NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG I47 



regions. This is due in part to the fact that the Bay Islands are 

 incompletely known, but even more because they lie on the northern 

 border of an extremely important but little-worked archeological field, 

 including all of northeastern Honduras and northeastern Nicaragua. 

 From Copan in the north to the lakes of Nicaragua in the south is 

 an air-line distance of nearly 400 miles across a territory apparently 

 rich in cultural remains. None of these sites has been scientifically 

 excavated, and many have not even been located on the map. Yet 

 so prolific are the cultures of this area that a type-by-type comparison 

 of Bay Island artifacts with those on record through purchase or 

 cursory excavation from this larger region would fill a considerable 

 volume. All that can be attempted here is to indicate in some manner 

 the possible relationship of certain Bay Island cultural types to those 

 of the areas designated. For present purposes the latter may be 

 somewhat arbitrarily classified as (a) northern Honduras east of 

 Ceiba, (b) the Uloa River region, (c) Copan and other Maya sites, 

 (d) the interior of Honduras, (e) western Nicaragua and northern 

 Costa Rica, and (f ) eastern Nicaragua. 



Northern Honduras east of Ceiba 



The coastal region of Spanish Honduras has been only superficially 

 investigated and, with one exception, no scientific excavations have 

 been made. '^ There are numerous large sites consisting of earthen 

 mounds, either isolated or formally laid out around rectangular courts. 

 Rubble walls and crude stone work occur at some of these. Spinden 

 also reports numerous circular or oval villages with palisades and 

 moats. At Bonito Farm, south of Trujillo, he examined an oval 

 boulder fortification containing a rectangular mound ascended by 

 rough slab steps. Pottery, chipped knives, and green stone celts 

 were found here. Shell heaps occur near the coast, and these contain 

 both extended and flexed burials. He does not mention urn burials, 

 but there is a strong probability that they occur, since great urnlike 

 vessels and human bones are frequently washed out along the banks 

 of the larger rivers. Certain of these, such as the Aguan and Paulaya, 

 have great masses of pottery and other cultural detritus in their banks. 

 Votive caches appear to be rather numerous, especially along small 

 streams, but unlike those on the Bay Islands they seem to contain 



"See Pownall, 1779; Rogers, 1782; Spinden, 1925; Popenoe, 1931; Conzemius, 

 1932, pp. 42-46; and Strong, 1934 a, b. Bird excavated several shell heaps near 

 Trujillo for the American Museum of Natural History, but the results are as 

 yet unpubhshed. 



