GAXX] ]\rAYA INDIANS f)F YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 81 



these openings was about 2 feet in diameter, and close to one of them 

 a circular slah of stone, 6 inches in thickness, and of about the same 

 diameter as the opening, was found, which had probably been used 

 as a cover for the latter. This cliulfun, unlike the first one, was of 

 purely natural formation ; the walls, which were rough and irregular, 

 showed no signs of tool marks. The chamber A^aried in height from 

 8 to 9 feet beneath the openings, where it was highest, to 2 to 3 feet 

 at the sides. There was a considerable accumulation of earth upon 

 the floor (see DD, fig. 26), which had evidentlyfallen and been blown in, 

 as it was collected in two heaps beneath the openings. There were 

 nb stone steps leading down into this chultun, and access must have 

 been gained to the interior by means of wooden ladders, which had 

 long since disappeared. Numbers of potsherds, shells, pieces of 

 charcoal, clay beads, and fragments of flint and obsidian implements 

 were found upon the floor. Several skeletons of small mammals 

 were also found among the earth, but these creatures had probably 

 fallen in after the chultun ceased to be used, and had been unable 

 to get out. 



At a distance of less than half a mile from the last-mentioned chultun 

 another was discovered under somewhat curious circumstances. A 

 large flat mound was completely removed for the sake of the stone 

 and limestone dust wliich it contained, to be used in repairing the 

 Corozal streets. About the center of the mound, at the ground 

 level, a heavy circular flag of limestone^ 2 feet 4 inches in diameter, 

 was brought to hght. On removing this it was found to cover a 

 round well-like opening, which expanded below into a small chultun, 

 12 feet long by 9 feet in greatest diameter. The chamber was egg- 

 shaped and showed no signs of having ever been stucco-covered. 

 From the opening a short fhght of steps, cut in the rock, led to 

 the bottom of the chultun. No tiling was found in this cliultun with 

 the exception of two small bowls of rather coarse earthenware, 

 painted red and pohshed; one almost globular in shape, 6 inches in 

 diameter; the other circular, flat-bottomed, 3 § inches in height. The 

 mound which covered this cliultun appeared to have been one of the 

 commonest kind of burial mounds. At its summit fragments of a 

 rude circular earthenware pot were found, and near its center frag- 

 ments of human bones, together with three flint hammerstones and 

 two small round vessels, one of light yellow, the other of yellowish-red, 

 pottery. 



One of the most remarkable of the chultuns found in this area is 

 situated at San Andres, within a mile of the village of Corozal. It 

 was accidentally found by some coolies in digging marl, and as, 

 unfortunately, the entire roof of the larger chamber and a consider- 

 able part of that of the smaller had caved in, it was impossible to 

 70806°— 18— Bull. 64 6 



