap
Ceel were found the remains of an iron pyrite mirror, and another
cache probably also contained a mirror of this type, but the iron
pyrite squares had been converted into accretions of oxidized iron.
These caches can be related with a fair degree of certainty to the
Holmul V period. No evidence was found for the occupation of these
two sites at an earlier period, but such evidence is merely negative.
The evidence of the pottery shows that these sites belonged to
the same general cultural area as Holmul, Yalloch, and Uaxactun.
More intensive investigation of other important sites of this north
central Peten region will probably reveal that they all shared in a
fairly homogeneous culture distinct as far as domestic arts are con-
cerned from the cities of Yucatan on the one hand and Copan and
Quirigua on the other, with the Usumacintla valley group probably
forming yet another separate area. All these cultural areas were
united by a common religion and a common calendar. The Mopan
Valley, in which the two sites of Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal Pichik
are situated, contains a number of fourth class sites, such as Ucanal,
Ixkun, and Benque Viejo, all of which are shown by their dates to
have been flourishing around the close of Cycle 9. Few of these
334
General Summary and Conclusions 335
cities reveal any high standard of architecture, but their art, as
exemplified by the carving on stelae and altars, does not fall far
short of that of the larger cities of the north Peten region. Never-
theless the Mopan Valley must be considered to be a peripheral
region, where a simple Maya culture flourished over a long period,
but to which the knowledge or ability to erect carved monuments
only penetrated in late times at the close of the "Old Empire." The
inhabitants of Benque Viejo, living in closer proximity to the great
centers of the Peten region such as Tikal, Uaxactun, Naranjo, and
Nakum, mastered the art of erecting well constructed buildings
containing multiple vaulted chambers, but such knowledge appears
never to have reached the Mountain Cow region, the Camp 6 site,
or the ruins of Mucnal Tunich (Minan Ha).
The two residential sites of Tzimin Kax and Cahal Cunil consist
in each case of a series of scattered plazas of small size, on which were
erected small mounds. Many of these contain burials. Chultuns,
which were not found at either Cahal Pichik or Hatzcap Ceel, were
found in, or close to, these plazuelas, and in a number of cases con-
tained burials. These residential sites appear to have been occupied
over a much longer period than the ceremonial centers. The last
period of occupation of Tzimin Kax and Cahal Cunil is Holmul V,
and accordingly at this time all four sites were occupied. An earlier
period, the pottery of which is of the type known as Holmul I, is
represented by a number of burials at both residential sites, and in the
case of Cahal Cunil the priority of Holmul I is proved by superim-
position. At Cahal Cunil there is certain evidence which points to a
yet earlier period, referred to as pre-Holmul, but absolute proof of its
priority is not present. Pottery of this same type has been found at
Uaxactun under conditions which indicate that it is earlier than
Holmul I.
Although the terms Holmul I and Holmul V, applied by Dr.
Vaillant to denominate stylistic periods stratigraphically placed at
Holmul, are used for related ware in the Mountain Cow area, there
is no certainty that, for example, Holmul I pottery at Mountain Cow
was contemporaneous with the original Holmul I type pottery from
Holmul. The Mountain Cow district, as already pointed out, was a
peripheral region, and Holmul I may have reached this area at a
much later date, or, reaching it at an early date, have continued to
flourish long after it had ceased to exist in the type site. The
Holmul V period in the Mountain Cow district probably coincided
with the last quarter of Cycle 9 and the early part of Cycle 10.
336 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
At Camp 6, some twelve miles northwest of Mountain Cow
Water Hole, there is another Class 4 site. Here no stelae, either plain
or carved, were found, but the site is proved to have been contempo-
raneous with the ceremonial centers of the Mountain Cow area by the
presence of Holmul V sherds, and votive caches similar to those of
Hatzcap Ceel and Cahal Pichik. Close to the ceremonial center at
Camp 6 were a number of small scattered mounds, which were, pre-
sumably, residential in character. In these mounds were found large
deposits of sherds largely of Holmul V type.
In conclusion it might be stated that the small residential mounds
offer much greater possibilities of a reconstruction of Maya history
than do the ceremonial centers. In the former are found larger
numbers of burials, and it is on the funeral furniture that we must
depend to a very large extent for our knowledge of the Mayas. In
the Mountain Cow area the burials seem to have been very frequently
associated with the mounds on the east side of a plazuela, either
being in the mound itself, or at its base. Possibly this association
of burials with the east is merely fortuitous, but it is a line other
investigators might find worth following.
Votive caches seem to have been placed in almost every mound
of the temple type. As a rule they are either in the center of
the mound, or immediately beneath the center of the back wall of
the structure crowning the pyramid.
Caches, while their contents are frequently spectacular — witness
the find of the mosaic shield by the Carnegie Institution at Chichen
Itza — can not be relied on to such an extent for dating purposes at
the present moment. Undoubtedly with the discovery of many
more caches in different cities, their contents will be able to be classi-
fied into stylistic periods of known date, and in this work caches
from beneath dated stelae which have not been moved should prove
of assistance. These two lines of approach, pottery types and votive
caches, should lead to more dependable knowledge of the history of
Maya cities than is supplied at present by the monuments.
It is almost a tragedy that the ability to decipher dates should
have preceded any application of the ordinary rules of dirt archae-
ology to the Maya field. For, as a result, the evidence supplied by
pottery types and their sequences, art styles, and the development
of architecture is ignored, or refashioned to fit into the very uncertain
structure of dated monuments. Such a scheme is on a level with the
efforts of the archaeologists of a few decades ago, who attempted to
relate pre-history to biblical dates.
General Summary and Conclusions 337
Many Maya cities undoubtedly reached a high cultural level
without embracing the stela complex. Lubaantun is a case in point.
The ability of its inhabitants to work stone can not be questioned,
for the masonry there is surpassed by very few Maya cities, yet
only three small altars have ever been found at this city, and these
were undoubtedly erected after the city had been occupied over a
long period. The numerous figurines found there confirm the
evidence of the masonry that the inhabitants shared in the
common Maya cultural heritage, although they did not practice
the custom of erecting dated monuments, save during a very
short period.
The presence of dated monuments does not indicate that the city
where they occur was only occupied by the period spanned by their
opening and closing dates. Failure to erect monuments may have
been due to causes other than the abandonment of the site. A
lack of trained sculptors, little interest in the calendarial aspects of
Maya religion, or the absence of a mathematically minded priesthood
may have been contributing factors.
In view of this uncertainty dated stelae are clearly unreliable
criteria in arriving at any conclusion as to the length of time any
given city was occupied. This will only be achieved when the
pottery types and sequences have been thoroughly worked out as a
result of intensive excavation at a large number of Maya sites.
Doubtless with this work accomplished, the rough divisions into
stylistic and time periods followed in this publication will undergo
much revision and refinement. The past three or four decades have
been largely devoted to general explorations of the Maya field. The
time has now come for attaining less general objectives.
