TOZZER] EXCAVATION AT SANTIAGO AHUITZOTLA, MEXICO 21 



Pit XXIX was dug at the northwestern corner of Room XIII in 

 order to find out if there were any floors beneath this room. A burial 

 (p. 41) was found in this excavation. 



GENERAL DESCRIPTION 



CoNSTRFCTiox. — The materials used in the construction of the 

 buildings are stone, adobe, tepetate, and earth. 



Walls. — The walls are, in the main, made of adobe and earth. 

 Stone is used very sparingly. I can not explain the sporadic use 

 of stone in some of the walls. A wall will be built for the greater 

 part of its length of adobe bricks, with a small portion of the same 

 Avail built of stone. This sudden change from adobe to stone is also 

 noted at San Juan Teotihuacan. With one exception (p. 31), the 

 walls do not have the sloping buttress-like projection at the base 

 which is a very common feature at San Juan Teotihuacan and 

 Tula, as well as in the buildings erected under the influence of the 

 Toltecs at Chichen Itza. 



Stone walls. — With the exception only of the buttress-like walls to 

 the west of Floor A, the stone construction is very crude. The stones 

 are usually not worked in any way and are not laid in plaster or 

 cement. In one case the wall set at an angle on Floor M in the north- 

 western corner is composed of earth with two lines of w^orked stones 

 running horizontally through it. A line of nicely worked stones is 

 used as the facing of the terrace, and a line of square stones set at an 

 angle is found at the base of the outer walls of the Main Structure 

 (pi. 1,7,7'). 



The most important stone walls are those running out into Room I. 

 The buttress-like effect of this wall in relation to the floor of the room 

 is seen in plate 1, section e-f. These walls by means of an elbow-like 

 turn form the northern and southern sides of the Patio. A stone 

 wall was also at one time present on the eastern side of the Patio. 

 A small portion of the outer wall of the Main Structure, that form- 

 ing the southern side of Room III and a part of the northern wall 

 of Rooms V and VI, is still in place. This is of stone, and it may 

 well be that at one time this entire outer wall was built of stone. The 

 only wall remaining in any way connected with Floors B and B' is 

 that on the southern side of B', and it is built of stone. 



Adobe. — Adobe bricks are the most common material for building 

 walls. They are used in almost all cases for the interior walls of the 

 Main Structure. They are usually faced with a thin layer of plaster. 

 The western wall of Room I and the walls of Room V (pi. 5, h) 

 show the plaster still remaining on the walls. The highest walls of 

 adobe now in place are only 0.83 m. in height. Above this the adobes 

 are covered with earth. The erection of Floor A, covering, in all 



