NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS^ — ^STRONG I4I 



" found on the top of a high hill, among what appeared to the finder, 

 Captain Fraser, the ruins of an altar ".''" 



In 1842 Young mentioned the occurrence of alnmdant traces of a 

 large Indian population on Bonacca. Near Savannah Bight he reports 

 a large savannah containing fruit trees and an aboriginal stone wall 

 a few feet high with fissures or rude niches made for the admission 

 of peculiarly cut three-legged stone chairs, presumably the seats of 

 idols/' As previously mentioned. Bird was fortunate enough to find 

 and sketch what seems to be the last of these on the surface at the 

 Plan Grande site (fig. 36). Young also describes chairs elsewhere on 

 Bonacca that had been cut from solid rock. Conzemius briefly describes 

 the Plan Grande site and mentions the occurrence of other erect or 

 leaning slabs on Bonacca. He states that many of the latter have 

 partly obliterated rude carvings, one of these being near Marble Hill. 

 According to the same authority, ornamented granite vases of the type 

 described by Pownall in 1779 occur on the islands. (Conzemius, 

 1928, pp. 66, 67; Pownall, 1779, p. 320; Spinden, 1925, fig. i.) Spin- 

 den made a brief visit to the islands and mentions shell heaps like 

 those near Trujillo, which contained the same type of pottery. He 

 adds that metates occur on the islands but not in large deposits. 

 Certain of the flamboyant newspaper accounts of Mitchell-Hedges 

 have already been referred to. 



Although it is obviously premature to attempt a detailed classifi- 

 cation of Bay Island sites and cultures on the basis of the foregoing 

 observations and the reconnaissance work reported in the present 

 paper, this may be done in a very tentative manner to facilitate com- 

 parison with adjacent regions. The major archeological types so far 

 reported from the Bay Islands are summed up in table i. 



From this tabulation it appears that the majority of known sites 

 are on hilltops (i, 10, 12, 15, 16, 17, 19, 21), next are caves or rock 

 shelters (3, 9, 11, 19), whereas springs or water holes (4, 5, 18) and 

 large level sites (2, 6, 20) are less frequent. The majority of the 

 hilltop sites seem to have been ofifertories or shrines of some sort; 

 the large Plan Grande enclosure looks like a religious center, one cave 

 on Helena like a shrine, and the fresh-water spring (18) on Bonacca 

 was full of varied and numerous offerings. Habitation sites are sur- 

 prisingly rare. Black Rock Basin, the " Eighty Acre " site, cave i 

 on Helena, and possibly Plan Grande are the only ones on record. 



''» Bollaert, 1861, p. 314, pl- 3- 



''Young, 1842, p. 48. LeBaron, 1912, p. 222, mentions these as " immense stone 



chairs." 



