NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF ISAV ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG 27 



Some 25 sherds are listed as coming from a depth of i8 to 28 

 inches, a layer roughly corresponding with the hlack occupational 

 stratum. Of these, four are rim fragments of small, plain, open 

 howls; eight are rim fragments from wide-mouthed, plain vessels 

 with a short neck and flaring lip; and two are rim sherds from 

 straight-walled, probably annular-based vessels without decoration. 

 Only two sherds are decorated : one well-polished fragment is from 

 a straight-walled vase and has a step design between double incised 

 lines around the neck ; the other is from the same type of vessel 

 but of coarse red ware with incised square and scroll designs. There 

 are two vertical loop handles, one of which has ridged edges. Three 

 hollow conical feet are cylindrical down to a sharply tapering point , 

 they are deeply incised and punctured, suggesting some sort of a 

 conventionalized head. One conical foot is long and slender (7.5 cm 

 in length), and one is a hollow hemisphere without decoration. All 

 the feet come from medium-sized vessels. The only other artifacts are 

 a saddle-shaped piece of pottery, possibly a burnisher; a notched 

 pottery net sinker (?) 2.5 cm in length; and a perforated cowrie 

 shell from the interior of burial urn i. There are also a considerable 

 number of shark and other fish vertebrae and unworked shells in 

 Bird's collection, but it was not possible to have these identified 

 in the time available for study. 



Our own collection from this site is a mere sample of 20 sherds, 

 all of the red to bufif monochrome w'are and very similar to the above. 

 They were obtained from test pits in a previously disturbed area 

 and hence have no stratigraphic value. Three sherds have the raised 

 band with scallops or points around the neck where it joins the body. 

 There is one entire rim of a small urn 23 cm in outside mouth 

 diameter, with a probable diameter of some 25 cm for the entire 

 vessel. It has a somewhat constricted orifice and a low, flaring rim. 

 There are two other rim sherds from similar vessels. Two cylindrical 

 pointed feet and one conical foot, as well as one loop handle, are 

 similar to the above. About half the sherds have rather simple incised 

 designs. The remainder are plain and, as a rule, coarse in texture. 

 Besides the potsherds we obtained a flat pendant of dark green talc 

 (3.5 cm in greatest width), which has a conventionalized jaguar 

 face incised on one surface (pi. 11. //). A round disk (9.5 cm in 

 diameter and 2.5 cm thick) of rhyolite porphyry with rounded edges 

 and a biconodont perforation 2 cm in diameter suggests a mace head, 

 but the shaft hole is very small for such usage. A section of a 

 prismatic flake knife of obsidian (7 cm long) and two smaller frag- 

 ments were also found (fig. 15. o, b). One section of a polished 

 cylindrical roller pestle 12.5 cm in diameter was noted. 

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