GAN.N] MAVA INDIANS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 109 



are cylindricdl, with a knob at one end, while the third is nearly 

 spherical; all are finely polished; they are made of light and dark- 

 green mottlt>d jadeite, (i) A single small oyster shell, with a great 

 number of cockle shells, (j) Two circular disks of shell, represented 

 in figure 57, a, exhibiting the front and back view. The central 

 part is of a deep reddish color, and is well polished. Each disk is 5 cm. 

 in diameter and is perforated at the center. They were probably used 

 as oar ornaments. Excavations were made in this mound to the 

 ground level, but no additional objects were found in it. 



Mound No. 17 



Mound Xo. 17 was situated within a mile of the mound last 

 described, on high ground, about H miles from the Rio Hondo, 

 from which it is separated by a belt of swamp. It was conical in 

 shape, about 40 feet high, nearly 90 yards in circumference, and was 

 built throughout of large blocks of hmestone, the interstices being 

 filled \vith a friable mortar, made seemingly from limestone dust, 

 earth, and sand mixed together. Near the sum- ^ 

 mit was an irregular opening, about 4 feet across, \ °^ 

 which led into a small stone-faced chamber, 15 /ca tartar 

 feet long, 5 feet broad, and 6 feet high. The / 1 

 opening had been made by the falUng in of one C_J obsidian disc 

 of the flags which formed the roof of the cham- fiq. ss.-obsidian disk in- 

 ber; this was found within the chamber with a serted m tooth of skeleton 

 pile of debris. The floor was composed of large 



flat flags, on removing one of which an aperture was made which led 

 into a second chamber, of exactly the same size as the first, and imme- 

 diately beneath it. The floor of this was covered to a depth of about 

 12 inches with a layer of soft brown river sand, in wliich were found: 

 (a), Parts of a human skeleton, seemingly belonging to an adult male, 

 the bones of which were very friable and greatly eroded. In one of 

 the incisor teeth was inserted a small disk of obsidian, the outer surface 

 of which was highly pohshed (fig. 58). These ornamental tooth fillings 

 are rather rare, though they have been found from time to time 

 in Yucatan and as far south as Quirigua. They were usually made 

 from greenstone, obsidian, or iron pyrites, aU higlily polished, the 

 only teeth ornamented being the incisors and canines, usually in the 

 upper jaw. The plugging seems to have been exclusively for orna- 

 mental purposes, not with any idea of filling a cavity, the result of 

 cari&s in the tooth. ^ 



> It is curious that neither Landa nor Villagutierre mentions this ornamental plugging of the front teeth, 

 as, judging by the number of teeth found, it can not have been of exceptionally rare occurrence. 

 Landa, who describes their ornaments very closely, mentions the filling of the teeth, but not the plug- 

 ging, which, had it been in vogue at the time of the conquest in Yucatan, he must have heard about or ob- 

 sened. It seems probable that the custom had already become obsolete before the first appearance of 

 the Spaniards in Yucatan. 



