122 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 97 



represent an advanced pottery type so far as texture, surface finish, 

 modeling, and incising are concerned, they appear to mark an experi- 

 mental and inept stage in the use of surface painting. Especially char- 

 acteristic of this horizon are highly polished, modeled and spouted 

 forms ; flat-bottomed, vertical-walled vases ; low dishes with flaring 

 incised walls or everted, flat, incised lips or both ; and solid female 

 figurines, which may or may not have a white slip. There is con- 

 siderable resemblance between the simple but effective modeling of 

 these figurines (pi. ii, t, u, v) and the stone statue of a man or 

 ape at Los Naranjos, Lake Yojoa (pi. i6, fig. 3). These traits, 

 plus the occurrence of jadeite artifacts and the varied experiments 

 with painted decoration, all indicate that here was an early and potent 

 cultural manifestation of more than local significance. In so far as 

 data are available (R. E. Smith, 1936, and Uaxactun sample sherd 

 collections), we see considerable resemblance between this Playa de 

 los Muertos Bichrome ware and the two earliest stratigraphic periods 

 at the old Maya city of Uaxactun. These have been termed Mamon 

 and Chicanel, and both precede the Maya Polychrome period. 



The determination of the northern and the southern extent of the 

 Playa de los Muertos horizon is one of the important problems in 

 Middle American archeology. Even more important is the determina- 

 tion of the simpler ceramic horizons from which it developed. In 

 Honduras we have as yet no clues to this earlier period unless the 

 so-called Yojoa "Monochrome" (pi. 15, c-w) is as truly primitive 

 as it superficially appears, and can be demonstrated as stratigraphically 

 earlier than the developed Playa de los Muertos culture. The later 

 break, between the Playa de los Muertos Bichrome and the Ulua 

 Polychrome, is in part bridged by the deepest cultural horizon at 

 Santa Rita containing Ulua Bichrome ware. The most outstanding 

 feature of the Ulua Bichrome ceramics is the presence of Usulatan 

 ware sherds. According to Lothrop this is " the earliest painted 

 pottery now known from Central America ", and, although it occurs 

 occasionally in the form of trade pieces at Old Empire Maya sites, 

 it seems to center in Lenca territory in eastern Salvador (1933, pp. 

 47-51). There is rather close resemblance between our Usulatan 

 sherds with short, solid legs (pi. 9) and the early Chukumuk pottery 

 from Lake Atitlan in the highlands of Guatemala (Lothrop, 1933, 

 p. 49). Similarly, the tetrapod Usulatan bowl recovered by Gordon at 

 a depth of " 26 feet " in his Playa de los Muertos excavations is of 

 an identical type. Thus, there is a linkage in this regard between the 

 deep horizons at Playa de los Muertos and at Santa Rita, despite the 

 fact that our own sample of Playa de los Muertos Bichrome ceramics 