With the work now being undertaken at Uaxactun by the
Carnegie Institution and with the investigations projected by Field
Museum in northern central British Honduras it should soon be possi-
ble to define clearly the limits of the Holmul cultural area, and obtain
a clearer idea of the ceramic types and their sequences over a fairly
wide zone. Once the attack has been driven home and the position
consolidated, we shall possess a good jumping off point for attacks
on the neighboring cultural areas.
The Maya area is emerging as a unit divided into some half a
dozen major zones each with many minor subdivisions, but the whole
united by a common religion and script, as Islam is united by
Mohammedanism and Arabic.
APPENDIX I
THE SO-CALLED "IN-AND-OUT" STYLE OF MASONRY
AT LUBAANTUN, BRITISH HONDURAS
T. A. Joyce, in his report on the investigations at Lubaantun in
1926 (Joyce, 1926, p. 210), writes of a "style of masonry .... which
appears to be peculiar to this particular region of the Maya area.
While each tier is built with a definite 'batter,' every second course
projects slightly beyond the course immediately below it." This
style he names "In-and-out." The courses in ascending order
alternately project slightly and recess considerably, giving an appear-
ance similar to that of the lower part of the cross-section A-A" in
Fig. 20.
Mr. Joyce's observations, which were based on surface finds,
led him to believe that this style of masonry was associated with
rounded corners, was not covered with stucco, and was later than
the masonry of the period he termed "Recessed Perpendicular."
In "Recessed Perpendicular" alternate courses were considerably
recessed, the effect being like that shown in the lower half of the
cross-section B-B" in Fig. 20.
Indeed, the exposed walls seen by Mr. Joyce in 1926 would
certainly lead one to believe that the "In-and-out" was artificial,
and it was not until later in the 1927 season, when excavation had
revealed buried sections, that I came to the conclusion that this
was not the case. Had I seen only the masonry exposed before
excavation, I should have been of exactly the same opinion as Mr.
Joyce.
As a result of excavations during the 1927 field season, I reached
the conclusion that the "In-and-out" was not artificial, but was
due to natural causes such as roots forcing the stones out of position
(Thompson, 1927, pp. 301 and 308). Such a conclusion was based
on the fact that in several places where debris had accumulated, or
an addition had been made to the original structure, the masonry
behind was found to be in "Recessed Perpendicular" style, whereas
the same wall at the same level on each side of the debris or addition
was in the so-called "In-and-out" style. I concluded from this that
the sheltered section showed the original appearance of the masonry,
but where it had been exposed to the inclemencies of the weather
and the ruthless onslaughts of tropical rain forest, "Recessed Perpen-
338
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dicular" had been transformed into "In-and-out" through roots
pushing the stones out of place.
Mr. Joyce failed to agree with my conclusions, writing, "The
photographs suggest to me no more than that the buildings in the
'In-and-out' style were sometimes provided with a base in the 'Per-
pendicular' style." (Ibid, p. 302.) Such an argument clearly will
not stand, for, as my report shows, the same tier is in "Recessed
Perpendicular" style behind the debris, but where exposed on either
side is in "In-and-out," and there is no break or join to suggest a
sudden change from one style to the other.
As a second argument Mr. Joyce cites the masonry in Court IV,
where, after clearing the debris, one wall was found to be in
"In-and-out" style, whereas the other wall was in "Recessed Perpen-
dicular" style. Surely this is not a strong argument for one wall
might easily have disintegrated into "In-and-out" before the debris
accumulated. Furthermore, in the angle between the two walls the
"out" tiers only project to an infinitesimal extent, and this is the
very point, at a corner, where one would expect debris to first accumu-
late, and stop further disintegration.
As a third argument Mr. Joyce calls attention to the extreme
regularity of the "out" tiers, and to the fact that this style occurs
only in the Lubaantun area, being unknown in other sites. At a
first glance the tiers do seem to project fairly regularly, but a closer
examination reveals that such regularity is an illusion. Some stones
are found to project more than two inches, whereas the stone next
to it may project only half an inch or not at all. "In-and-out" is
found only at Lubaantun, because here only is "Recessed Perpen-
dicular" found above the surface.
Since the matter was still unsettled, I took advantage of my
stay at San Pedro Colombia in December 1928 to revisit the ruins
of Lubaantun, and re-examine the architecture in the light of further
experience. The further evidence for the conclusion that the "In-
and-out" is, indeed, merely collapsed "Recessed Perpendicular" is
presented on Figs. 20 and 21. The drawings were made by Mr.
Jorge Acosta from my rough drawings made on the spot, and are
not made to scale, although each stone is indicated.
Figure 20 shows a section of the west side of Pyramid E. On the
left the section of the wall is shown full face, and on the right are
shown cross-sections made through A-A" and B-B". Fallen stones
are marked with the letter F; the shading marks the amount of
projection according to the letter press below. The process of disin-
The So-called "In-and-out" Style 341
tegration at its start is here shown. Most of the wall, which is
covered with stucco, is in regular "Recessed Perpendicular" style.
These stones are shown in outline. It will be noticed that in the
section B-B" the first five tiers (ten courses) are in perfectly normal
"Recessed Perpendicular," but above that the tiers start to project.
Through A-A", on the other hand, the first three "out" courses pro-
ject about half an inch, the fourth projects considerably, more than
two inches, the fifth does not project at all, the sixth again shows
considerable projection, and so does the seventh. In the drawing
an arrow points to the left hand stone of the upper course of the fourth
tier, the stone that we saw projected more than two inches. This
arrow indicates a root of a small tree that is growing at this spot,
and has forced out this stone and that adjacent to it. All the other
stones in the course show no projection, and it is clear that here we
have "In-and-out" in process of development. A second arrow on
the right of the seventh tier indicates another tree root. This root
has done more damage. It has caused the two stones immediately
above it to fall out (F on the figure), and the stone to the left of them
to project two inches; the next stone to the left is also projecting to
a certain extent probably owing to the root thrusting out behind it.
In all probability if one were to revisit this pyramid today one
would find that this stone had been thrust even farther out, and
instead of projecting an inch or so, would be found to be projecting
over two inches. The joints between the inner edge of the top of
one course, and the outer edge of the base of the recessed stones
above supply an excellent sheltered bed for seed to take root.
Figure 21 shows a similar drawing from the west side of Pyramid
D near the central inset. Here the variation in projection of the
"out" tier is very apparent. On the left Tiers 2, 3, and 4 show no
projection, and the style is regular "Recessed Perpendicular," but
to the right the upper tiers project. One course (No. 2) has an even
projection from left to right of more than two inches, but the projec-
tion of the "out" course above varies from half an inch to just short
of two inches.
Stones can readily be pushed out by the pressure of roots, but
they can hardly be pushed in, for behind them is the massive rubble
core of the pyramid, which will resist any inward pressure. As the
courses were obviously not laid in the irregular fashion in which they
are now, the projecting stones must have been forced out, probably in
the same manner as we observed in process on the face of Pyramid E.
The So-called "In-and-out" Style 343
This conclusion is reinforced by evidence supplied by the stucco.
