14 BUREAU or AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 74 



In almost every case these objects from the adobe beds of this 

 locality are not found in artificial mounds, but on the level plain. 

 Several mounds do, however, occur in this area, the largest of which 

 is the C'erro de Montezuma near the railroad station of Naucalpan. 

 The first of these mounds to be excavated was one near San Miouel 

 Amantla. The Avork was carried out by Senor Manuel Gamio under 

 the auspices of the International School. It was found to date from 

 the Toltec period and yielded two interesting braseros, made up of 

 a boAvl and cover.^ A chimney ran upward from the top of the cover. 

 On this as a background was built up a superstructure consisting of 

 a large head surrounded by a number of separate clay ornaments. 

 These adornos have appeared in large numbers throughout this area, 

 and here for the first time they have been found in their original 

 positions. The mound described in the present paper was one simi- 

 lar to that at San Miguel Amantla.* 



Na:\ie and location or site. — The site consists of an artificial hill, 

 called by the natives '' Coyotlatelco," the " hill of the coyote," situ- 

 ated in a milpa, a short distance west of the pueblo of Santiago 

 Ahuitzotla, in the township of Atzcapotzalco, Federal District, north- 

 west of Mexico City. The mound is just north of the road running 

 from Atzcapotzalco to Los Eemedios. The excavated portion is 

 about 44 meters north and south and 22 meters east and west. A 

 road has been cut across the site on the west, thus diminishing the area 

 possible for excavation on this side. 



Type or site. — The site (pi. 3) belongs primarily to the Toltec or 

 San Juan Teotihuacan culture. The plan resembles in many details 

 that of the rooms excavated near the great pyramids at Teotihuacan, 



no evidence of being water-worn and with paint still upon tliem seems to prove that they 

 were left by people living in the places where they were found and at a time preceding 

 the occupation of the valley by the people we call the Toltecs. Some very large and 

 fragile archaic specimens were found by Mr. Hay in an hacienda near Naucalpan which 

 could not possibly have been carried by water from the hills surrounding the valley. 

 These specimens are now in the National Museum in Mexico. 



^A brasero very similar to those excavated by Sefior Gamio is shown in plate 14. 



*Seler {op. cit., p. 451) writes, "Aus dem I'roflle, das Gamio gegeben hat, geht selbst- 

 verstiindlich mit Sicherheit hervor, dass an dieser Stelle, in San Miguel Amantla (und 

 den benachbarten Orten), Menschen der Teotiuacun-KnXtav vor der Zeit gelebt haben, 

 wo Angehorige Oder Vorfahren der Nation, die in den letzten Jahrhunderton vor der Con- 

 quista das Thai von Mexico bewohnte, die flachen runden Ilugel aufschiitteten, in denen 

 Gamio Thonalterthiimer der aztekischen Zeit des Valle de Mexico fand. Und ebenso 

 scheint mit Bestlmmtheit erwiesen zu sein, dass an der Stelle des heutigen San Miguel 

 Amantla eine hundert Meter breite Fiumara Bruchstiicke von Thonfabrikaten des 

 primitiven Typus von den auf den Hohen gelegenen Ausiedelungen herunterschwemmte, 

 ehe die klimatisehen und geologischen Verhiiltnisse oder die durch die Zeitnmstiinde 

 gegebenen Bedingungen den Menschen der Teotiuacan-Kultur eine .Vnsiodclung an dieser 

 Stelle gestattoten." This statement seems to infer that Seler believes that the low 

 mounds in this vicinity were made by the Aztecs. From the excavations here described 

 and from the mound excavated by Gamio, it is clear that many of these mounds, if not 

 the greater part of them, were Toltec in origin. Sefior Eduardo Noguera, working under 

 the direction of Senor Gamio from September to December, 1920, excavated a mound near 

 Mixcoac. This is clearly Aztec in type. From the photographs, plan, and de.scription 

 which Sefior Noguera was good enough to send me I find very few points of similarity 

 between this mound and the one described here. 



