MAYA INDIANS OF YUCATAN AND BRITISH HONDURAS 



137 



position ill which the body had l)oeii placed at the time of burial; it 

 had, however, certainly been fully extended. Close to the head were 

 found fragments of three round bowls, all precisely similar in both 

 size and coloring. Each was of the shape shownin figure 71 , l,Sh inches 

 high by 6^ inches in diameter, and was made of rather fuie ash- 

 colored potter}^, fuiely pohshed. Each of these bowls before burial 

 had had the bottom knocked out. The mound beneath the building 

 was composed of blocks of hmestone, rubble, and hmestone dust, 

 forming a tough, soHd, compact mass. This would seem to have been 

 a small private house, not a temple, wliich (probably on account of the 

 death of its owner) had been dehberately wrecked, and the owner's 

 body buried beneath the cement floor of the one chamber remaining 

 partially intact. Fresh cement seems to have been apphed over the 



Fig. 84. — Ruins found in Mound No. 40. These consisted of broken-down walls about 2 feet high, joining 

 each, other at right angles. Of the wall A-£, 10 feet remained standing; of the wall B-C, 8 feet. The 

 shaded space included between the walls was covered with hard smooth cement, which had been 

 broken away to a rough edge at its outer border and was continuous at its inner border with the stucco 

 which was still partly adherent to the walls. The walls themselves were built of blocks of limestone 

 (squared on their outer surfaces but rough within), rubble, and mortar; they were nearly 2 feet thick. 

 The long diameter of the ridge pointed almost due east and west. An excavation was made in the 

 cement floor, and at the depth of 18 inches, at the point marked D, a single iaterment was brought to 

 Ucht. 



grave before the greater part of the house was pulled down and the 

 wreckage piled up, to form a capping to the mound upon which the 

 house stood. 



Mound No. 41 



Mound No. 41 was situated in the northern district of British Hon- 

 duras, about 9 miles from Corozal. It consisted of a circular wall or 

 rampart varying from 4 to 10 feet in height, inclosing a space 30 

 yards in diameter. The wall was built of earth and blocks of lime- 

 stone, and in places had become considerably flattened out from the 

 action of the heavy tropical rains of this region. To the north an 

 opening or gap existed about 10 yards across. Excavations were 

 made in the encirclmg wall of the indosure, and also in the central 

 space, but notliing except fragments of pottery was discovered. 



