128 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bdll. 64 



Mound No. 31 



Mound No. 31 was situated close to the Eio Nuevo, about 16 miles 

 from its moutli, in the northern part of British Honduras. It was a 

 somewhat flattened mound, 15 feet in height, built of blocks of lime- 

 stone, limestone dust, and earth. At a depth of 9 feet, the angle of a 

 ruined building, formed by two walls averaging 2 feet high, intersect- 

 ing at right angles, and built of squared blocks of limestone, was 



Fig. 73.— Pottery vessels found in Mound No. 31. 



brought to light. The walls enclosed part of a floor of smooth, hard 

 cement. Nmiibers of blocks of squared stone were found throughout 

 the upper part of the mound, which had evidently at one time formed 

 part of the ruined building. Resting on the cement floor, close to the 

 wall, were found nine pottery vessels, covered with limestone dust. 

 Five of these were of the type shown in figure 73, a, of dark-red, rather 

 coarse pottery, 12 inches in diameter at the rim. One, pictured in 

 figure 74, is the usual Maya chocolate pot, similar to the one already 

 described (see fig. 24, g), except that the spout, instead of bending 

 inward toward the vessel, passes directly 

 \C ~1 upward parallel to its perpendicular axis, 



PI an arrangement which must have ren- 

 ( dered it far easier to drink from the ves- 

 >, sel or pour fluid out of it. The three 

 y ) other vessels foimd are illustrated in fig- 

 \ • J ures 73, h, c, and (Z; h is of pohshed choco- 

 N^^^ ^^^^ late-brown pottery, 3 inches in diameter 

 ^ '- • -^ by 5 inches in height; c is of thick red 

 '"• ''-U^o^d No.'3^ '°''' ''' pottery, 3 inches high, with two small 

 handles for suspension, one on each side; 

 d is of coarse polished red ware, unusually thick and clumsy, 12 

 inches high by 8 inches in diameter. Each of these vessels con- 

 tained a single smaU polished greenstone bead. No other objects 

 were found associated with them, and there was no trace of hmiian 

 bones. Excavations were made in tliis mound to the ground level 

 without results. The lower part of the mound was built of large 

 Idocks of limestone and rubble, held loosely together with friable 

 mortar. 



