86. 
87. 
88. 
89. 
prepare them for ceremonial consumption. The article includes, as Fig 2 and Table 1, 
a revised chart of Borhegyi’s 1957 chronologic distributional table, and brings up 
to date the mushroom stone and pottery mushroom finds in Mesoamerica. About 
50 archeological sites are listed from Mexico, Guatemala, and El Salvador where 
mushroom stones and pottery mushrooms have been found during archeological 
excavations, or in private collections and museums. 
All miniature mushroom stones and metates with manos described in this article are 
in the private collection of Karl Heinz Nottebohm, of Guatemala City. The large 
Type B mushroom stone (Fig 3), representing a kneeling young woman (a virgin?) 
with a metate, is from the Hans Namuth collection in New York. 
To date this is the only comprehensive article on mushroom stones and pottery 
mushrooms, and the first report on the existence of miniature mushroom stones. 
. “The Enigmatic Mushroom Stones of Meso-America.”” Ms. (In 
preparation) Tulane University, New Orleans. Middle American Research 
Institute, Middle American Research Records. 
Manuscript in preparation that will present an up-to-date distribution and typol- 
ogy of these enigmatic objects. It will contain photographs and line drawings of 
over 100 specimens, as well as distributional maps and chronological charts. 
BricHaM, WiuaAM T. Guatemala, the Land of the Quetzal. New York: 
Scribner, 1887, sce p 280, illustration. 
Illustrates a zoomorphic mushroom stone-like object representing a rabbit or 
pisote, with rounded base (Type E) from the National Museum of Guatemala. 
Brigham refers to it as a stone seat, implying that these sculptures were so used. It 
represents the first mushroom stone-like object from Mesoamerica to be described 
and illustrated. For a similar specimen in the Chicago Natural History Museum 
(Cat no 48650) see No 44 0n Borhegyi’s chart. The whereabouts of the piece illustrated 
by Brigham 1s unknown. 
Brinton, Daniet G. “Mushroom-shaped images.” Science, n.s., Vol 8, 
No 187, July 29 1898, New York, pp 126-127. nee Pp 127, 
Reply by the noted American ethno-linguist to Sapper’s suggestion in Globus 
(1898), Entry roo, that an anthropomorphic mushroom stone illustrated from El Sal- 
vador was a phallic symbol. Brinton suggests that since the stone resembles a mush- 
room or toadstool, it may have been intended by its maker to represent just that. 
Brinton further suggests that, since the Tseltal-Maya word for mushroom is hu and is 
sufficiently similar to the word used for moon uh or yuh to recall it in sound, the mush- 
room stones may have been emblematic of the lunar and nocturnal divinity. Accord- 
ing to him the night growth of the fungus would strengthen this mythical alliance. 
The Type C specimen referred to is now in the Rietberg Museum collection in 
Ziirich. (Cf no 19 in Borhegyi’s chart, above cited.) Historically, this is the first 
known, published reference to mushroom stones as mushroom representations. The 
next published reference is in Wasson & Wasson, 1957, herein entered as Entry 1. 
Canats Frau, SAtvapor. Las Civilizaciones Pre-hispanicas de América. 
Buenos Aires, Editorial Sudamericana, 1955, p 147. Fig 36. 
Illustration and brief description (p 147) of two effigy mushroom stones with 
circularly grooved caps (Type B) from Kaminaljuyu, Guatemala, both of which 
[ 42] 
