Mound No. 5 A
Mound No. 5 A (No. 28 on the plan, fig. [14]) was situated within a few yards of the opening into the circular earthwork attached to Mound No. 7. It was long and narrow, nowhere exceeding 2 feet in height. It was built throughout of small limestone bowlders, mixed with a large proportion of black earth. The limits of the mound were difficult to define, as the earth of which it was built had been washed down and mingled with the surrounding soil to so great an extent that it was almost impossible to determine where one began and the other ended.
This mound or ridge has not as yet been completely explored, but in the part which has already been dug down two interments were found. The first was quite superficial, about 1 foot below the surface, near the eastern extremity of the ridge. The bones were those of a well-developed male, of rather unusual height and muscular development for a Maya Indian; they were in an exceptionally good state of preservation, though not protected from the surrounding earth by cist or burial chamber. Unfortunately, the skull was smashed into small fragments by a careless blow of the pickax before it was realized that a burial existed at the spot. The body appeared to have been buried lying upon the right side, with the legs flexed at the knees and thighs. From one of the incisor teeth a quadrangular piece had been cleanly removed (fig. [21], g). Unfortunately, the tooth in contact with it on the other side could not be found, so that it was impossible to ascertain whether a corresponding piece had been removed from this also. The tooth was much worn at the cutting edge. Landa describes a grinding down of the teeth to a sawlike edge, for ornamental purposes, practiced by the Yucatecans at the time of the conquest,[33] and it seems probable that this tooth was operated on for a similar purpose.
With the bones were found: (a) An oblong piece of marble-like stone, 2 inches long, 11/2 inches broad, and 1 inch deep, polished on all its surfaces, probably used for smoothing or burnishing; (b) what appeared to be a piece broken from a rubbing stone which had been squared, and which showed marks on its upper surface indicating that it had been used for giving an edge to stone implements; (c) fragments of rough unpainted pottery.
The second interment was that of a child 8 to 10 years of age. The site of this burial was within a few feet of the first, at a depth of about a foot below the surface. The bones, which were in a fair state of preservation, were in contact with the earth of which the mound was built. The corpse appeared to have been laid on the side, with the legs drawn up. With the bones were found only a few ornaments broken from pottery incense burners, as ear plugs, small animal heads, and part of a quilted breastplate.
This mound was probably of a much later date than the other mounds described at Santa Rita. It is merely an irregular ridge built of earth and stones, while the earlier mounds just referred to are well defined and constructed of blocks of limestone with rubble, limestone dust, and mortar filling in the interstices. The bones, though placed under the most unfavorable conditions, having been in direct contact with the damp earth, are in an excellent state of preservation, far better, indeed, than even the best preserved of those in the other mounds where the conditions are decidedly more favorable. The skeletons of children are practically never found in the other mounds, as the bones have long since disappeared completely, while here we find the bones of a child under 12 years of age in a fairly good state of preservation. There are a number of those sepulchral ridges at Santa Rita, many of them hardly distinguishable from the surrounding soil; they are all seemingly of much more recent date than the other mounds, and are probably the work of Maya Indian tribes who flourished long after the conquest.
Fig. 22.—Diagram of Mound No. 6.