Mound No. 31
Fig. 73.—Pottery vessels found in Mound No. 31.
Fig. 74.—Chocolate pot found in Mound No. 31.
Mound No. 31 was situated close to the Rio Nuevo, about 16 miles from its mouth, in the northern part of British Honduras. It was a somewhat flattened mound, 15 feet in height, built of blocks of limestone, limestone dust, and earth. At a depth of 9 feet, the angle of a ruined building, formed by two walls averaging 2 feet high, intersecting at right angles, and built of squared blocks of limestone, was brought to light. The walls enclosed part of a floor of smooth, hard cement. Numbers of blocks of squared stone were found throughout the upper part of the mound, which had evidently at one time formed part of the ruined building. Resting on the cement floor, close to the wall, were found nine pottery vessels, covered with limestone dust. Five of these were of the type shown in figure [73], a, of dark-red, rather coarse pottery, 12 inches in diameter at the rim. One, pictured in figure [74], is the usual Maya chocolate pot, similar to the one already described (see fig. [24], g), except that the spout, instead of bending inward toward the vessel, passes directly upward parallel to its perpendicular axis, an arrangement which must have rendered it far easier to drink from the vessel or pour fluid out of it. The three other vessels found are illustrated in figures [73], b, c, and d; b is of polished chocolate-brown pottery, 3 inches in diameter by 5 inches in height; c is of thick red pottery, 3 inches high, with two small handles for suspension, one on each side; d is of coarse polished red ware, unusually thick and clumsy, 12 inches high by 8 inches in diameter. Each of these vessels contained a single small polished greenstone bead. No other objects were found associated with them, and there was no trace of human bones. Excavations were made in this mound to the ground level without results. The lower part of the mound was built of large blocks of limestone and rubble, held loosely together with friable mortar.