158 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



flake knives ; round and rectangular side scrapers of flint ; small, 

 stemmed arrow points; clay pellets (from hollow feet); and filed 

 human teeth. 



Merwin and Vaillant make the following report regarding smaller 

 artifact types from various periods at Holmul. Metal artifacts, aside 

 from iron pyrites, are unknown here, as is the case at all early Maya 

 sites. Ground stone includes jade ear spools (similar in type to 

 pi. 17, h), jade beads, iron pyrite beads, limestone spindle whorls, 

 cupped stones, and rubbing stones. Mullers and metates are not 

 mentioned. Shell work is very abundant ; cut conches, shell rings, 

 shell beads, elaborately inscribed shell disks, perforated and halved 

 shells, shells containing pigment, and partially worked and unworked 

 shells are listed. Chipped flint implements include chisels, picks, a 

 rough flint celt, " spearheads ", and obsidian flake knives. Bone arti- 

 facts include bone beads, perforated animal jaws, a small inscribed 

 skull, numerous sting ray barbs, finger rings, carved jaguar and alli- 

 gator canines, perforated teeth, human teeth filled with pyrites, a bird 

 bill perforator, and worked deer bones. In addition, green paint, red 

 ocher, mica fragments, pieces of sulphur, and a piece of slate painted 

 red are reported. 



In the foregoing lists no attempt has been made to point out temporal 

 or local group distinctions. The material is presented solely as a more 

 or less random sample of presumably Mayan cultures which may be 

 compared with Bay Island collections. 



Finally, a word as to the probable sequence of cultures at Copan. 

 Dated monuments prove that the major ruins were occupied by the 

 Maya for a period of 276 years, then the dated monuments cease. It 

 has often been assumed that this cessation marks the fall of Copan, 

 and that the Maya abandoned the site at that time, but there is no 

 proof of this. Rather, the fact that the region was occupied by 

 numerous groups of Maya speaking the Chorti dialect, when it was 

 discovered by the Spanish in 1530, suggests that though for some 

 reason the cultural impetus lagged, the Maya population lingered on 

 in the region. Possibly owing to pressure from Nahuatl tribes from 

 the highlands, who seemed to have reached Salvador and points south 

 by the tenth century, the Maya of the Copan region may have been 

 reduced to scattered groups living amidst the Lencan and other border- 

 ing tribes. As to the earliest culture at Copan, Lothrop and Vaillant 

 have already been cited to the eft'ect that it appears to have been either 

 Chorotegan or a similar but as yet undefined civilization, distinct from 

 the Maya. 



