uttle; stone; figure:s of animai^s carved out of grffn micaceous schist 



All found in one grave and representing jungle animals — that is, the peccary, the ant- 

 eater, otter, and the parrot — evidently intended to be the record of a visit to the dense 

 jungles of the lower valley by some artistic stone artificer. 1J/2 times natural size. 



disks or counters shows that practically 

 all were ground and polished, some more, 

 some less. A large number of tkem are 

 nicely rounded. Nearly all show scratches 

 made in the grinding and polishing, and 

 a few are ground so thin as to be trans- 

 lucent. The scratches are in a few cases 

 puzzling, but we have not been able to 

 come to the conclusion that the scratches 

 were intentional or graphic. 



On perhaps a dozen of the disks the 

 scratches are suspicious ; but in none of 

 these cases can one say that they are not 

 accidental. Certainly there is no regu- 

 lar rule about the scratches, and their 

 suspicious character consists in occa- 

 sional markings that resemble tallying. 

 The stone of which these disks are com- 

 posed, green chloritic schist, is soft, 

 easily scratched, and quite suitable for 

 being marked with tallys if it were so 

 desired. If that had taken place, how- 

 ever, I believe that we should be in no 

 doubt about the marking. There are 

 tally marks on the baked-clay dice or 

 cubes (see page 176). 



An exceedingly well-made group of 

 these smaller disks, 16 in all, besides a 

 discoidal stone pendant of similar size. 



was found in one hole near the Snake 

 Rock. All of them are carefully ground 

 and polished, and all bear, in addition to 

 the marks of grinding and polishing, sus- 

 picious scratches. Fourteen of them are 

 3 cm. in diameter, one is 4.5 cm., and one 

 a trifle over 6 cm. 



In two or three cases flat discoidal 

 pebbles of similar material were found 

 in connection with the ground and pol- 

 ished disks 



Forty-two oblong problematical or 

 "record" stones were found, all of them 

 of the same inaterial — green chloritic 

 schist. Two or three are thicker and 

 rougher than the others, but most of 

 them are about 0.3 cm. in thickness. 

 The longest is 5.8 cm. in length and 

 about 2 cm. in width. The widest is 3.2 

 cm. in length and about 2.5 in width. 

 The smallest is 1.4 cm. in length and 

 about 0.3 cm. in width. Nearly all bear 

 marks of having been ground and pol- 

 ished, but none appears to have been en- 

 graved, although a number have irregu- 

 lar scratches of a suspicious character, 

 which might, however, have been made 

 accidentally in the course of manufac- 

 ture. Nearly all thirty-one came from 



205 



