148 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



elaborately carved s^one bowls, elaborate metates, great carved stone 

 " tables '", but little or no pottery. The bulk of the ceramics from 

 coastal sites and in local collections are of the monochrome, brown to 

 red type with grotesque plastic ornaments. I have not seen any of 

 the elaborately incised type so strongly suggesting Uloa River marble 

 bowls, however. Painted pottery is less abundant but does occur. 

 Spinden found pottery with red and yellow sizing near Olanchita, 

 and crude figurines near Maloa. In shell heaps near Trujillo Bird 

 got considerable pottery similar in form and color to Bay Island Poly- 

 chrome II. This mainland ware, however, is considerably richer in 

 color, especially dark reds, and long tripod feet modeled like alligator 

 heads seem to be fairly common. At Esperanza on the Bonito River 

 I found a few sherds of Bay Island Polychrome I. 



A little carved jadeite and great numbers of green talc artifacts 

 occur in this coastal region. Near Puerto Castilla local diggers have 

 obtained great numbers of large and small anthropomorphic celts 

 (pi. 12, e) and beads, especially very massive and long cylindrical 

 types made of green talc. Many other Bay Island artifact types 

 occur; elaborately carved stone bowds and metates are common, but 

 copper artifacts, mace heads, bark beaters, pot stands, and figurines 

 seem rare. Giant stone metates or tables and enormous carved roller 

 pestles occur at sites just back from the coast. Small grotesque pot- 

 tery masks, of the type figured by Rogers many years ago, and small 

 boot-shaped pots occur in mounds on the Black River. The Museum 

 of the American Indian has several chipped T-shaped axes, with a 

 perforation through the blade, from the Paulaya River. When dis- 

 covered by the Spaniards, this general region seems to have had a 

 population of Jicaque and Paya peoples interspersed with some 

 Nahuatl groups. 



The Uloa River Region 



For present purposes this area includes the lower valleys of the 

 Uloa and Chemilicon Rivers and the district around San Pedro Sula. 

 Some reconnaissance work and a little excavation has been ac- 

 complished here.^* Cut stone architecture or elaborate stone structures 

 have not been reported. Formally arranged mound groups seem to be 



'* Gordon, 1898 a; Blackeston, 1910 a, b; Steinmayer, 1932. Vaillant, 1927, 

 pp. 266-271, has reclassified the pottery obtained by Gordon. An important paper 

 by Dorothy H. Popenoe, " Some Excavations at Playa de los Muertos, Uloa 

 River ", is in process of publication by the Peabody Aluseum, Harvard Univer- 

 sity. I have not seen this paper but have read the brief and highly suggestive 

 " archeological setting " provided for it by Vaillant. 



