NO. 6 SMITHSONIAN EXPLORATIONS, I920 11/ 



or sacred ceremonial house was built on it. This sacred building also 

 had one of those rare, beautiful floors made of clay, smoothed, then 

 hardened by fire, and finally covered with a coating which is yet black 

 and glossy. In the center of the building, on this beautiful floor, an 

 altar was found. It was similar to the altar shown in figure 130. 



This building had walls made of cane stalks with the leaves 

 attached, which had been woven in and out between the upright posts 

 which supported the roof. These canes may have had a coating of 

 earth, though no trace of it could be found, and the walls also had a 



Fig. 131. — Mortuary vessel from 

 child's grave. 



covering of woven cane matting. In some way the building was 

 destroyed by fire. Earth was thrown on the remains in time to 

 smother its still glowing embers, which produced a large amount of 

 powdery charcoal containing fragments of cane stalks with the leaves 

 attached, and portions of the woven cane matting. After this sacred 

 building was burned the mound was raised one and one-half feet or 

 more in height. All trace of its last use has been destroyed by 85 

 years of cultivation. 



The low mound. No. 3, on the south side of the plaza, was a burial 

 mound belonging to the first settlers. The mortuary vessel shown 

 in figure 131 came from a hexagonal grave in this mound. 



