70 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 64 



upper center of plate 10, 6, may be distinguished a trench, 3 feet 

 in width, which runs through the whole thickness of this layer. 

 Its walls are composed of rough limestone blocks mortared together. 

 The trench was completely filled in with small loose rubble similar to 

 that found in layer a. 



The high, steep, solidly constructed mounds, the bases of many of 

 which are connected with more or less circular earthworks, were 

 probably lookouts or observation mounds. Most of these mounds 

 terminate in a narrow flattened summit too small to have supported 

 even the smallest temple, wliile many of them form the centers or 

 nuclei of other groups of mounds. Few contain anything besides 

 the stone, mortar, and earth of which they are constructed, though 

 some of them contain superficial interments. That at Santa Rita is 

 exceptional in that it includes stone-faced cysts. These mounds 

 extend in a more or less regular chain along the coast of Quintana 

 Roo and British Honduras, reaching from the top of Chetumal Bay 

 nearly as far south as Northern River, and extending inland in a 

 southwesterly direction along the courses of the Rio Hondo and Rio 

 Nuevo, though many are situated at a considerable distance from 

 either sea or rivers. 



Mound No. 5 



Mound No. 5 (No. 27 on the plan, fig. 14), situated about 200 yards to 

 the southeast of the fortification, was 3 feet in height, 30 feet in diam- 

 eter, and nearly circular. It was built of blocks of limestone, rubble, 

 limestone dust, and earth. Many of these blocks had evidently been 

 taken from some building, as they were well squared. About the center 

 of the mound, at the ground level, a small cyst was discovered, 3 

 feet long, 2 feet broad, and 1 foot high, built thi-oughout of rough 

 flags of limestone. Within it were two vases; one, shown in figure 

 21, a, is of rough unpainted pottery, 4 J inches liigh, with a smaU 

 earlike projection on each side, each of wliich is ornamented with 

 an ear plug. Vases with these earlike projections and ear plugs are 

 not uncommon in this area, and are probably highly conventionalized 

 incense burners. The figure of the god outside (which, as will be shown 

 later on, was represented after a time by the face only) has here had 

 every feature and ornament of the face ehminated with the exception 

 of the ears and ear plugs, which would always be mimistakable. 



The other, seen in plate 11, is an egg-shaped vase standing on 

 tliree short legs. It is decorated outside with a human face and was 

 originally painted white throughout and ornamented with black lines. 

 It has a small opening at the top covered by a triangular stopper. 

 Within this vase were found two small pohshed beads, one of green- 

 stone, the other of red shell. Throughout the mound were found 

 numerous fragments of incense burners, with the small head of a 



