NO. I HONDURAS — STRONG, KIDDER, AND PAUL 8l 



that once formed these mounds we noted a few that appeared to be 

 artificially squared or smoothed, and in one or two cases the disturbed 

 rocks appeared to have once formed part of some simple artificial 

 structure. 



Although the occurrence of some domestic pottery and broken arti- 

 facts, such as metates, suggests human habitation at these sites, the 

 predominance of elaborately painted sherds and the reported occur- 

 rence of very numerous deposits of complete polychrome vessels sug- 

 gests a burial ground wherein the human bones had vanished owing 

 to the damp, very humous soil. In the light of our later excavations at 

 La Ceiba and Los Naranjos, it seems probable that both habitations 

 and burials formerly occurred here, with the latter coming to be pre- 

 dominant before the sites were finally abandoned. Except that Agua- 

 cate covers a larger area than Aguatal, and that the rather closely 

 adjacent sites have been given different names by modern farmers, 

 the two seem to be identical in types of pottery represented, in the 

 nature of the mounds, and in the complete manner in which they have 

 both been looted. 



An analysis of all the vessels from, or reported to be from, these 

 two sites would probably run the complex gamut of Lake Yojoa 

 polychrome ware. Sherds of almost every Yojoa polychrome type 

 were actually present in the old excavation pits, confirming the reports 

 of various of the diggers that the majority of these vessel types occur 

 in association. Our necessarily brief discussion of ceramics from these 

 two sites is based, first, on 14 broken but restorable vessels which we 

 ourselves picked up in the diggings at Aguacate on our first visit. Al- 

 though these abandoned pieces may not represent the finest types from 

 the site, they are definite as to site provenience and probably generally 

 representative. Next, we were able to acquire a number of complete 

 vessels obtained by local diggers at Aguacate and Aguatal, and in 

 some cases to sketch and photograph other vessels from these sites 

 which were not acquired (for example, fig. 30). Complete vessels 

 thus obtained were sent to the National Museum of Honduras at 

 Tegucigalpa, and our present illustrations were made from field photo- 

 graphs and sketches. Some of these latter vessels, reported to be from 

 Aguacate and Aguatal, but not excavated in our presence, may have 

 come from La Ceiba. However, we talked directly to the excavator 

 of each, and there is strong probability that the majority did come 

 either from the place designated or from one of the adjacent south- 

 eastern sites (see "ancient cemeteries", map, fig. 20). 



The 14 restored vessels we obtained at Aguacate fall into five major 

 types in regard to form : first, straight-walled or only slightly flaring 



