NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG yj 



as possible, since we could not take the entire collection. In this we 

 had no great success, as the sherds had evidently been deposited 

 through sweeping or washing from the cave and were not parts of 

 pots crushed \n situ. The great majority of the sherds were unslipped 

 red ware (monochrome), of which seemingly representative samples 

 were preserved, along with all sherds decorated in any manner. In 

 the following description it must be remembered that unslipped and 

 undecorated red ware was greatly preponderant at the site. Owing 

 to the greater space required to discuss the more elaborate types, it 

 might appear that these decorated pieces were predominate, whereas 

 actually they represent only about 10 per cent of the total. 



The complete pot (pi. 31, d) from cave i has a badly eroded surface 

 on which the rather heavy white grit tempering is visible. It is globular 

 and without handles, decoration, or traces of any slip. The sherd 

 collection is a mixed lot and certain types occurred here, as is true of 

 the Mitchell-Hedges collection, which were not found elsewhere. 

 Polychrome I is represented by four sherds of a dull brown-orange 

 which are very thin (3 mm in thickness) and highly polished. They 

 have at present no traces of painted designs. Three are from a rounded 

 bowl with contracting mouth and slightly swollen lips without any 

 flare. The fourth sherd is from a flat-bottomed vessel with one hollow 

 foot, of truncated cone form, containing a pottery ball. Polychrome 

 II is represented by two eroded sherds, one of which has traces of 

 design. The latter is a curved fragment from a large bowl (6 mm 

 average thickness) of dull orange color with traces of a rather wavy 

 linear design in dull black. The other sherd is part of a broad, vertical 

 strap handle with a conventionalized manatee head lug on the upper 

 bend (like fig. 11, a, d). These type identifications are very probable 

 but not positive. 



There is another small group of sherds that do not fit into any 

 Bay Island ceramic class yet distinguished. One striking rim sherd 

 (pi. 18, fig. I, c) is highly polished and decorated by paint and in- 

 cision. It is a dark red with a dull white band below the rim. On the 

 white is a weathered design in black divided into panels ; one of these 

 has a single fret design, the other a complex arrangement of lines and 

 dots suggesting the skeuomorphic glyph designs which occur on early 

 Uloa Polychrome ceramics. Below this white and black border is a 

 portion of a skillfully incised design suggesting a conventional animal 

 or monster. A second very striking vase with a slight neck contraction 

 is represented by three sherds, one from cave i and two from cave 2. 

 The former (pi. 18, fig. i, e) shows the design. It has a red slip 



