PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE 



SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION-HARVARD UNIVERSITY 



ARCHEOLOGICAL EXPEDITION TO NORTHWESTERN 



HONDURAS, 1936 



By WILLIAM DUNCAN STRONG 

 Anthropologist, Bureau of American Ethnology; 



ALFRED KIDDER, II 

 Peabody Museum, Harvard University ; 



AND 



A. J. DREXEL PAUL, JR. 

 Peabody Museum, Harz<ard University 



INTRODUCTION 



The present paper presents in tentative and outline form certain 

 major results of the Smithsonian Institution-Harvard University 

 Archeological Expedition to northwestern Honduras in 1936. The ex- 

 pedition personnel included the senior author as leader and represen- 

 tative of the Bureau of American Ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, 

 and the two other authors as representatives of the Peabody Museum 

 of Harvard University. Mrs. Strong and Mrs. Kidder accompanied 

 the expedition in the field and performed invaluable services in cata- 

 loging and caring for the collections. The purpose of the expedition 

 was twofold : to extend the work carried on by the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution in northeastern Honduras in 1933, and to follow up earlier work 

 on the Ulua River so successfully inaugurated, under the auspices of 

 the Peabody Museum, by George Byron Gordon and by Mrs. Dorothy 

 Hughes Popenoe. The discoveries of Mrs. Popenoe at Playa de los 

 Muertos in 1928 and 1929 opened new vistas in Honduras archeology, 

 and her untimely death was a sad blow to science and to all who were" 

 fortunate enough to know her. In a sense our work was merely a con- 

 tinuation of that which she had so ably begun. The original suggestion 

 for the present expedition came from Dr. Wilson Popenoe, and it was 

 due to him that the successful cooperative effort was launched and 

 completed. 



The expedition received cordial support from the government of the 

 Republic of Honduras, and our warmest thanks are extended to the 



Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, Vol. 97, No. 1 



