NO. I HONDURAS STRONG, KIDDER, AND PAUL IO5 



morphic, giant " roller pestles "of northeastern Honduras (Strong, 



1935. P- 148). 



With the anthropomorphic head and body, we also found the stone 

 serpent head (pi. i6, fig. 2) referred to by Mrs. Stone (1934, p. 126) 

 and Yde (1936, p. 29). By some strange mistake, Yde (1936, fig. 28) 

 figures a side view of the " submissive figure " which he designates 

 as the serpent's head. This piece is 80 centimeters long and 37 centi- 

 meters wide across the broken base. It, too, is of hard gray volcanic 

 stone. A short distance west of mound 4, we noted a cylindrical stone, 

 95 centimeters long, smooth on one end and broken on the other, which 

 apparently had once formed the base of the serpent head. It would be 

 interesting to know whether the stone serpent on the " Islita ", men- 

 tioned by Yde (1936, p. 30), was of the same type. He refers to a 

 photograph of it in his article (1936, p, 30), but there is none. The 

 style of this Los Naranjos serpent head carving (pi. 16, fig. 2) is 

 very well executed and distinctive, but we cannot definitely place it. 

 It would be extremicly interesting to know whether it pertains to the 

 same period as do' the anthropomorphic statues. 



We did not see the various, undecorated, great stone slabs described 

 and figured as " stelae " and " altars " by Mrs. Stone (1934, p. 127) 

 and Yde (1936, p. 29, fig. 5). In the light of general distribution, 

 however, we would be prone to relate these to similar erect stone 

 slabs at Plan Grande in the Bay Islands and elsewhere on the main- 

 land of northeastern Honduras (compare Strong, 1935, pi. 33 and 

 pp. 160, 161) rather than to true hieroglyphic stelae of the Maya. 

 As Yde (1936, p. 29) points out, the fiat rock with irregular carved 

 grooves on its surface in the plaza of Los Naranjos is very similar 

 to others occurring at Tenampua (compare D. H. Popenoe, 1936, pi. 5, 

 fig. I ) . The adjacent fiat rock with depressions suggesting three shal- 

 low bed-rock mortars seems more unique in this area. In a later report, 

 it will be possible to publish adequate photographs of these interesting 

 statues and carvings, but this cannot be done here. When the great 

 site of Los Naranjos has been cleared, and excavations on a scale 

 worthy of its size and importance have been commenced, more sta- 

 tues will undoubtedly come to light. It should then be possible to 

 correlate them with their exact cultural horizons and thus end the 

 unsatisfactory speculation which must always center about disas- 

 sociated art objects. 



EXCAVATIONS ON THE NORTHERN BORDER OF LOS NARANJOS 



Just north of mound i is a bushy field where a considerable amount 

 of digging has been done in the last 3 years. We chose this place for 



