14 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 



No. LXXXIX contained 38 teeth, two left temporal and two occipital bones. 

 Most of the bones were too much decayed to be recognized. 



The spherical and oblong jars had no definite relative arrangement. The 

 spherical jars and caps frequently had flaring pedestals, which were neither 

 ornamental nor useful for burial purposes, another indication that they were not 

 primarily or solely intended for this purpose. 



In No. XCIII the cranium was on the earth near the rim, the lower jaw at 

 the bottom of the jar, and the long bones nearly vertical in position. The attach- 

 ments of the lower jaw probably gave way before the dirt got in. 



The bones in these urns were so soft, and crumbled so readily on exposure 

 to the air, that my offer of a reward for a good skull only secured one, although 

 nearly two hundred skeletons or portions rather were disinterred. 



Fig. 16. Fig. 17. 



No. 22,360. 

 Deep bowl, paiuted. Painted vase. 



No. CXXVIII contained small bones and black beads. 



In No. CXLII, a round jar, the skull was lying against the rim of the jar, 

 which had early been filled with the earth sifting in between jar and cap. 



Just in and under the burnt crust, which was not very well defined here, 

 was jar No. CLVIII, with cap in position near the surface. The bones were 

 more than usually well preserved. They had been kept in place by the earth 

 filling the jar early. The skull was upright. The atlas had not been disarticu- 

 lated, nor had any of the other vertebrae ; the spine being in position as sitting 

 in the bottom of the urn, with the knees in the toe end (shoe-shaped or oblong 

 jar) and the feet underneath. The large jars were buried deep enough in the 

 hard ground to bring their tops on a level with those of smaller ones in the sand. 



In the ditch between the northern end of the excavation and the lake, at the 

 point marked Lopez mine, the sand had disappeared, and in the hard earth 

 underlying the lava were slab-stones, apparently worn by use, standing around 

 as if in a habitation, and fragments of pottery, similar to that afterwards found 

 in abundance at Santa Helena, with a stone dish and human bones. The dish 

 of basalt was immediately under lava ten inches thick. There was one large 

 flattened jar of strange shape, No. CXXX. It was about twenty-five inches in 



