366 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



covering an area about 2 kilometers long, from east to west, by 0.75 

 kilometer wide. The topography is fairly rugged with numerous 

 outcrops of limestone, causing many and sudden irregularities in the 

 surface. The mounds were placed with due regard to these irregulari- 

 ties, and in some cases use was probably made of natural knolls in 

 their construction. The eastern part of this civic and religious center 

 is lower tlian the western part, and covered with a dense growth of high 

 underbrush. At the eastern end stands a huge pyramid which com- 

 mands the entire surrounding country. Another large pyramid marks 

 the western end, which practically coincides with the end of the 

 peninsula itself. The western part is now covered with high grass, 

 which permits the mounds to stand out clearly. In addition to the 

 center of the city, there are, of course, the more outlying districts. 

 Smaller mounds are said to occur as far as 10 kilometers east of the 

 western end of thie peninsula. 



The highest part of the peninsula, about 0.75 kilometer east of the 

 end of the promontory, is occupied by a well-defined group of mounds 

 surrounding four principal and four subsidiary plazas. A careful 

 transit survey of this group occupied the first two weeks of the work 

 (see fig. 2). The four principal plazas are arranged in line from east to 

 west, each being at a higher level than the one to the east of it (see 

 cross-section at top of fig. 2). The western and highest plaza is the 

 summit of a large pyramid, like an acropolis, which is probably partly 

 natural and partly artificial. The four secondary plazas are arranged 

 around the larger ones in a manner implying consideration of the topog- 

 raphy. This group probably marks the very center of the former 

 city's activities. It occupies the very highest part of the peninsula; 

 it is the most closely coordinated group of the city; and within it were 

 found the two hieroglyphic monuments. At the very beginning of 

 the survey, the stub of a stela with traces of hieroglyphs upon it was 

 found approximately in the center of the second highest of the four 

 larger plazas. 



Excavations were begun in the plaza in which this stela was found, by 

 uncovering a small, low mound in the plaza itself, just south of the 

 monument and apparently associated with it. When uncovered it 

 proved to be a small square building upon a low platform, with only 

 the foundations of the walls remaining. A space resembling a doorway 

 was left in the middle of each side of these foundations. The masonry 

 was partly of dressed and partly of rough stone. The walls themselves 

 were probably similar to those made in the country to-day, of vertical 

 saplings lashed to horizontal ones and then completely covered with 

 mud or mortar. Two fragments of a lintel were found, one on the 

 mound itself, the other about halfway between the mound and the 

 stela, which Dr. Morley assembled and deciphered as 12.5.9.0.0 11 

 Ahau 18 Mac (1467 A. D.). During the excavations here six burials, 

 all fully flexed and entirely without furniture, were exposed. 



