NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF KAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG 55 



lieluw this, formins; a band al)out 3 inches in width, are traces of what 

 may have been a black design. This last is too faint and ol)scure for 

 delineation or even for certainty. These design elements in their 

 totality are best indicated by the illustrations (pi. i, pi. 6, fig. 2; 

 fig. 12). 



In addition to the complete vessel less than a dozen sherds of the 

 thin polychrome ware (Polychrome I) were noted and preserved. A 

 few others of this type were undoubtedly present in the deposit, but 

 they were very rare. Discussion of this pottery, which is a distinct 

 type, will be deferred until the more abundant Polychrome I ware 

 from site i, Indian Hill, on Barburata Island has been analyzed. 

 Anticipating, however, it may be stated that among these sherds from 

 the Dixon site there is one lug representing an aberrant applique 

 rider type (pi. 23, d). Four feet represent two types, one is spurred 

 (like fig. 22, /), the other three are of a simian type (like pi. 23, e). 

 The other sherds of this ware are tiny and nondescript. Besides the 

 thin ware sherds, there is one thick sherd (6 mm in thickness) from 

 an open bowl with a dark red slip and a wavy black line design on the 

 outer surface. This last is not in the same tradition as the Poly- 

 chrome I pieces and probably represents a variant of the better class 

 of monochrome ware. 



As has been previously indicated, monochrome, unslipped ware 

 made up the major portion of the artificial deposit. Since the paints 

 employed on the island wares generally seem to have been rather 

 fugitive in quality, it is dangerous to^ lay too much stress on this last 

 factor. However, the prevalence of incising and the greater thickness 

 of the apparently unslipped ware is rather distinctive. By far the 

 larger portion of the pottery at this site showed no sign of having been 

 painted. Although most of the ceramics were broken, we collected 

 16 whole or restorable vessels of the unpainted type. The groupings of 

 five small, incised vessels just northwest of the central cache suggests 

 that they too served as special offerings (pi. 7, fig. 2, shows two of 

 these) . Most of the vessels recovered entire were rather small and rude 

 in execution, and it is probable that they were merely models of larger 

 and better utilitarian pieces. Their crudity, plus the fact that an 

 attempt has been made to suggest ornate decoration, bears out this 

 supposition. 



The plain ware from this site is rather vniiform as to color, being 

 a reddish buff on the outer surface and a brick-red below the surface. 

 Whenever pieces have been chipped or rubbed, this brick-red coloring 

 is apparent. The ware is predominantly crumbling in texture, with 

 coarse, white gravel employed as tempering. The inner surfaces of 



