Mound No. 34
Fig. 79.—Rough pottery vessel found in Mound No. 33.
Fig. 80.—Objects found in Mound No. 34.
Mound No. 34, situated near Progreso, in the northern district of British Honduras, was 5 feet in height, roughly circular, and about 20 feet in diameter at the base. The mound was built throughout of rough blocks of limestone, rubble, and earth. At the ground level, about the center of the mound, were found large flat unworked flags, which seemed to have formed the roof of a small cist that had caved in. Beneath these were found a few fragments of bone, which crumbled away as they were being removed, with a small spherical vase of rough unpainted pottery, 11/2 inches in diameter (pl. [21], a). This was decorated on the outside with a human head wearing a peaked headdress, somewhat resembling the cap of liberty, and large circular ear plugs in the ears. Below the head projected a pair of arms with the hands clasped in front, supporting between them a small pottery ball. Within this little vase, which was filled with earth and limestone dust, were found: (a) A small earthenware bead (fig. [80], a). (b) A small, very delicate obsidian knife, the tip of which is broken off, but which otherwise shows hardly any signs of use (fig. [80], b). (c) The terminal phalanx of a small and delicate finger, in a very fair state of preservation (fig. [80], c). The burial of a terminal phalanx of one of the fingers of the mother, with a favorite child, is not an unknown custom among semicivilized peoples, and it is possible that this little mound contains such an interment. The bones of the child being fragile and deficient in calcareous matter, may well have almost disappeared, while the finger bone of the mother, being of more compact bony tissue, and protected to some extent by the vase in which it lay, has been preserved. The crudeness of the modeling of the little vase and of the face and arms thereon would suggest that it may have been a plaything of the child during life, and even perhaps may have been modeled by its own hands. The obsidian knife may have been used by the mother to separate the bone at the last finger joint. The little figure which decorates the outside of this vase closely resembles those curious figures in a diving position, with arms pointed downward and feet upward, which are not uncommon in this area. Figure 81 shows one represented on the outside of a small vase; several are to be found, molded in stucco, on the ruined buildings of Tuluum, on the eastern coast of Yucatan, just below the island of Cozumel, and they are occasionally, though rarely, found decorating pottery incense burners, instead of the commoner representations of the Gods Itzamna and Cuculcan. Neither Landa, Villagutierre, nor Cogolludo mention the custom as practiced by Maya mothers or relatives on the deaths of their children. Had it been prevalent at the time of the conquest it seems hardly possible that such a practice could have escaped their notice; on the other hand, if the solitary phalanx had not been buried with the dead as a memorial, its presence under these circumstances is very difficult to explain.
In nearly all extensive groups of mounds one or more middens, or refuse mounds, are to be found. The four mounds next described, though varying much from one another, are all distinctly of this type.