NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG 81 



Six sherds, at present without traces of any shp, are rather elahor- 

 ately modeled. The most elaborate of these is a lug representing a 

 plumed alligator or possibly serpent (pi. i8, fig. 2, e) with the short 

 tail curving outward and upward and open at the end. The tip of the 

 animal's jaws just reaches the rim of the almost straight- walled vessel 

 from which this fragment was broken. A round, perforated secondary 

 lug on top of the figure's head and a space formed between the jaws 

 and behind the solid teeth may have served for the attachment of 

 carrying cords or decoration. The figure is hollow, and a passage 

 extends from a round perforation in the center of the mouth, through 

 the entire body and out at the top of the tail. There are seven punctate 

 decorations on each side of the lug; of these, the three nearest the 

 body of the pot and the large perforation below the eye actually 

 penetrate to the hollow interior, but the others are not complete. The 

 round tail tip rather suggests the end of a whistle or ocarina, but the 

 lug cannot be made to whistle ; hence the perforations are probably 

 for decoration rather than use. A fragment modeled as a human face 

 represents an interesting type of jar (pi. 18, fig. 2 c). A complete 

 vessel of this type, which was found by Mr. Boekelman at Marble 

 Hill Fort (fig. 34, a), will be referred to later. Another anomalous 

 fragment, probably a figurine, has appendages modeled in high relief 

 and a definite rounded rim on what appears to be the base (pi. 18, 

 fig. 2, /). Two lugs are of the manatee type, one definitely suggesting 

 this animal (pi. 18, fig. 2, a), as do the majority of such pieces, 

 whereas the second (pi. 18, fig. 2, b) is conventionalized with the 

 nasal portion unnaturally drawn out. The extreme of this type of 

 conventionalization appears in the " duck-bill platypus " type of 

 manatee design on a large sherd from cave i (fig. 18). Another small 

 bowl fragment has a rather common type of lug (pi. 18, fig. 2, d) 

 that may also be derived from the manatee motif. 



Three sherds are decorated with deep incisions. One of these has 

 a rather complex design (pi. 18, fig. i, d). Only a few undecorated 

 pottery fragments occurred in cave 2. One of these, a considerable 

 portion of a small jar, has a flaring mouth. Another plain fragment 

 of similar thickness (5 mm) has a broad, vertical loop handle. The 

 four remaining plain ware sherds are too fragmentary to merit 

 discussion. 



Considering the ceramics from both these nearby sites, two points 

 seem especially noteworthy. First, cave 2, apparently a shrine, had 

 a majority of decorated pottery and only a small amount of plain 

 ware, whereas the reverse was true in cave i, which was a living site. 

 Second, the occurrence of fragments of the same especially fine 