The face of the pyramid was originally covered with a stucco coating,
but with the passage of time this has largely disintegrated. A large
piece of stucco still adheres to the surface of the left hand stone of
the upper course of Tier 1 and this piece of stucco overlaps the
bottom edge of the stone, continuing downwards in a straight line
about an inch below the base of the stone. Had the stones been
originally laid in "In-and-out" style, the stucco would have curved
under at the bottom of the stone, adhering to the under face, which
would have been exposed, until it came in contact with the recessed
stone below. As, however, the stucco continues straight down, it is
clear that the stucco on breaking carried with it a piece of the stucco
on the stone beneath it, the surface of which must have been flush
with it.
A similar case of a stucco face continuing in a straight line below
the stone to which it was attached was observed on the east face of
G', and obviously must have originally covered in part the stone
below, which was flush with it.
These finds seem to supply incontrovertible proof that such
a style of architecture as "In-and-out" never existed, and is merely
the result of the action of roots on the "Recessed Perpendicular"
style.
APPENDIX II
STELA 26, COPAN
In June of 1929 I paid a short visit to Copan in the company
of Dr. and Mrs. H. J. Spinden. While wandering through the great
plaza, my attention was caught by what appeared to be faint numer-
ical bars on the side of one of the treads of the stairway leading up
to the mound that flanks the north end of the great plaza. The
stone was close to the northwest corner of the terrace, and almost
at the top. With the aid of Dr. and Mrs. Spinden the stone was
turned, revealing on the under side six glyph blocks. As the last
stela discovered at Copan had been numbered Stela 25 by Dr.
Morley (Morley, 1920, p. 69), the new fragment has been named Stela
26, for part of a stela it proved to be. Its discovery was reported in the
"Annual Report of the Director to the Board of Trustees for the Year
1929," Field Museum Publication 271, page 48. The fragment would
appear to have been the top right hand part of the back of a stela
which had originally been carved on all four sides. Apparently the
stela had been cut into blocks to be reused in building. The stela
was probably first cut in half horizontally, and then vertically in
both directions, the fragment recovered being an eighth of the origi-
nal stone. As the recovered portion shows glyphs on the two unsawn
sides, one can safely presume that all four sides were originally
carved, for no case is known of a monument carved on three sides
only. Stela 26 can also be classed as belonging to the fourth group
in all probability, that is to say, stelae with an inscription on three
sides and a representation of a human or divine figure on the fourth
side. Such a classification depends on the date of erection of this
monument, but it will be shown that Stela 26 can be fairly surely
dated as belonging to a period when monuments belonging to this
group were being erected.
The inscription on the back (Plate LII, Fig. 1) opens with
an Initial Series Introductory glyph as shown in the presentation
below.
B1-B2. This double glyph block is occupied by the right half of
an Initial Series Introductory glyph. The left half is on the missing
left fragment. Note the double vertical bar on the right. Most of
the variable central element, which might have yielded the month
of the Initial Series is on the missing fragment.
B3 is almost entirely eroded.
344
Stela 26, Copan 345
B4 reveals a very clear presentation of a jaguar's head, very well
executed.
B5 has on the left a sign, which during the "New Empire" served
as an introductory glyph to the month sign. It is not uncommon at
Copan, but is not used in the same sense, and its meaning at that
time must have been very general. On the right is a glyph, which
may be the Tun sign. Note the three dots above the eye, and the
fleshless nose. Although the bared jawbone can not be recognized,
the lips of the mouth are drawn back in a manner occasionally used
to denote death. The three dots are one of the most constant signs
of the head form of the Tun glyph.
B6 is very clearly the Uinal glyph, the presentation being highly
ornate. There are two bars to the left and two above. This would
suggest a secondary series, but it is possible that the bars to the left
are not numerical, but form part of A6. The bottom of the bars is
rather weathered, and it is possible that they curve round to the
left, possibly forming the right wing of a cartouche of a glyph similar
to that on the left of B5. At the top the supposed bars end in two
squat horizontal bars, which are a further argument against reading
the bars as numerical coefficients.
B7. Only the top part of this glyph remains, and this is not
sufficient to supply any information.
There is a possibility that here we are dealing with an Initial
Series. B5 is probably the Tun sign and B6 the Uinal glyph with
a coefficient of 10. In that case B4 must be read as the Katun
glyph. The Katun sign is, so far as I know, not formed from a jaguar
head in any other inscription, but this does not necessarily mean the
rejection of this glyph as the Katun sign, for at the time that this
monument was probably erected, the glyphs were drawn with an
ornateness and freedom from conventionality unequaled at any
other period. If this is, indeed, an Initial Series, then glyphs A3-A7
would be devoted to the coefficients expressed in head form. This
also was a common practice at the time this monument was, in all
probability, carved. However, the reading of the inscription as an
Initial Series must be taken as little more than a suggestion.
Attention has already been called to the bars which flank the
Initial Series Introducing glyph. Such bars are also found on three
other stelae at Copan — Stelae P, 2, and 12, the dates of which are
9.9.10-0-0, and 9.10.15-0-0 or 9.11.0-0-0. It will be seen, too, that
in the lower half of the Tun element of the Initial Series Introducing
glyph there are three oblong dots. The latest monument with this
346 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
arrangement at Copan is Stela P. This would suggest that Stela 26
can not have been erected much later than 9.9.10-0-0. Furthermore,
if it was of later date, it does not seem likely that it would have
been preserved for less than a hundred years, being broken up at
the time the great plaza was built, for this occurred before 9.15.0-0-0
(Morley, 1920, p. 220). Finally it is improbable that the monument
was erected before 9.9.10-0-0, for the two monuments erected before
this date, Stela 7, dated 9.9.0-0-0, and Stela E, probably erected at
9.5.0-0-0, have neither the three dots nor the vertical flanking bars
as part of the Initial Series Introducing glyph. One might hazard
that Stela 26 was erected to commemorate one of the following four
Hotun endings: 9.9.15-0-0, 8 Ahau 13 Cumhu, 9.10.0-0-0, 1 Ahau 8
Kayab, 9.10.5-0-0, 7 Ahau 3 Pax, or 9.10.10-0-0, 13 Ahau 18 Kankin.
Of these four dates, the first two are preferable, for the ornate
style in which the glyphs are carved is found on Stela P, erected at
9.9.10-0-0, but not so markedly on Stelae 2 and 12.
APPENDIX III
DATES 25 AND 26 OF THE HIEROGLYPHIC
STAIRWAY, COPAN
Date 25 of the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copan consists of four
complete glyph blocks and a fraction of a fifth. The date has been
read by Morley, who was also responsible for the piecing together
of the stones that compose it, as an Initial Series: 9.14.10-10-12 or -17.
No more of the inscription has been located (Morley, 1920, p. 261).
