NO. 14 ARCHEOLOGY OF BAY ISLANDS, HONDURAS STRONG I5I 



Chorotegan and Neo-Archaic than Maya, although unpainted Maya wares are 

 very imperfectly known. The trend of the pottery suggests the years after the 

 fall of Copan, although what the successive stages are is conjectural. 



By correlating the Uloa polychrome series with the dated ceramic 

 series from Copan, Yaillant tentatively places Uloa Polychrome III 

 and IV subsequent to the sixth century and Uloa Polychrome V 

 about the close of the twelfth century. Plumbate III in the Uloa is 

 placed immediately prior to Polychrome III. 



In the present state of knowledge these datings cannot be regarded 

 as final, but they are extremely suggestive as regards the Bay Islands. 

 If the stylistic relationship here suggested between Uloa Polychrome 

 III and IV and Bay Island Polychrome I on the one hand, and Uloa 

 Polychrome V and Bay Island Polychrome II on the other, proves 

 to be correct, then Bay Island Polychrome I may be approximately 

 dated. Since the impetus of both these polychrome styles seems 

 to have come from the west, their vogue in the Bay Islands would 

 probably be of later date than the vogue of their ceramic prototypes 

 in the Uloa Valley. This suggested time sequence fits in very well 

 with the circumstances under which they occur on the Bay Islands, 

 and the association there of Plumbate ware and Polychrome I offers 

 further confirmation. 



Work in metal seems to be rather rare in the Uloa valley. Gordon 

 found none, but Blackeston (1910 b) reports on a great cache of 

 elaborate copper bells from a cave. Many of these closely resemble 

 Bay Island types. Steinmayer gives an analysis of a copper celt. The 

 finest objects of carved stone are the exquisite marble bowls, but 

 stone faces and other carvings occur. Numerous jade, jadeite, and 

 talc heads and plaques occur, some of which are practically identical 

 with the small elaborate heads from the Bay Islands. Oval and square 

 bark beaters, obsidian flake knives, and perforated conch shells have 

 been reported. The Uloa valley was thickly populated, presumably 

 with scattered Jicaque, Lenca, and Maya groups, when the Spaniards 

 first visited it in 1533, and with adequate excavation should yield a 

 long and important record of human occupation. 



Copan and Other Maya Sites 



It is a far cry from the rudimentary temple enclosures, rough stone 

 foundations, crudely marked monolithic monuments, and earth mounds 

 of the Bay Islands to the enormous mounds, stone temples, sophis- 

 ticated and luxurious stone carvings, and dated stelae of Copan. It 

 is significant, however, that in the rubble foundations of certain early 



