14 



BUREAU OP AMEEICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 64 



though placed under the most unfavorable conditions, having 

 been in direct contact with the damp earth, are in an excellent 

 state of preservation, far better, indeed, than even the best preserved 

 of those in the other mounds where the conditions are decidedly 

 more favorable. The skeletons of children are practically never 

 found in the other mounds, as the bones have long since disappeared 

 completely, while here we find the bones of a child under 12 years 

 of age in a fairly good state of preservation. There are a number of 

 these sepulchral ridges at Santa Rita, many of them hardly distin- 

 guishable from the surrounding soil; they are all seemingly of much 

 more recent date than the other mounds, and are probably the work 

 of Maya Indian tribes who flourished long after the conquest. 



C/fPP//V£, OF£/{f^TH 



OF /^ORTMR A/^O 

 SMALL RUBBLE 



BASE- OF MOUND 



Fig. 22. — Diagram of Mound No. ( 



Mound No. 6 



Mound No. 6 was situated near the southwestern boundary of Santa 

 Rita. The mound was nearly circular, with flattened top, 25 yards in 

 diameter, and 10 feet high at its highest point. Toward the southern 

 side of the mound was unearthed a wall (fig. 22, A) 2 feet thick, 

 2 feet high, and about 15 yards long. From the ends of the wall 

 roughly made masses of hmestone and mortar (fig. 22, BB) passed 

 almost through the mound, inclosing a rectangular space, C. The 

 wall was evidently the remains of an older structure, as it was 

 built of well-sc^uared stones and had been broken down at both the 

 top and sides. The masses of masonry (fig. 22, BB) were 5 to 6 feet 

 thick by about 5 feet high. The space C was filled with alternating 

 layers of mortar and small rubble. The spaces (fig. 22, FFF) at the 

 periphery of the mound were filled with rubble mixed with earth. 