Date 27 consists of one stone that reads 5 Kins 7 Caban, the first
variant of the group of nine of Glyph G of the Lunar Series. As the
day sign Caban can only follow a Kin coefficient of 17, it is clear that
the adjacent glyph block to the left must terminate with a coefficient
of 12 to bring the total coefficient up to 17. Moreover, as the Glyph
G is the first variant, it is equally clear that the Uinal coefficient must
be either 1 or 10, for only these two coefficients added to 17 Kins
will leave the required remainder of one when divided by nine. The
latter is precisely the reading with which Date 25 probably terminates.
However, the Initial Series 9.14.10-10-17 requires a day Caban with
a coefficient of 1, not 7 as Date 27 gives, but emending the Tun
coefficient to read as 15, allowing either for a mistake on the part
of the sculptor or an erased bar on the weathered extreme of the
second block, one gets the Initial Series 9.14.15-10-17, 7 Caban (10
Zotz), and Glyph G is in agreement.
In support of this new reading might be cited the fact that the
glyphs of the new block added to the former date appear to be of
the same stylistic period, and have their coefficients to the left
instead of above the glyphs, which in turn each occupy a single
glyph block. Finally the glyphs appear to be of practically the same
width and height.
Date 26 (Morley, 1920, plate 26, fig. e) consists of three glyphs
reading: ? Tuns, 16 Uinals, and 5 Kins. Morley suggests that part of
two consecutive glyph blocks recording 6 Chicchan 3 ? should possibly
be added to this giving an Initial Series that reads 9.15.6-16-5, 6
Chicchan 3 Yaxkin. Morley also calls attention to another glyph
block recording 3 Yaxkin, which he suggests may be a repetition of
the Initial Series terminal date, or vice versa. There seem to be
grounds for believing that the 3 Yaxkin is the terminal date of the
Initial Series as Morley suggests, for on the block (Gordon, plate 12,
E) to the right of 3 Yaxkin is shown the same first variant of Glyph G
347
348 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
of the Lunar Series, already noted above. The Initial Series requires
this first variant for 16 Uinals and 5 Kins leave a remainder of one
when divided by nine. The three dots following 6 Chicchan probably
are not the coefficient of the month sign but of Glyph E of the Lunar
Series for this date is about twenty-three days after a new moon, and
possibly the Glyph E on the right of Row 0 (Gordon, plate 12)
should follow on here. Teeple (1930) has already called attention to
the emphasis on dates falling twenty-three days after new moon, as
this was the position of the moon according to Copan calculations at
13.0.0-0-0, 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu. Date 28 can also now be brought into
the group. This date (Gordon, plate 12, E, and Morley, 1920,
p. 264) consists solely of an Initial Series Introductory glyph. The
central element is the sun glyph, which requires a month Yaxkin
in the terminal date of the inscription. This requirement is filled
by the date given above, and furthermore the stylistic treatment of
the glyph is in agreement with the date of the rest of the inscription;
indeed Doctor H. Beyer some years ago in a review of "The Inscrip-
tions at Copan," suggested that this Introductory glyph belonged to
date 26.
APPENDIX IV
ON THE ORIGIN OF THE 260-DAY ALMANAC
Of the origin of the 260-day sacred almanac of the Mayas and
other Central American and Mexican peoples, we have no knowledge,
and are, perforce, driven back upon conjecture. Many suggestions
have been made, but none of them has been generally accepted.
Below is offered yet one more explanation of the evolution of this
peculiar structure.
For numeration nearly all Central American peoples employed a
vigesimal system. That this was based on fingers and toes is shown
by the fact that a number of Maya tribes still use the expression
"man" or "one man" to indicate the number twenty. Among these
may be cited the Mam, Ixil, Quiche, Cakchiquel, Pokoman, and
Huaxtec tribes.
It does not seem unreasonable to assume that the Mayas grouped
their days in twenties from the very first. Indeed, the twenty-day
period in the Yucatecan calendar is called Uinal, a word that prob-
ably contains the root of the word for man — Uinik or Uinak — in
practically every Maya dialect. The problem seems to be to decide
why the twenty-day period should be associated with the numbers
one to thirteen.
It seems possible that from the very inception of the twenty-day
count, each day was under the patronage of a god, and that these
gods were thirteen in number. Although we have no information
of such an arrangement among the Mayas, yet in Mexico there
were thirteen gods of the days, each of whom apparently ruled over
a day in turn. Seler believed that these thirteen gods ruled over
the thirteen hours of the day, and the nine gods of the nights similarly
ruled over the nine hours of the night. This theory has been proved
incorrect in the case of the lords of the nights, and presumably it
is also untrue of the lords of the days.
In the former case we know that the nine gods ruled consecutively
over a single day, and the same probably applies to the lords of the
days.
If we can imagine such a system being in vogue from the very
beginning of the calendar, a 260-day period would automatically
evolve, for at the end of 260 days each of the thirteen gods would
have ruled over each of the twenty days in this period of the
calendar.
349
350 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
We do not know the names of the twenty days in the archaic
calendar, but if we substitute Yucatecan names, we should have a
calendar, a section of which would look like this.
Ahau The patron is the sky god.
Imix The patron is the old god — Mam.
Ik The patron is the god with the ax in his eye.
Akbal . . . .The patron is the god with a curl under his eyes and over his nose.
Kan The patron is the maize god.
Chicchan . . The patron with a beard or spots on his face.
Cimi The patron is the death god.
At the next occurrence of the day Cimi, the god who ruled over
that day would be the sky god, since this day is twenty-six days
after the first occurrence of Ahau, and the series of thirteen patron
gods has had time to repeat itself twice.
We know a considerable number of Maya gods were associated
with numbers. The sky god was associated with the number four,
as there are four world directions. Number five is represented by
an old man, and the maize god is associated with eight, in the same
way that death is connected with the number ten.
In the course of time we can picture the gods' names being replaced
by the numbers with which they were associated, and the table given
above would become:
The patron is
associated with number The day is
4 Ahau
5 Imix
6 Ik
7 Akbal
8 Kan
9 Chicchan
10 Cimi
and twenty days later the day Cimi will be ruled over by the god
associated with the number four.
In time we might imagine this count being syncopated to its
current form, and it would then read:
4 Ahau
8 Kan
5 Imix
9 Chicchan
6 Ik
10 Cimi
7 Akbal
This reconstruction, naturally, is mainly theoretical, but there
is a little evidence to support it. That the forms of gods' heads
were originally only thirteen in number is shown by the fact that
above thirteen the heads are formed by adding a jawbone, or signs
On the Origin of the 260-Day Almanac 351
of death, to represent the first digit, to the head for the second
digit in a decimal system. If the heads had been evolved merely
as an elaboration of numbers in the ordinary vigesimal system, there
would originally have been twenty of them of distinctive forms.
Actually the form for zero is of distinctive form, and would appear
to vitiate the argument, but apparently this form was a later inven-
tion. Three stelae at Copan show zero or twenty represented by the
death head form for ten, and it would appear that an attempt was
originally made to show this number by the same method as was
used for the numbers from fourteen to nineteen. Just as fourteen
was formed by the heads for four and ten, so at one time the Mayas
appear to have tried to show zero or twenty by the heads for ten
and ten. The death forms on the Copan stelae are probably survivals
of this practice. Naturally confusion arose with the head form for
ten, and a new head was invented.
