NO. I HONDURAS STRONG, KIDDER, AND PAUL 63 



in situ on the adjacent steep banks, nor did we note any traces of 

 burials or of polychrome pottery deposits in the vicinity. It was 

 apparent that, at most, only a tiny remnant of the area worked by 

 Mrs. Popenoe remained at the small playa previously mentioned. 

 This opinion, based on comparison with Mrs. Popenoe's map, was 

 verified by Mr. Roberts, overseer at farm ii, who had assisted Mrs. 

 Popenoe in her work. For this reason we sought other sites, hoping 

 to encounter elsewhere, the older type of Playa de los Muertos 

 material in direct relationship to the polychrome horizons. 



By the middle of April 1936 it was apparent that we were not 

 going to find typical old Playa de los Muertos material at any of 

 our other sites, despite the discovery of polychrome ware super- 

 imposed on pottery suggesting the Playa de los Muertos culture at 

 Santa Rita (farm 17). For this reason, while work continued at 

 Santa Rita, the senior author returned to the Playa de los Muertos 

 site on April 17. 



Subsequent to our first visit to the site, a large levee had been 

 constructed along the river just east of the main site, and on the levee, 

 and in the deep borrow pit or trench, we found numerous fragments 

 of polychrome pottery. This material was concentrated at one place 

 on the west wall of the borrow trench and here we later excavated 

 (excavation 2). This site was only 80 meters southeast of the playa 

 (with the old type sherds on its surface) which marked the eastern 

 boundary of the grave area worked by Mrs. Popenoe. At this latter 

 point close examination of the 4-meter bank behind the playa revealed 

 a few sherds of coarse brown cooking ware and one tiny polychrome 

 fragment in situ. Here excavation i was commenced. 



Excavation i, which was made on the very top of a point projecting 

 out onto the clay playa, was L-shaped. The main cut was 2 meters 

 wide and 6 meters from west to east. To facilitate handling the dirt 

 from the deep cut, a north to south extension 4 meters long by i^ 

 meters wide and slightly more than 2 meters deep was made from 

 the east end of the main cut south to a steep bank on that side. 

 The north wall of excavation i is illustrated (fig. 16 ; also see Strong, 

 1937, fig. 79), and the position of the shallow north to south L 

 extension is indicated by the shelf under skeleton i. The main 

 east to west trench attained a maximum depth of 6 meters. The soil 

 layers from top to bottom are well indicated in the diagram (fig. 16). 

 Potsherds were first encountered at a depth of 80 centimeters at the 

 west end and 1.30 meters at the east end. Scattered sherds extended 

 through this layer of gray clay (P i, fig. 16) to a depth of 1.8 meters, 

 where the sterile yellow clay began. The majority of these sherds 



