MOUND No. 6
Mound No. 6 was situated near the southwestern boundary of Santa Rita. The mound was nearly circular, with flattened top, 25 yards in diameter, and 10 feet high at its highest point. Toward the southern side of the mound was unearthed a wall (fig. [22], A) 2 feet thick, 2 feet high, and about 15 yards long. From the ends of the wall roughly made masses of limestone and mortar (fig. [22], BB) passed almost through the mound, inclosing a rectangular space, C. The wall was evidently the remains of an older structure, as it was built of well-squared stones and had been broken down at both the top and sides. The masses of masonry (fig. [22], BB) were 5 to 6 feet thick by about 5 feet high. The space C was filled with alternating layers of mortar and small rubble. The spaces (fig. [22], FFF) at the periphery of the mound were filled with rubble mixed with earth.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 64 PLATE 12.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 64 PLATE 13.
b. BOWL IN WHICH SKULL WAS FOUND
c. SKULL
Length, 15.9 cm.; breadth, 15.9 cm.; height, 13.3 cm.; circumference, 47.9 cm.
The rubble, wherever found in the mound, contained large quantities of potsherds, together with flint chips and a few hammerstones. In the spaces FFF were found numerous fragments of metates and brazos, with one unbroken specimen of each (pl. [12]). At the points marked (fig. [22], 1, 2, 3, 4) four human interments were encountered at a depth of 12 to 18 inches beneath the surface. The bodies had been buried lying on the back, fully extended. The bones were in a very poor state of preservation, and with each interment were found a few flint chips, hammerstones, broken spearheads, obsidian knives, and one or two small, very roughly made, round cooking pots. The whole mound was removed to provide material for the Corozal streets. On reaching the ground level it was found that a series of trenches had been cut through the earth beneath, to the bedrock, and filled in with small rubble. Figure 23 gives a plan of these trenches, which are in the form of two parallelograms, measuring 9 yards by 6 yards, joined by a third of approximately the same area. The trenches varied from 3 to 4 feet in breadth and from 11/2 to 31/2 feet in depth, according to the thickness of the layer of earth over the bedrock. The space marked figure [23], A, contained remains of at least 30 interments; some of these were in small semicircular excavations made in the surrounding earth from the sides of the trenches; these are shown at figure [23], D; others were made in holes dug in the earth at various points within the space A. The bodies buried in the excavations at the sides of the trenches seem to have been crowded in, in a variety of positions, in order to accommodate themselves to the size and shape of the cavity. Most of those in the space A had been buried head downward, the skulls resting in some cases in earthenware bowls, with the back bent, legs flexed, and knees drawn up against the chin. Nearly all these bones were decayed and friable, and could not be removed without crumbling away. The only exception was the burial marked figure [23], D', from which the upper part of the skull was recovered almost entire, though the facial bones and lower jaw were lost. This skull (pl. [13], c) rested in the bowl shown in plate [13], b, a handsome piece of pottery, standing upon four nearly globular hollow legs, with slits in their sides, and within them small spheres of clay which rattled when the bowl was moved. It is painted yellow and red throughout, and is nicely polished. A great number of objects were found accompanying the bones in the space A. These included flint ax heads and spearheads, flint scrapers, and hammerstones, two obsidian spearheads, and fragments of obsidian knives, shell and clay beads, and a small cylindrical pottery seal about 3 inches in length, with a geometrical device in low relief stamped upon it (pl. [13], a). The bones of the peccary, curassow, snake, and of some variety of fish were also found, together with the shells of conches, cockles, snails, and hooties (a large variety of freshwater snail still eaten by the natives). A block of crystalline limestone, 18 inches long by 8 inches high and 12 inches broad, was found in one of the semicircular pits leading from the trench at the upper border of space A, figure [23]. It was traversed by 14 longitudinal grooves on its upper surface, which was slightly concave; each groove was 1/2 inch broad by 1/4 inch deep, quite smooth, and nearly straight. The stone had seemingly been used as a hone for giving an edge to small stone implements.
Fig. 23.—Diagram of trenches in Mound No. 6.
Extending out toward the northeast from the main mound was a low structure (fig. [22], G) 4 feet in height and 25 yards in length. It was composed throughout of layers of clay, rubble, and limestone dust, not very clearly separated. Three separate interments were found beneath this mound near its center (fig. [22], H), the bones in all of which were very much decayed. From the first of these the shallow bowl (fig. [24], a), 71/2 inches in diameter by 11/2 inches deep, together with the vase d, 8 inches in height, were taken. The vase was of rather fine pottery, painted a uniform dark red throughout. Nothing else was found with this interment.
From the second grave were taken a bowl exactly similar to that shown in figure [24], a, two flat dishes 12 inches in diameter (fig. [24], e), and a small polished bone ring 1 inch in length, seemingly a section from one of the larger long bones of some large animal. The vessel g, 6 inches in diameter, was also found with this burial; it is made of fine pottery, painted red, and possesses a curious upturned spout, which bends inward toward the rim of the pot to such an extent that it would be impossible either to drink or pour out the contents therefrom. These curious pots, usually with the spout parallel to the perpendicular axis of the vessel, are quite common among Maya pottery from this district; they were supposed to have been used as chocolate pots, but drinking from them must have been a feat of legerdemain.
Fig. 24.—Bowls, vases, and dishes found in Mound No. 6.
From the third grave came two bowls, both almost spherical, the one 12 inches, the other 6 inches, in diameter (fig. [24], c). At the point K, near the end of the mound G (fig. [22]), three interments were found, very close together, on the ground level; these had evidently been contained at one time in a small oval cist, built of rough blocks of limestone, which had now completely caved in. With the bones were found the vases shown in figure [24], b, f, h, of the same red-painted pottery as was found elsewhere in the mound. Six well-made bone awls, or lance heads, each about 6 inches in length, together with a heap of the shells of some large bivalve, one of which was polished and perforated for use as an ornament, were also found among these bones. The stones of which the cist had been built, the bones, and the objects accompanying them were so inextricably mixed that it was impossible to tell which objects belonged to each set of bones. Passing through the long axis of this mound was a rubble-filled trench, 3 feet in breadth, dug down to the bedrock, exactly similar in structure to those already described. No interments were found at the sides of this trench, which is shown in figure [23], E.