That this association of death with zero or completion is not due
to the influence of a single sculptor or the idiosyncracy of one priest,
as Morley (1920, p. 137) suggests, is shown by its occurrence at
Quirigua. Every one of the full figure glyphs for zero at Quirigua
carry death symbols, either on their faces or on their bodies. Further-
more at Palenque the normal form of the zero sign is shown on the
panel of the Temple of the Inscriptions with death marks, and the
form for twenty in the codices is a conventionalized death head.
In later times the association of the gods with the days was never
forgotten, and occasionally we find the heads of the gods employed
in place of the usual bar and dots, and more frequently with the
day sign than with any other part of the inscription.
The Chilam Balaam of Chumayel in the account of the creation
(Martinez, 1912) speaks of a group of thirteen gods who were opposed
to another group of nine gods. Possibly the former are the thirteen
gods of the days, as opposed to the nine gods of the nights, and the
fight is symbolical of the darkness that covered the world before the
dawn. The Maya heavens, too, were thirteen in number, and this
number is of very frequent occurrence in Maya mythology and
ritual.
Unfortunately we are back at the question as to which came first,
the hen or the egg. Was the number thirteen employed because the
primary gods were thirteen in number, or were the primary gods
considered to be thirteen in number at a later date because thirteen
had taken on a sacred significance because of its association with the
sacred almanac?
352 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
It seems more reasonable to believe, in view of the evidence
presented by the head forms, that the former was the case. In that
case the 260-day period was evolved in all probability through the
association of these thirteen gods with the original twenty days.
This would account for its divinatory and sacred use. Possibly a
long period elapsed between the initiation of the twenty-day period
and the acceptance of the 260-day count, and, in all probability, a
much longer period between the institution of the 260-day sacred
almanac and the establishment of the long count. It seems incredible
that the Mayas should have been able to construct a table of eclipse
syzygies at such an early date before the 260-day period was evolved,
as Dr. Ludendorff believes. Such a theory entirely ignores Dr.
Teeple's work on the evolution of the different lunar systems. It
seems even more incredible that this 260-day period should have
been invented as a result of a discovery that eclipses coincided with
groups of days in a double 260-day calendar. If that were conceivably
the case one would expect the sacred calendar to have consisted of
520 days.
The name of this 260-day sacred almanac is not definitely known.
Until a few years ago the Mexican name Tonalamatl has been generally
employed, but this is not entirely satisfactory. Recently the name
Tzolkin has crept into use.
This term seems even less satisfactory. The root tzol is used in
Yucatecan Maya to denote placing things in order. In the account
of the Uinal (Roys, 1920) we find U tzolan Kin, "The putting in
order of the days," but this apparently refers to their creation.
Similarly the expression is used in connection with the Katun,
apparently in the sense of recapitulation.
The term employed by the Yucatecan Mayas may have been
Xockin, "The count of the days." This term has survived into the
present time to describe the divination of the weather during the
coming year (P. Cruz and J. E. Thompson, 1930, pp. 75-77). This
was undoubtedly one of the functions of the 260-day almanac, although
now sadly altered. However, it is probably best to use some English
term, such as sacred almanac, until the true Maya term is definitely
known. At least we know from Roys' translation of the creation
story that the thirteen divisions of this period were known as Uinal.
Probably this term should not be employed for the twenty-day
month, Perez to the contrary. Landa, at least, uses the term,
Uinal-hun-ekeh. However, the word Uinal has now such a strong
standing in the sense of month that it would be confusing to change
On the Origin of the 260-Day Almanac 353
it, especially in view of the cumbersome name used by Landa.
Furthermore, Landa himself may have obtained the wrong name.
Asking his informant for the Maya name for the twenty-day period,
meaning the month, the informant, misunderstanding him, may have
supplied the name or alternative name for the twenty-day period in
the 260-day almanac.
There is considerable doubt as to when the Maya day began.
In this connection Herrera (Dec. IV, Bk. VIII, chap. 6) has a passage
on the calendar of Honduras, which has, apparently, been missed by
all writers on the subject. He writes:
"They [the people of the coast of Honduras] counted their year
[which is] divided into eighteen months, and they call it Joalar,
which means a thing which goes passing. They had twenty days
in a month, although they counted only by nights, and thus they
put the night before the day, and counted twenty nights or twenty
dawns. They adjusted the day by the sun, taking note of its height,
or when it was on its downward course. Thus they arranged things.
They began their year forty days before ours, for they took two
months of theirs before ours began (atras). At the beginning of
each month they had a feast."
The interesting feature of this account is the statement that
they counted by nights. This is unfortunately confused by the
mention of dawns. Apparently these peoples counted their days
from dawn, and naturally the day was not completed until just
before the following dawn, and in that sense it is correct to say that
they counted by nights.
La Farge, on the other hand, in his account of the ceremonial
year among the Jacalteca, definitely states that the day begins at
sunset. Possibly the reckoning from 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu was counted
from dawn to dawn, and the days of the sacred almanac from sun-
set to sunset. The former was, at any rate, reckoned by elapsed
time, the latter by current time. Possibly, too, shortly before the
conquest one of these counts was shifted to coincide with the other,
and this might be the explanation of the one-day shift that took
place in Yucatan shortly before the arrival of the Spaniards. Such
a change does not necessarily imply any alterations in the Maya
concepts of elapsed and current time.
APPENDIX V
THE INITIAL SERIES AT HOLACTUN, YUCATAN
The Initial Series inscribed on a panel of a temple at Holactun
(Xcalumkin) was first illustrated by Maler (1902, Fig. 4). The
Initial Series, owing to the fact that it was carved with rather peculiar
head numerals, proved very difficult to translate.
Morley (1918, p. 274) suggests as the date of the Initial Series
11.2.8-4-9, 7 Muluc 17 Tzec or, possibly, 10.9.8-4-9, 7 Muluc 2 Pax
(Morley, 1920, p. 278). Spinden (1924, p. 279) considers the former
the more likely date.
In 1929 I wrote that the presence of the beetle glyph, the style
of the glyphs, and the recent discovery of Cycle 9 dates in Yucatan
and Campeche clearly invalidated this very late reading. I proposed
that the date of the erection of the monument was 9.16.13-0-0,
2 Ahau 13 Yax, but through a clumsy error in calculation failed to
reach the apparently logical Initial Series with the aid of the Lunar
Series, and what I judged to be the first variant of the Glyph G of
the Lunar Series group (J. E. Thompson, 1929, p. 226).
Doctor Teeple (1930, p. 52) working along these same lines,
subsequently suggested the Initial Series 9.16.14-0-9, 7 Muluc 2 Uo.
This was in full agreement with the apparent data of the Lunar
Series, and in agreement with the terminal date 9.16.13-0-0 I had
already suggested.
