92 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



map, fig. 20). En route to the site one passes two sharp mounds about 

 2 meters high that have been deeply pitted by pot hunters. There are 

 a large number of such mounds in the general vicinity. The mound 

 selected, mound i, when cleared, was 10.75 meters long from north 

 to south, 10.5 meters wide from east to west, and about half a meter 

 high. It had not been pitted. A trench i meter wide and 7 meters 

 long was run from the eastern edge to just beyond the center of 

 the mound. The soil at and above ground level was a rich black humus 

 full of various-sized volcanic rocks. At a depth of slightly less than 

 I meter below ground level, both stones and artifacts ran out, and 

 a sterile, yellow clay was encountered. Above this, the black soil was 

 flecked with the same yellow clay, indicating disturbance. The bulk 

 of the sherds and charcoal occurred in the black soil below the natural 

 ground level, the slightly raised mound area consisting mainly of 

 rocks. No definite house floors, burials, or other structural features 

 were encountered. 



Potsherds were the most numerous artifacts from mound i. No 

 complete pots were encountered. The sherds were predominantly 

 from unslipped brown cooking vessels with very heavy and solid 

 handles which were vertical or round in cross-section. Coarse bufif 

 ware with dull red stripes and similar handles was also abundant. 

 Polychrome sherds were few in number, mostly from dull orange 

 bowls and tripod plates with geometric red and black designs. Legged 

 metate fragments, fragmentary roller pestles, rectangular manos, half 

 an ovoid sandstone bowl (i m deep), and three prismatic flakes of 

 obsidian were the only other artifacts. Mound i was apparently a 

 habitation site judging by its contents. In all probability there were 

 burials in the mound somewhere which led to the site having been 

 covered with rocks, but this is problematical. 



Less than a meter south of mound i were two small rock piles which 

 may once have formed one mound, since the space between appeared 

 to have been pitted long ago. An L trench which sectioned both 

 portions revealed similar soil conditions to those in mound i, except 

 that the mixed earth extended to a greater depth. Artifacts were 

 more numerous, as were also huge stones that had to be moved with 

 crowbars. Five whole or restorable pots were found. The first, at 

 1. 10 meters depth, was a tiny two-handled pot with its original red 

 and black design almost entirely eroded. The second, 1.40 meters deep, 

 was a larger, swollen-bodied red vessel with two vertical strap handles 

 having knobs at the bend of each. A black geometric design on the 

 neck was almost entirely eroded. Both these vessels were lying on 

 their sides. Nearby, at a depth of i .30 meters, was a rather high-walled, 



