NO. I HONDURAS — STRONG, KIDDER, AND PAUL I23 



contains no definite Usulatan ware. In addition, this clear linkage 

 between early Ultia and early Guatemalan highland cultural horizons 

 is of great interest. We have assumed that Ulua Bichrome is some- 

 what later than the Playa de los Muertos Bichrome on stylistic grounds 

 and because the sterile area separating the former from the Ulua 

 Polychrome is thin compared to that separating the Playa de los 

 Muertos Bichrome from the overlying Ulua Polychrome (compare 

 fig. 6, and fig. 16) . This, however, is at best a dubious procedure, since 

 we do not as yet know the physiographic nature of either sterile 

 stratum. Moreover, it must be remembered that only the Upper May- 

 oid and Bold Geometric Ulua Polychrome types occur in the over- 

 lying cultural stratum at Playa de los Muertos, whereas both these 

 and the earlier Lower Ulua Polychrome wares occur above the Ulua 

 Bichrome at Santa Rita. These details, like the cultural and temporal 

 placing of the puzzling Yojoa " Monochrome " ceramics and the 

 " Chorotegan " stone statues at Los Naranjos, must await further 

 excavation. 



Tracing the relationship of the native cultures of northwestern 

 Honduras backward from the known historic, we have already veri- 

 fied the presence of a late Nahuatl migration from Mexico through 

 the finds made at Naco. Similarly, in the Ulua Polychrome period 

 we find two interlocked but distinct styles occurring in the same sites, 

 the Mayoid and the Bold Geometric, which at Santa Rita persist and 

 develop simultaneously over a considerable period. Lake Yojoa Poly- 

 chrome is also composed of a Mayoid and a so-called Bold Animalistic 

 tradition. This original fission and subsequent parallelism of both Ulua 

 and Yojoa Polychrome ceramic development has obvious sociological 

 as well as archeological implications. At both Ulua River and Lake 

 Yojoa Polychrome sites one of these styles is Mayoid and the other 

 is of southern origin. For linguistic and ethnographic reasons previ- 

 ously discussed, it seems highly probable that the Bold Geometric 

 element of the Ulua Polychrome was contributed by Jicaque peoples, 

 whereas the very similar Bold Animalistic element in Yojoa Poly- 

 chrome was due to the related Lenca. Since the Mayoid element com- 

 prises about one half of the Ulua and Yojoa Polychrome ceramic re- 

 mains, it can hardly be explained as due solely to trade or indirect 

 influence. It seems far more logical to assume that intermixed Maya, 

 Jicaque, and Lenca peoples were living together at these sites and 

 that perhaps the pottery-makers of each ethnic group clung to their 

 own art styles over a considerable period. The quite remarkable 

 florescence and the high and complex artistic attainments of the Ulua 