During a recent visit to the Peabody Museum of Archaeology at
Cambridge, Massachusetts, I had an opportunity to inspect a cast
of this debatable inscription. My eye was at once caught by the
variable element in the Initial Series Introductory Glyph. This was
the normal form required for the month Kankin, resembling very
closely, indeed, the variable element in the introducing glyphs of the
Initial Series (9.10.10-0-0, 13 Ahau 18 Kankin) of the hieroglyphic
stairway at Naranjo (Maler, 1908, plate XXVI), and that of Stela 5
at Piedras Negras (9.14.5-0-0, 12 Ahau 8 Kankin).
It was clear then that the readings proposed by both Teeple and
myself were invalidated, and the search had to begin again.
Let us summarize the conditions to be fulfilled.
1. The terminal date of the inscription is 9.16.13-0-0, 2 Ahau 8
Uo. This is based on the fact that the closing date of the
inscription reads "2 Ahau, end of Tun 13." Thirteen Katuns
earlier, where this condition also occurs, is clearly too early,
354
The Initial Series at Holactun 355
and 13 or even 26 Katuns later, as Morley suggests, would
in the former case bring the date to 10.9.13-0-0, over one
hundred years after the last known Initial Series and the
last known Lunar Series, and about two centuries after the
most recent occurrence of the beetle glyph. It is hardly
credible that this method of recording dates should have
been revived such a long time after it had fallen into disuse,
and even more unlikely that such a localized glyph as the
beetle glyph should crop up again after about two centuries
of desuetude. One is forced to the conclusion that the date
must be 9.16.13-0-0, and the style of the glyphs and the
use of head numerals in the Initial Series supports this
choice. The carving of the principal personage also agrees
with this date although the work is below the usual high
level of art reached in most Maya cities of this period.
2. The day sign is clearly 7 Muluc.
3. The month must be Kankin, as explained above.
4. The moon is recorded as being two days old.
5. Glyph C of the Lunar Series has a coefficient of 2, and, in view
of condition 1, must conform to the Uniform System in use
at that time.
The only date to fulfill these conditions is 9.15.12-6-9, 7 Muluc
2 Kankin, and this is therefore the date of the Initial Series. Examin-
ing the Uinal coefficient carefully, one can see what appears to be the
hafted ax in the eye, which is the distinguishing characteristic of the
head form for 6.
At first I had considered that the Initial Series must be a date
that would lead to the ninth variant of the Glyph G of the Lunar
Series group. Subsequently I came to doubt this, as the glyph I had
taken to be the ninth of the group of nine might well be the ordinary
Kin sign found so frequently in Yucatecan dates following the day
sign. The fact that the three shells or the maize leaf which usually
serves as a suffix for this variant of Glyph G were absent added to
my suspicion that this was not the Glyph G variant.
Furthermore the glyph following this (Morley, 1916, plate I) is
the form of Glyph G corresponding to the third variant of the group,
where the sum of the Kins and Uinals divided by 9 leaves a remainder
of 3 (J. E. Thompson, 1929, Fig. 4). In the date finally chosen—
9.15.12-6-9, 7 Muluc 2 Kankin— 6 Uinals and 9 Kins are 129 Kins,
which divided by 9 gives the required remainder of 3, supplying a
final check to the decipherment.
356 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
This Initial Series date is, perhaps, the most important in the
whole Maya area, for on it depends the whole history of northwest
Yucatan.
As it is built into a temple with square columns and lattice work,
and has not been re-used, as the cornice stone shows, these two
features of northwest Yucatecan "renaissance" architecture are
clearly datable as being in use by the beginning of the third quarter of
Cycle 9. Indeed, as I elsewhere (Thompson and Pollock, final
chapter) indicate, the stylistic treatment of the personage portrayed
on one of these columns, while showing affinities to northwest
Yucatecan art, is much closer to the "Old Empire" art of Cycle 9, con-
firming the fact that the columns and the Initial Series form a unit
and are contemporaneous.
Furthermore the Toltecs can no longer be credited with the
introduction of the square column, unless we are to believe that this
elusive people, which, like a will-o'-the-wisp, has lured so many
Mayologists into the swamps, entered Yucatan in Cycle 9. Else-
where (Thompson and Pollock, final chapter) I show that the
Holactun date is an important link in a chain of evidence pointing
to an invasion, cultural or otherwise, up the west coast of Yucatan,
and originating in all probability in the Chiapas-Usumacintla basin
area.
In view of the early dating of the lattice work and square inscribed
column it is clear that the "renaissance" period in northwest Yucatan
is much earlier than we had supposed, and the periods into which
the history of this area has been divided must be recast.
The date of the Temple of the Two Lintels at Chichen Itza, given
as 1 Ahau, end of Tun 10, is, for example, surely earlier than 11-2-
10.0.0 as Morley (1927 a, p. 236) suggests. One would scarcely
expect lattice work to endure as a popular art motive for over 500
years, as such a date taken in conjunction with the lattice work at
Holactun implies. This is quite apart from any problem of correla-
tion, although it would lend support to the scheme of excision of
13 Katuns so berated by Spinden. This date of the Temple of the
Two Lintels is probably 10.9.10-0-0, although 13 Katuns earlier is
not impossible.
It is not the purpose of this appendix to discuss time sequences at
Chichen Itza, but merely to point out some of the very important
consequences that result from the certain reading of the Initial Series
at Holactun as 9.15.12-6-9, 7 Muluc 2 Kankin.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
To this short list of publications referred to in the text have been added the
titles of a few books pertaining to the bibliography of British Honduras incorporated
in the bibliography of "Ethnology of the Mayas of Southern and Central British
Honduras," which forms the second number of this volume.
Asturias, F. — Belice. Guatemala, 1925.
Acosta, J. de. — Historia natural y moral de las Indias. Madrid, 1608.
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of Captain Richard Owen and the Officers of Her Majesty's Ship Thunder
and Schooner Lark. Journ. R. Geog. Soc, 0. S., XI, 1841, pp. 76-89.
Austin, O. L. — Birds of the Cayo District, British Honduras. Bull, of Museum
of Comparative Zoology at Harvard College, LXIX, No. 11, 1929.
Blom, F. — Report on the Ruins of Uaxactun and Other Ruins in the Department
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Preliminary Report of the John Geddings Gray Memorial Expedition
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Blom, F. and La Farge, O. — Tribes and Temples. New Orleans, 1927.
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ton, D.C., 1915, pp. 545-548.
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Soc, XXX, 1902, p. 342.
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and Anthr., Univ. of Liverpool, Liverpool, VII, 1914, pp. 28-42.
The Maya Indians of Southern Yucatan and Northern British Honduras.
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Peabody Museum of Archaeology, I, No. 6, Cambridge, Mass., 1902.
Herrera, A. de. — Historia general de las Indias occidentales. Antwerp, 1728.
357
358 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Heye, G. — Eccentric Chipped Objects from British Honduras. Indian Notes,
Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, II, No. 2, 1925,
pp. 99-102.
