HARTMAN: ARCHEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES ON THE PACIFIC COAST OF COSTA RICA 15 
Excavations, started at the spot selected, showed a surface layer of black humus 
about half a meter thick, which contained numerous pieces of red and black pot- 
sherds. Below the humus a layer of red clay was met. This layer had a thick- 
ness of from one to one and a half meters, and in parts contained lumps of humus, 
and rested upon a bottom layer of yellowish-white conglomerate of rather hard 
consistency, called by the natives cascajo. In this substratum, which was perfectly 
dry, the Indians had hollowed out pits or cavities, more or less oval or circular, and 
in these they had placed the bodies of the dead with their vessels, metates, orna- 
ments, ete. The pits had then been refilled with the same material and it was alone 
through its looser consistency that I was enabled, although with great difficulty, to 
determine to a certain extent the location and form of graves. The task would 
have been still more difficult without the previous knowledge of the burial-pits of 
this region, which I had obtained during my excavations in 1897. I had at that 
time an opportunity to examine a number of similar graves at Las Casitas, near the 
pueblo of Nicoya, where the conglomerate formed a high naked hill, not covered 
by any layer of soil or clay, and had become almost as hard as rock by exposure to 
the air. This was also the case on a hill at Las Guacas, adjoining the burial 
ground, where, however, no burial-pits were found. At Las Casitas the flat top of 
the hill was in one spot almost honey-combed with pits close to each other. These 
cavities were in most cases well preserved and their form could be well determined. 
Figs. 1 and 2 show vertical and horizontal sections of one of the typical pits at Las 
Fic. 2. Horizontal section of grave at Las 
Casitas, with portion of the circle of stones 
Fic. 1. Vertical Section of grave at Las Casitas. around the opening. 
Casitas. A number of these pits with their contents were examined and records 
made during my sojourn at Las Casitas, but the latter have not as yet been pub- 
lished. The material is now preserved at Stockholm. As a rule the pits at Las 
Guacas were smaller and in places closer together. At the eastern end of the field 
8 In Dr. Sapper’s description of the burial-ground, referred to above, no mention is made of the underground pits, 
but, probably at the time of his visit no traces of the outlines of the pits existed, and closer observations apparently 
were made impossible by the fact that Dr. Sapper during his comparatively short stay here was hindered in carrying on 
excavations of hisown. Velasco’s force was then at work excavating the burial-ground. 
