Mound No. 35
Fig. 81.—Figure in diving position on small vase.
Mound No. 35 was situated near the Cayo, on the Mopan River; it forms one of a group of about 30 mounds scattered over a considerable area. It was 12 feet in height and seemingly had been about 30 feet in diameter, but situated as it was, immediately on the river bank, nearly half of it had been washed away by the floods of successive rainy seasons, leaving a clean section almost through the center of the mound, very favorable for observing its construction. The lowest layer, 1 to 2 inches in thickness, resting on the ground level, was composed of ashes mixed with fragments of charcoal; above this was a layer of earth and stones about 1 foot in thickness, and above this a further layer of ashes; and so on to the top of the mound—strata of ashes averaging 2 inches thick alternating with strata of earth averaging about 1 foot. No objects with the exception of a few potsherds were found in the earth layers, but the layers of ashes were rich in flint and obsidian chips, fragments of conch and snail shells, clay beads and malacates, potsherds in great variety and abundance, with the bones of the deer, gibnut, and peccary. It would seem that this mound had formed a sort of kitchen midden; that when a certain amount of refuse had been deposited it was covered with a layer of earth, and that the mound must have been in use for a considerable time to have reached its present height.
Small mounds containing considerable quantities of ashes and charcoal mixed with earth and stones, together with refuse material, as flint and obsidian chips, broken implements, potsherds, bones, shells, clay beads and malacates, and similar indestructible objects, are not of infrequent occurrence, and probably mark the sites of ancient kitchen middens. Two such mounds were found on the mainland, south of the island of Tamalcab, in Chetumal Bay, Yucatan, situated in what seemingly had been a village site, occupying an area of approximately 20 acres. Great numbers of potsherds, fragments of pottery, images, beads, malacates, chips and broken implements of stone and obsidian, broken metates, fragments of conch and cockle shells, stone water troughs, and other indestructible rubbish were found scattered in great profusion over the whole of this site.