50 BUREAU OF AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 64 



■ Most of the mounds are distributed in small and large groups, 

 the latter usually containing one or more examples of each class, 

 the former consisting for the greater part of small burial mounds, 

 proba])ly of late date, as they are less carefully constructed than the 

 mounds of the larger groups, and the objects which they contain are 

 of rougher and cruder workmanship. 



The burial mounds comprise more than half of all the mounds 

 opened, followed in order of numbers by (a) foundation mounds; 

 (b) momids of uncertain use; (c) refuse moimds; (d) lookout moimds; 

 (e) defensive mounds. 



It has been found that, as a rule, rich land contains many mounds; 

 poor land, fewer; and sour-grass savannah, pine ridge, and swamp, 

 none at all. The better the land the more numerous the mounds 

 scattered over it, as is natural, since the more fertile the land the 

 denser the population it would sustain. Not all the mounds opened 

 have been described, as small burial mounds, especially in the same 

 group, in both construction and contents, resemble one another 

 closely, as do foundation mounds also. 



This part of the Maya area must either have been occupied during 

 a very considerable period or at one time must have supported a 

 dense popidation, as wherever it is possible to cultivate the soil, 

 especially to raise maize, mounds are to be found in great abundance; 

 moreover, the surface everywhere bears such indestructible rubbish as 

 potsherds, flint chips, and fragments of obsidian knives. It would 

 probably be impossible to find anywhere in this area an acre of 

 moderately good land on which dozens of such objects could not 

 be discovered. This indicates that what is now dense tropical bush, 

 with a few small Indian villages scattered through it at considerable 

 intervals, was at one time a highly cultivated and thickly populated 

 country. 



Referring to Yucatan before the conquest, Landa uses the words,^ 

 "toda la tierra parescia un pueblo; " ^ while 200 years after the con- 

 quest Villagutierre ^ mentions by name 10 tribes with whom the Itzas 

 were at war, who lived to the east of the lagoon, nine days' journey 

 away — in a region corresponding to the territory of coastal tribes of 

 British Honduras and Quintana Roo. 



1 Que estas gentes tuvieron mas de XX auos de abundancia y de saliid y se multiplicaron tanto que toda 

 la tierfa parescia un pueblo, y que entonccs se labraron los templos en tanta muchedumbre, como se vee oy 

 en dia por todas partes y que atravesando por montes se veen entre las arboledas assientos de casas y ediflcios 

 labrados a maravilla.— Landa, op. cit., p. 58. 



2 Que en Aflos passados tuvieron quatro Batallas con los Indies Aycales (que son los Mopanes) Chinamitas, 

 y Tulunquies, y Taxchinchan, Nob, y Acabob, Zuacuanob, Ahtimob, Teyucunob, Ahchemob, Ahcamulob. 

 . . . y que todas estas Naciones estavan viviendo juntas al Leste, u Oriente, y que de aquel I'eten, k sus 

 Poblaciones, avla nueve dias de Camino, que era el que ellos gastavan en ir k ellas.— Villagutierre, 

 Historia de la conquista de la provincia de el Itza, p. 554. 



