GANNl MAYA IXDIAXS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 127 



iiitormonts in thoir walls. The purpose of these trenches is difficult to 

 surmise, as they could hardly have served as foundations; drainage 

 was unnecessary; and, while the trenches themselves were never em- 

 ploj-ed for sepulchral purposes, it is only occasionally that a few 

 burials are found within <'.ists excavated in the earth along their 

 margins. 



Three kinds of burial seem to have been commonly employed 

 among the ancient inha])itants of this part of the ]Maya area. The 

 poorest class were buried in large flat mounds, some of them a half 

 an acre in extent and containing as many as 40 to 50 intermLcnts. 

 The body was usually buried with the feet drawTi under the pelvis, 

 the knees flexed on the abdomen, the arms crossed over the chest, and 

 the face pressed down on the knees ; the position, in fact, in which it 

 would occupy the smallest possible space. With the remains are usu- 

 ally found a few objects of the roughest workmanship, as flint hammer- 

 stones, scrapers, and spearheads, pottery or shell beads, stone 

 metates and henequen scrapers, small obsidian knives and cores, 

 and unglazed, rough pottery vessels. In the second class of burials, 

 each individual has a mound, varying from 2 to 30 feet in height, to 

 himself. Several mounds of this class have already been described 

 from the neighborhood of Corozal. The objects found with inter- 

 ments of this class are usually more numerous and of better workman- 

 ship than those fomid in the multiple burial mounds, though they 

 do not show much greater variety. The position of the skeleton, 

 where it has been possible to ascertain this, is usually the same as in 

 the multiple burial mounds ; occasionally, however, it is found in the 

 prone position, and, in rare instances, buried head down. The third 

 mode of burial was probably reserved for priests, caciques, and other 

 important individuals. The mterment took place m a stone cist or 

 chamber, within a large mound, varying from 20 to 50 feet in height. 

 The skeleton is found ui the prone position, surrounded by well painted 

 and decorated vases, together with beautiful greenstone, shell, obsid- 

 ian, and mother-of-pearl beads, gorgets, studs, ear plugs, and other 

 ornaments.^ Some of these mounds contain two or even three cham- 

 bers or cists, superimposed one upon the other. The skeleton is 

 then usually found in the top cist, the accompanying objects being 

 placed in the lower ones. In one instance partial cremation seemed 

 to have been practiced, as fragments of half-burned human bones 

 were found in a large pottery urn. 



' This practice of burying with the dead some of their belongings is ment ioned both by Landa and \'illa- 

 gutierre. 



" Enterravanlos dentro en sus casas o a las espaldas dellas, echandoles en la sepultiira algunos de sus 

 idolos, y si era sacerdote algunos de sus libros, y si hechizero de sus piedras ,de heehizos y peltrechos."— 

 I.ANDA, op. cit., p. 196. 



" Tenian por costumbre estos Indios, de sepultar los Difuntos en los Campos, k eorta distancia del Pueblo, 

 y potier sobre las Pe;:r.l:r.ras de los Varones Banquitos, I'uquietes, y otras cosas del vso varonil; y sobre 

 las de las Mugeres, Piedras de moler, Ollas, Xicaras, y otros trastos k este modo."— Villagutierre, op. 

 oil., p. 313. 



