FEWKEs] ARCHEOLOGICAL SITES 83 



inclosure. The depth of tliis trench, at the middle of the mound, was about 9 

 feet. The excavation revealed that the mound rested on a hard gravel base and 

 was composed of soil so rich that some of it was carried away bj- tlie neighboring 

 farmer for use as fertilizer. This earth was very moist and ill adapted to the preser- 

 vation of Ijones or other fibrous material. Nevertlieless, we found ten skeletons of 

 adults and infants, with mortuary objects so distributed as to indicate that they had 

 been placed there as offerings. One of the best preserved of these skeletons was 

 found in a sitting posture with its legs drawn to its chest and with ceramic objects 

 lying at one side. The frontal bones of the skulls were abnormally flattened, as in 

 those from the caves in the northern part of Santo Domingo, described by Doctor 

 Llenas." 



The discoveiy that these mounds are Indian cemeteries sheds light 

 on the nature and use of the neighboring inclosures. The conclusions 

 drawn from my exca\'ations of the Utuado mounds are that large 

 numbers of the dead were buried just outside the dance courts and 

 that the elaborate areitos, or mortuary dances, were held in the latter. 

 There is evidence also of the interment of the dead in caves, human 

 .skeletons from the cave at Jobo, near the road from Arecibo to 

 Utuado, having been given to me bj^ Doctor Cabello. But the major- 

 ity of the prehistoric Porto Kican dead were undoubted Ij' buried in 

 the cemeteries above referred to. , 



Of the nature of the dances performed l)y the Antilleans at the time 

 of interment little is known; but, from what has been described by 

 Gumilla as occurring among the kindred Orinoco tribes, it is probable 

 that they ■were very elaborate. One custom is specially noteworthy. 

 Among certain of the lattertribes it wa.s the habit to place staves around 

 the grave, to the ends of which were tied stone effigies of the heads of 

 the totems of the dead. Apparently this custom was practised by the 

 people who lived near Utuado; in corroboration of this statement it 

 may be mentioned that a stone face was found on or near the mound. 

 This specimen resembles the so-called masks described and figured by 

 Mason, but its size and general shape preclude its use as such. More- 

 over, certain other objects of the same general shape have a groove on 

 one side, wherein is fitted a staff to which the whole object was tied. 

 There is good evidence that the.se so-called stone masks were really 

 mortuary emblems which were fastened to sticks and placed around 

 the graves of the dead, where they remained for some time, especially 

 when dances were being performed in their honor. 



In considering the use to which the Indians put these inclosures, 

 Doctor Stahl points out that if they marked the dwellings of chiefs, 

 the walls, over which a child might jump, would be useless for protec- 

 tion. The boundary stones were not placed in line to indicate burial 

 places,* although cemeteries were not far away, for the inclosure is 

 sunken below the level of the adjacent plain. The popular theory 



fi Decouverte d'un Crane d'Indien Ciguayo a Saint-Domingue, Nante.s, 1891. 



h The ancient Porto Ricans had evidently several modes of burial, as Oviedo asserts in regard to 

 the Haitians. The cemetery in the valley of Constanza, mentioned by Schomburgk {Atht'iucnin., 

 p. 797-799. l.s.^2), may have been similar to that near Mameyes. 



