ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 



45 



in the round jars, and the knees in the toe end of the shoe-shaped jars. Pieces 

 of burnt bone were found in two instances. 



In several cases there were remains of articles of food, which had been 

 buried with the dead, in remarkably well closed urns. Among these provisions 

 were beans, dry, but still well preserved, and seeds of different kinds, of which 

 one resembled a grain of coffee and another charred corn. One jar had about 

 a pint of beans and other seeds, and a piece of charcoal was in another. There 

 were also a few shells which looked like clam shells, but were too imperfect for 

 specific identification. 



In a great many jars personal ornaments were found associated with human 

 remains. They were usually near the bottom of the jar. Of the beads several 

 hundred were collected, most of them of terra-cotta, pretty well burned, marked 

 with incised lines of various designs. Next in number were pretty beads of argil- 

 lite, a green stone something like nephrite but not so hard. These were drilled at 

 each end, the holes meeting near the middle. In several urns were very fragile 

 white beads which looked like shells, but Mr. Dall found on careful examination 

 that they were not. There were a few beads of gold, some of which were 

 strongly alloyed with copper and had been almost destroyed by oxidation. The 

 metal beads were simply thin plates beaten out and rolled to form hollow 



Fig. 106. 



Gold imago; beads of gold, terra-cotta, and argillite, (first line gold, second and third terra-cotta, fourth argillite,) 



and shells from the burial urns. 



