FEWKES] ARCHEOLOGICAL TRIP TO WEST INDIES II 3 



We know, for instance, that the islanders had elaborate mortuary 

 dances, called areitos, which occurred at the burial of a chief or 

 cacique, and from knowledge of kindred people it is probable that 

 these areitos were performed near the graves of the dead. His- 

 torians are silent regarding the position of the Antillean cemeteries 

 or the situation of the plazas in which the areitos were performed, 

 but a suspicion that the latter occurred in the juegos de hola, the only 

 known prehistoric structures remaining in Porto Rico, suggested to 

 the author that cemeteries should be sought in their vicinity. With 

 this thought in mind he chose for investigation a jiiego de bola near 

 IJtuado, where there are many of these structures in a fairly good 

 state of preservation. 



The enclosure chosen for excavation lies about three miles from 

 I'tuado, on the left side of the road to x\djuntas. Several mounds 

 r.re situated on the south side of this enclosure, one of which is 

 partly cut through by the neighboring road. A few feet below the 

 surface, in this exposure, the author found fragments of prehistoric 

 pottery and a few human bones, a discovery which led him to dig a 

 trench completely through the mound. In the course of this work, 

 which occupied several workmen the greater part of a week, ten 

 skeletons were exhumed within a limited area, and several skulls, 

 two of which were comparatively well preserved, were found. 

 While the majority of these human remains were so decayed that 

 they crumbled before they could be taken from the moist soil, it 

 was evident that they represented Indian interments. The skulls 

 showed the artificial flattening characteristic of the Antilleans, and 

 the position of the larger bones indicated that some of the bodies 

 had been buried in a sitting posture. Prehistoric implements and 

 a mortuary food bowl were found near one of the skeletons. These 

 and other evidences led to the conviction that the mound excavated 

 was an Indian cemetery, the first of its kind ever found in Porto Rico. 



The position of this cemetery has an important bearing on the 

 interpretation of the neighboring enclosure, for if the areitos, or mor- 

 tuary dances, were held at the burial mounds, they must have taken 

 place in the juegos de bola near the cemetery. Consequently these 

 enclosures were not only places for the game of batey, as popular 

 legends assert, but also for the performance of mortuary dances, 

 during which songs were sung extolling the illustrious deeds of the 

 dead in peace and war and their magic power in aid of the living. 



