42 



(1939) reports nine Atlantic species, none of limited 

 distribution which might give hints of trade, all of 

 which we collected along the nearby Caribbean coast. 

 More interesting are reportings of two shells from 

 the Pacific coast: Spondylus princeps and Morum 

 tuberculosum (as "Lambidium tuberculosa morum" 

 which is this species). We shall see more of both 

 the latter species below. 



At Holmul, near the British Honduras border in 

 Guatemala, Merwin and Vaillant (1932) report an 

 inordinate amount of shell but give no specific iden- 

 tifications. From their illustrations, we can identify 

 only Cyphoma gibbosum and Turbinella angulata, 

 both common on the nearby coast. Vaillant notes 

 {ibid., pp. 88-89): 



The presence of so much worked shell at Holmul 

 raises the question of the source of manufacture of 

 the raw product. In view of the isolated character of 

 the site, during Periods II— IV, as attested by the 

 pottery, it seems strange to observe shell as the only 

 evidence of trade relations with a coastal people. It 

 is possible that most of British Honduras was of 

 relatively low culture until the closing days of the 

 "Old Empire," and the manufacture of shell into 

 ornaments was done at Holmul. On the other hand 

 high cultures might have existed in the seaboard 

 contemporaneously with Holmul, while only their 

 ornaments were sought by the inland folk. It is 

 certainly true that there is almost no evidence of 

 Holmul II— IV pottery on the coast, so that social 

 relations cannot have been very close. 



In the inland cities of the southern lowlands, the 

 picture was very different. A large amount of shell 

 was traded from great distances, often apparently 

 from much farther than necessary. This probably 

 reflects the existence of a number of well-established 

 trade routes. 



Uaxactun, in the central Peten, produced the 

 first considerable collection of shell from the area 

 (Ricketson and Ricketson, 1937; Kidder, 1947). 

 Of the 19 species of Atlantic molluscs reported, 5 

 give some hint as to provenience. Three species have 

 been collected only on the Caribbean coast and were 

 presumably traded from that area: Strombus gigas, 

 Cyphoma gibbosum, and Trachycardium magnum. 

 Two species have been found only on the north and 

 west coasts and were presumably traded from that 

 area: Fasciolaria hunteria and Mercenaria campechi- 

 ensis. It is clear that Uaxactun was in trade contact 

 with both the Caribbean and Gulf coasts. 



Three species from Uaxactun were imported from 

 the Pacific coast: Area pacifiea, Lyropecten subnodo- 



MoLLUSCA IN THE MaYA LoWLANDS 



sus, and Spondylus prineeps. (See pp. 43—45 for 

 further discussion of these trade pieces.) 



Tikal, near Uaxactun in the Peten, has recently 

 produced an impressive quantity of archaeological 

 shell. Hattula Moholy-Nagy published a valuable 

 preliminary report (1963) of material gathered 

 through the 1962 season. She generously offered 

 us further manuscript notes on specimens acquired 

 through 1964, of which we have made grateful use. 

 Much material from Tikal still remains unidentified, 

 or identified only to genus, and much has not yet 

 been collated with stratigraphic position of the lots, 

 but this must await future publication. Seventeen 

 of the 47 presently identified Atlantic species have 

 a sufficiently restricted distribution to warrant spe- 

 cific inferences regarding trade. Six of these come 

 from Caribbean waters: Fissurella barbadensis (i), 

 Cittarium piea (3), Nerita versicolor (5), Cassis 

 madagascariensis (2), C. tuberosa (i), and Strom- 

 bus gigas (i). Two species have been collected only 

 from the north and east coasts: Diodora listen (i) 

 and Apolymetis intastriata (i). Two have been col- 

 lected only from the north and west coasts: Can- 

 cellaria reticulata (6) and Anadara transversa (29). 

 Two have been taken only on the west coast: Oliva 

 say ana ( i ) and Murex rubidus ( i ) . Five species 

 have been collected only on the southernmost west 

 coast, where they seem to be overlappings of a 

 western Gulf shore fauna: Nerita julgurans (3), 

 Polinices duplicatus (3), Lunarca ovalis (8), Noetia 

 ponderosa (22), and, Mulinia lateralis (42). Thus, 

 where we can make an educated guess at proveni- 

 ence, 8 of 17 species and only 15 of 130 specimens 

 originated on the nearby Caribbean shore, whereas 

 9 of 17 species and 115 of 130 specimens seem to 

 have been traded in from the much more distant 

 Gulf of Mexico. We would have expected much 

 the reverse. 



Six species reported from Tikal are of Pacific 

 origin: Centhium maculosum (i), Latirus, prob- 

 ably L. ceratus ( i), Oliva porphyria (9), Lyropecten 

 subnodosus (n), Chama echinata (32), and Spon- 

 dylus princeps (150-!-). Actually, over 500 addi- 

 tional Spondylus fragments (divided almost equally 

 between beads and cached chips) could not be 

 classified as Atlantic or Pacific species. 



At Copan, Honduras, Longyear (1952) found 

 but five species, only one of which is Atlantic in 

 origin: "Marginella apicina," which we have noted 

 above is probably Prunum apicinum virgineum. A 



