32 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



top (fig. 4), Mound 3 included an inner structure the nature of 

 which could not be satisfactorily determined by our one cross trench. 

 This occurrence of two thin plaster walls running through the heart 

 of the mound is shown in the illustrations (pi. i, 2 and text fig. 4). 

 A small trench in mound 9 (fig. 3) revealed aboriginal refuse and dis- 

 articulated human remains. Owing to its proximity to certain historic 

 burials, work here was discontinued. 



Horizontal stripping of mound i (fig. 3) revealed considerable 

 portions of the floors of two houses with massed small boulders on 

 the north side and tumbled adobe blocks on the south side (Strong, 

 1936, fig. 68). The plastered floors were stained a rich, dark red. 

 Fragments of plaster apparently from the walls showed five succes- 

 sive layers of red, yellow, red, blue gray, and red indicating the 

 varying washes used in decorating the interiors of the houses. These 

 colors were very fresh when uncovered but have since faded slightly. 

 To judge from our test cuts, these long, low mounds north of the 

 central pyramid complex consist of rows of house floors. Owing to 

 the curve of mounds 2 and 14 (fig. 3) they enclose a crescentic area 

 which may have been the old plaza of Naco. Our excavations, 

 although very incomplete, indicate that with adequate time a whole 

 series of house floors could be easily cleared. The earth covering 

 them is shallow, and the floors are intact. Such work would be of 

 the greatest value in revealing actual living conditions in aboriginal 

 Naco. When the potsherds from inside mound i were being washed, 

 we encountered two pieces of European glazed crockery. One of these 

 (pi. 4, in) was obviously an early Spanish piece, the other might 

 possibly have been intrusive from more recent times. Since it was in 

 these houses that Olid, Bernal Diaz, and other Conquistadores lived, 

 further excavations here might cast light on early historic as well as 

 late prehistoric events. Certainly this association of early European 

 and late Indian ceramics links the prehistoric and the early historic 

 periods in Honduras. We also cross-sectioned mound 19, which is 

 located about 30 meters east of mound 17 but beyond the edge of the 

 map. This mound was about i meter high and 15 meters in diameter. 

 It contained sherds and snail shells to a depth of 35 centimeters but 

 no structural features of any sort. Here, as elsewhere in the vicinity 

 of Naco, the underlying soil is hard and gravelly, making excavations 

 below or beyond the artificially built or accumulated earth structures 

 extremely difficult. 



There remains to be mentioned the ball court. For present pur- 

 poses the general diagram (fig. 3) and the photographs (pi. 2, fig. i, 

 and Strong, 1936, fig. 69) show the main features. Excavations here 