Joyce, T. A. — Report on the Investigations at Lubaantun, British Honduras, in
1926. Journ. R. Anthr. Inst., LVI, 1927, pp. 207-230.
Maya and Mexican Art. London, 1927.
Report on the British Museum Expedition to British Honduras, 1929.
Journ. R. Anthr. Inst., LIX, 1929, pp. 439-459.
Joyce, T. A., Clark, J. Cooper, and Thompson, J. E. — Report on the British
Museum Expedition to British Honduras, 1927. Journ. R. Anthr. Inst.,
LVII, 1927, pp. 295-333.
La Farge, O. — The Ceremonial Year at Jacaltenango. XXIIIrd Int. Congress of
Americanists, New York, 1928, pp. 656-660.
Landa, D. de. — Relation des choses de Yucatan. Texte espagnol et traduction
frangaise, by Brasseur de Bourbourg. Paris, 1864.
Lothrop, S. K. — The Stone Statues of Nicaragua. American Anthropologist,
N. S., XXIII, 1921, pp. 311-321.
Pottery of Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Contributions from the Museum
of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, VII, New York, 1926.
Pottery Types and their Sequences in El Salvador. Indian Notes and
Monographs, Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, I, No. 4,
New York, 1927.
Maler, T — Yukatekische Forschungen. Globus, LXXXII, 1902, pp. 197-230.
Explorations in the Department of Peten, Guatemala and Adjacent
Regions. Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, IV, No. 2,
Cambridge, Mass., 1908.
Explorations in the Department of Peten, Guatemala: Tikal. Memoirs
of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, V, No. 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1911.
Martinez Hernandez, J. — La creation del mundo segun los Mayas. XVIIIth
Int. Congress of Americanists, London, 1912, pp. 164-171.
Paralelismo entre los calendarios Maya y Azteca. Merida, Yucatan,
1926.
Martyr, P. — The History of the West Indies Containing the Actes and Adventures
of the Spaniards. London, 1612.
Mason, G. — Pottery and Other Artifacts from Caves in British Honduras and
Guatemala. Indian Notes and Monographs, No. 47, New York, 1928.
Caribbean Blue. Motor Boating, XLIV, Nos. 4 and 5, October and
November, New York, 1929.
Maudslay, A. P. — Archaeology. Biologia Centrali-Americana. London, 1889-
1902.
Mercer, H. C— The Hill-caves of Yucatan. Philadelphia, 1896.
Miller, W. — A Journey from British Honduras to Santa Cruz, Yucatan. Proc.
R. Geog. Soc, XI, 1889, pp. 23-28.
Morley, S. G. — The Inscriptions of Naranjo, Northern Guatemala. American
Anthropologist, N. S., XI, 1909, pp. 543-562.
Archaeology. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Year Book No. 14,
1915, pp. 343-346.
Ibid., Year Book No. 15, 1916, pp. 337-341.
Ibid., Year Book No. 17, 1918, pp. 269-276.
Bibliography 359
The Inscriptions at Copan. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Pub.
No. 219, Washington, 1920.
Archaeology. Carnegie Institution of Washington, Year Book No. 21,
1922, pp. 310-319.
Ibid., Year Book No. 26, 1927, pp. 231-267.
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of Archaeology, Cambridge, Mass., IV, 1924.
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Academy of Natural Sciences, IX, 1901-1903, pp. 63-172.
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Washington, 1930.
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Museum of Natural History, Anthr. Series, XVII, No. 1, Chicago, 1927.
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gist, N. S., XXXI, 1929, pp. 223-231.
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Field Museum of Natural History, Anthr. Series, XVII, No. 2, Chicago, 1930.
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Mass., 1911.
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Memoirs of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, V, No. 2, Cambridge, Mass.,
1913.
360 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Tozzer, A. M. and Allen, G. M. — Animal Figures in the Maya Codices. Papers
of the Peabody Museum of Archaeology, IV, No. 3, Cambridge, Mass., 1910.
Treaty. — Boundary between Mexico and British Honduras. Parliamentary
Papers, Treaty Series, No. 6, London, 1897.
Vaillant, G. C. — The Chronological Significance of Maya Ceramics. MS., 1927.
Report on the Excavations in the Plaza of Group E at Uaxactun. Car-
negie Inst, of Washington, Yearbook No. 27, pp. 313-317, Washington, 1928.
Notes on the Middle Cultures of Middle America. XXIIIrd Int. Con-
gress of Americanists, New York, 1930, pp. 74-81.
Villagutierre Soto-Mayor, J. de. — Historia de la conquista de la provincia del
Itza. Madrid, 1701.
INDEX
Acosta, Jorge, 231, 340
Acosta, Joseph, 259
Almanac, sacred, 349-353
Altar in building, 243, 259; Altar 1,
261-264; Altar 2, 264; plain, 267-269
Altitude, 226, 228
Austin, O., 227, 239
Ball courts, 244, 245, 252, 253, 264
Benque Viejo, 228, 263, 267, 270, 334,
335
Beyer, H., 348
Bird bones, 274
Blom, F., 238, 253, 267, 318
Burials, 238, 256, 284-322
Burkitt, R., 253
Cahal Cunil, origin of name, 238
Cahal Pichik, origin of name, 239
Camp 6, 225
Camp 6 ruins, 228
Cancuen, 264
Carnegie Institution, 336, 337
Cayo District, 223
Celt with inscription, 270, 271
Chichen Itza, 252, 296, 336, 356
Chols, 230, 231, 238
Chultuns, 284-290, 319, 320, 326
Cinnabar, 272
Climatic changes, 249
Coba, 230, 245, 252, 253, 281
Communications, 228
Cook, O. F., 229
Copal, 312
Copan, 228, 262, 266, 283, 308, 334, 351
Coral, 273
Correlations, 264, 265
Cremation, 256, 263
Cruz, P., 352
Cunil, J., 231, 238
Date, Altar 1, 263; Altar 2, 266; at
Holactun, 354; of Mountain Cow
occupation, 333; Stela 26, Copan, 344
Debris, accumulation of, 235
Defence of cities, 254
Deformation of skulls, 293, 321
Drilling of jade, 272, 280
Ear-plugs, 271, 272, 280, 292, 303
Eccentric flints, 304
El Salvador, 286
Environment, 227, 228
Esquivel, A., 231
Fauna, 227
Figurines, jade, 273, 274, 278; pottery,
256, 330; shell, 273, 274, 275, 281,
282; slate, 278, 282
Fingers, offering of, 320
Fish bones, 274
Flat roofs, 243, 244, 248
Flora, 227
Gann, T., 289, 300, 318, 320
Gates, W., 231
Gordon, G., 347, 348
