84 



BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



[bull. 64 



traced is shown in figure 28. The walls, A, A, A, are 3 feet 4 inches 

 in thickness. Such parts as remain standing are built of well-squared 

 stones held together by mortar (see fig. 30). They are covered with 



stucco inside, which is con- 

 riooR or HARD POUSHED B _ tiuuous with the cement floor- 

 ing of the rooms; outside they 

 were also covered with stucco 

 above the water table (B,figs. 28 

 and29) but nearly all of this had 

 been broken away. The water 

 table, which projects 3 inches 

 from the wall, is 1 2 inches deep ; 

 it is built of well-squared 

 stones not covered with stucco, 

 and is continuous below (figs. 



29 and 30) with C, a layer of 

 hard cement 18 inches broad, 

 wliich apparently ran com- 

 pletely round the building, and 

 possibly acted as a drain to 

 carry off the water after heavy 

 tropical showers. The main 

 room was 8 feet in breadth 

 and had probably been about 



30 feet in length, with four 

 doors opening into it, two on 

 each side. This was floored 

 with very hard, smooth, pol- 

 ished cement, which even now 

 is in an excellent state of pres- 

 ervation; this flooring is con- 

 tinuous tln-ough the doorways 



with the top of the water table, with wliich it is on the same level. 



Notliing was found in excavating this mound, with the exception of a 



fragment of a conch-shell trumpet, a piece of 



an obsidian knife, numerous potsherds, and 



half of a fhnt paint grinder, with traces of 



green paint still adherent to it. All of these 



objects were found on the floor of the main 



room. 



Mounds erected over the ruins of buildings 

 are extremely common all through this part 

 of the Maya area; some are very large, covering buildings which 

 had been placed on lofty stone pyramids; some are very small, 

 as when they cover buildings of a single small room, built almost 



Fig. 28.— Ground plan of Mound No. 9. 



-Wall construction of 

 Mound No. 9. 



