52 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



only distinctive land marks. Later work demonstrated that the central 

 portion of the knob was covered by a roughly circular artifact area 

 approximately 35 feet in diameter. The predominant material here 

 was an immense amount of broken pottery, mostly of a coarse, red, 

 unpainted ware. The entire deposit was thinly covered with soil and 

 humus, and the artifact layer itself was not thick, ranging from 6 

 inches in total depth (including top soil) on the edges to 2 feet at the 

 center. Within this roughly lenticular deposit potsherds of variegated 

 sizes were extremely abundant and other artifacts in lesser proportions. 

 Clearing and excavation revealed no particular order in the deposit 

 except that the main offering occurred in the central part of the artifact 

 area. About 10 feet northwest of this was a group of small, rudely 

 incised pots (pi. 7, fig. 2), and a few feet to the northeast of the 

 central offering were several broken metates, figurines, and flaked 

 stone knives. The latter occurred scattered throughout the deposit. 

 There was a small pile of conch shells 10 feet south of the central 

 cache. The majority of these were perforated, apparently for use as 

 trumpets. Excavation revealed some charcoal but no ash deposits, 

 camp debris, nor human or animal bone. There were no traceable 

 living or house floor levels, and the presence of numerous complete 

 artifacts and models of complete artifacts amidst the mass of broken 

 pottery indicated that the site had served as an offertory rather than 

 as a place of habitation. This conclusion was strengthened by the 

 nature of the central deposit or offering. 



The votive cache was encountered on the second of the two days 

 which it was possible to devote to the site. It appeared first as a mass 

 of nested potsherds extending from a few inches below the surface 

 to a depth of 2 feet (pi. 6, fig. i). The majority were large sherds of 

 a plain red ware, though a few were polychrome in type. They were 

 tightly packed, forming a complete covering for the enclosed offer- 

 ing. Complete pots did not appear to be represented— rather a col- 

 lection of large sherds so arranged as to suggest a thick deposit of 

 forcibly nested pots. It was impossible to preserve all these sherds 

 for laboratory study ; hence it is not known whether any restorable 

 pots were present. The protective covering averaged 10 sherds in 

 thickness above and below the votive offering. The latter consisted 

 of a perfectly preserved polychrome pot (pi. 6, fig. 2). On the lip of 

 the pot was a medium-sized, much-worn stone celt. The vessel itself 

 proved to be full of sifted-in black earth and smaller offerings. A 

 number of green stone beads, the most numerous type of oft'ering. 