Granite, 303
Guy, N., 226, 239
Hatzcap Ceel, origin of name, 248
Head deformation, 293, 321
Herrera, A., 353
Heye Museum, 300
Hill-tops, leveled, 234
Historical survey, 229
Holactun, 354-356
Holmul, 285, 334; see Period
Honduras, 286, 353
Incensarios, 257, 281, 310
Initial Series, Copan, 344, 348; Hatzcap
Ceel, 265; Holactun, 354-356
Intaglio designs, 316
Iron pyrites, 275
Itzas, 229
Ixkun, 262, 263, 267, 334
Jacal construction, 241, 244, 245, 247,
270
Jacalteca, 353
Jade, 228, 271, 272, 274, 275, 276, 277,
281, 292, 296, 303, 317; burning of,
271; figurines, 273, 274, 278; working
of 272 280
Joyce, T.', 306, 318, 338-340
Labor, 232
La Farge, O., 353
Landa, D., 238, 247, 248, 313, 352, 353
Lothrop, S., 259, 272, 286
Lubaantun, 228, 243, 252, 264, 316, 318,
330, 337, 338-343
Ludendorff, H., 352
Maler, T., 225, 309, 354
Manikin scepter, 261
Martinez Hernandez, J., 304, 351
Martyr, P., 252
Maudslay, A., 283
Mengel Co., 224, 225, 260, 261
Mercer, H., 230
Merwin, R., 285
Migrations, 229
Minan Ha, 228, 318, 335
Mirror, pyrite, 274, 275
Mopans, 229
361
362 Archaeological Investigations in British Honduras
Morley, S., 229, 261, 262, 267, 344,
346-348, 351, 354, 355
Mountain Cow, origin of name, 226
Mucnal Tunich, 228, 318, 335
Nakum, 335
Name, Cahal Pichik, 239; Hatzcap Ceel,
248; Mountain Cow, 226; Tzimin
Kax 233
Naranjo, 266, 270, 309, 335, 354
Nichols, H., 256, 272, 275, 332
Obsidian, 228, 292, 298, 304
Old Empire, abandonment, 229-231
Orientation, 233
Oyster shells, 278
Paint, on shell, 289; on jade, 274; on
roof of tomb, 290
Palacio, D., 280
Patterson, T., 223, 224
Period, Holmul I, 238, 284-295; Holmul
II, 306; Holmul V, 237, 238, 256, 257,
276, 281, 283, 295-319; pre-Holmul I,
294
Piedras Negras, 266, 354
Pine wood, 259
Plazuela, definition of, 233
Popenoe, W., 228
Porcelain, 332
Prisoners on monuments, 262
Progreso, Bt. H., 320
Pumice, 273
Pusilha, 228, 267, 308, 318
Quirigua, 266, 334, 351
Rainfall, 227, 249
Refuse dump, 245
Resinous substance, 289
Ricketson, O., 332
Roofs, flat, 241, 243, 244, 248; thatched,
241, 247, 248; turning corner, 296;
vaulted, 256, 257, 290, 296, 303, 321
Route to Mountain Cow, 225, 226
Roys, R., 352
Rubber, 278
Ruins, outlying, 259, 260
Sanchez y Leon, 238
Santa Rita, 289
Sapper, K., 238
Schellhas, P., 271, 313
Seler, E., 349
Shells, 273; beads, 273, 275, 277, 281;
figurines, 273, 275, 281, 282; neck-
lace, 296; ornaments, 289, 296, 312;
oysters, 278, 317
Skull deformation, 293, 321
Slate, disk, 273; figurines, 278, 282;
stela, 269
Smith, Elliot, 293, 321
Spinden, H., 265, 344, 356
Spindle whorls, 317
Starr, F., 238
Stelae, erection of, 252; stucco on, 267;
transportation of, 252; uncarved,
267-269; Stela 26 at Copan, 344-
346; and occupancy of sites, 336, 337
Stevenson, D., 226
Stratification, 323
Stucco, blue, 267; covered ceilings, 241,
243, 244; on pottery, 284, 314, 330;
on stelae, 267, 269; ornaments, 241;
red, 251
Teeple, J., 348, 354
Teeth, decoration of, 313
Terracing, 228, 229
Thatched roofs, 241, 247, 248
Thompson, E. H., 257
Thompson, J. E., 229, 231, 243, 264,
292, 352, 354, 355
Thompson and Pollock, 245, 253, 281,
356
Tikal, 280, 281, 309, 335
Toad, 292
Toltecs, 356
Tonina, 266
Tozzer and Allen, 304
Trade, 228
Transportation, 225; of building ma-
terial, 252; of stelae, 252
Tuxtla statuette, 272
Tzimin Kax, origin of name, 233
Uaxactun, 266, 270, 287, 332, 334, 335,
337
Ucanal, 228, 263, 334
Uloa Valley, 286, 308
Vaillant, G., 284, 285, 287, 294, 295,
304, 306, 318, 323, 335
Vaulted chambers, 256, 257, 290, 296,
303, 321
Villagutierre, Soto Mayor de, 248, 254
Votive caches, 269-283
Water supply, 226
Williams, L., 259
Williams, S., 224, 225
Wooden structures, 241
Xkalumkin, 354-356
Xkichmook, 257
Xunan Tunich, 228, 263, 267, 270, 334,
335
Yalloch, 300, 324
Yaxchilan, 261
Yoxiha, 308, 318
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXV
1. TYPICAL RAIN FOREST, MOUNTAIN COW DISTRICT
2. CEREMONIAL PLAZA, HATZCAP CEEL BEFORE EXCAVATION
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXVI
1. TEMPLE F, HATZCAP CEEL AFTER EXCAVATION
2. STAIRWAY OF PYRAMID D, HATZCAP CEEL
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXVIII
ALTAR 1, HATZCAP CEEL. DATE: 13 Ahau 13 Uo (10.0.6-0-0)
Field Museum of Natural History Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXIX
ALTAR 2, HATZCAP CEEL. DATE: 9.19.0-0-0, 9 AHAU 18 MOL
Courtesy of British Museum
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXX
"$
1. STELAE Al, A2, AND A3, CAHAL PICHIK
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2. PART OF CONTENTS OF VOTIVE CACHE 1, HATZCAP CEEL
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Field Museum of Natural History Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXXI
15 17
PART OF CONTENTS OF VOTIVE CACHE 1, HATZCAP CEEL
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXXII
3 4
JADE OBJECTS FROM VOTIVE CACHES 1 AND 8
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Field Museum of Natural History Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXXIII
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Field Museum of Natural History Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXXV
II
12
13 16
FIGURINES FROM VARIOUS VOTIVE CACHES
Figs. 1-7, Cache 1; Fig. 8, Cache 2; Fig. 9, Cache 3; Figs. 10-11, Cache 7;
Fig. 12, Cache 10; Fig. 13, Cache 8; Figs. 14-16, Cache 9
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XXXIX
1. PYRAMID A, CAMP 6
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2. CONTENTS OF VOTIVE CACHE 9, CAMP 6
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Field Museum of Natural History Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XLVII
SHELL OBJECTS AND TEETH FROM VAULTED CHAMBER III,
TZIMIN KAX, HOLMUL V PERIOD
Field Museum of Natural History
Anthropology, Vol. XVII, Plate XLVIII
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CYLINDRICAL JAR FROM VAULTED CHAMBER III, TZIMIN KAX,
HOLMUL V PERIOD
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