grain. Their conical shape gives them a high mechanical 
efficiency for the storage of grain. It is estimated that 
the larger structures have a capacity of about eighty 
metric tons. Their relationship to indigenous or foreign 
structures is unknown. 
2. Cubical stone and mortar warehouses. LL. Hernan- 
dez Xolocotzi (in correspondence) reports that during 
this period, the Haciendas of Tlaxcala used warehouses 
which consisted of masonry walls one meter in thickness 
forming large rectangular rooms 20 meters in length and 
8 by 8 meters on the side, with ventilating holes close 
to the roof. 
B. Family Maize Granaries 
Three men in particular have published extensive and 
comprehensive descriptions of the maize granaries in 
Mexico in their reports of archaeological expeditions 
during the final years of the 19th Century: A. F. Ban- 
delier (1884), C. Lumholtz (1902) and F. Starr (1894, 
1899, 1899-1900, 1901-1903, 1908). 
a. Permanent and semi-permanent structures 
1. Niches of caves. Lumholtz (1902) reports this 
method of maize storage among the T'arahumara Indians 
at Yepochic, Chihuahua. 
2. Rectangular and cylindrical stone and mortar struc- 
tures. This type of granary was used among the Tara- 
humara of Sonora and Chihuahua, and the Huicholes of 
Nayarit (Lumholtz 1902). Of the Huicholes at Batista, 
Nayarit, Lumholtz writes: 
ips - , 
The corn when shelled is kept in round store-houses made of stone 
and mud. It is put in from above, and taken out through an opening 
near the ground, a stone serving as a door for this aperture, which is 
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