l6o SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 92 



das, where there are an enormous number of earth and stone mounds 

 covering a very large area. Most of these mounds are small, suggest- 

 ing house mounds, but some are large, ranging from 30 to 40 feet 

 high. One mound is covered with big granite slabs, many of which 

 formerly stood erect. The largest, about 12 feet high, had recently 

 been knocked down by lightning. Broken pottery is abundant at the 

 site. Most striking are large vessels of composite silhouette, which 

 have long tripod feet. The feet are hollow, containing rattles and 

 are often modeled to represent alligator or reptile heads. Large bowls 

 with restricted orifices have vertical strap handles with small con- 

 ventionalized manatee lugs at the bend. These vessels have a dull 

 yellow or orange slip and red and black designs. The latter are either 

 geometric or else elaborate and symbolic, suggesting degenerate Maya 

 types. Fragments of obsidian flake knives, a pottery ear plug, and a 

 small green stone celt were found here. At San Marcos, on the Guy- 

 ape, are large earth mounds with the same ceramic types. Here, by 

 superficial digging, we obtained a large restorable vessel of this poly- 

 chrome type (see Strong, 1934 a, fig. 54) with manatee lugs on the 

 handle and a " braided " design below the neck. This ware is remi- 

 niscent of certain late polychrome types from the Uloa region, the 

 Polychrome II ware from the Bay Islands, and painted sherds at 

 various sites in northern Honduras, from Trujillo south into the 

 interior. At both Dos Quebradas and San Marcos, monochrome 

 pottery, similar to the less elaborate Bay Island monochrome, was 

 even more abundant, and at several other sites in Olancho where 

 earth mounds occurred, only the monochrome ware was noted. Other 

 types of artifacts are rare on the surface at all these sites, but adequate 

 excavations would undoubtedly yield a rich harvest. 



North of this region in the pine country there are a number of 

 sites, such as that near Pataste, consisting of long earth mounds 

 forming large rectangular enclosures supplemented by conical mounds, 

 with long stone causeways leading down steep banks to the nearest 

 stream. Potsherds or other artifacts are rare on the surface at these 

 sites. At La Floresta, on the headwaters of the Conquirre River, 

 which is a branch of the Sico, is a large and very impressive enclosure 

 of this type with an elaborate arrangement of earth mounds, large 

 stone monoliths, and a long boulder causeway 25 feet broad, stretch- 

 ing down to the river. Most of the broken pottery picked up at this 

 site was coarse monochrome in type similar to the plainer ware from 

 the Bay Islands. A few sherds were red with simple black geometric 

 designs. Local people said that stone celts and green stone beads had 

 been found here. Farther north on the headwaters of the Bonito 



