Fig. 65. Highly Conventionalized Jaguar Motive. The principal features of the head as well as the outline of the leg survive in highly modified form. From the southern end of Lake Nicaragua.
At Mercedes remarkable stone slabs were found during the excavations conducted by Mr. Minor C. Keith. These are now on exhibition in the American Museum of Natural History. The sculptures in relief on these slabs are by all odds the finest from the Isthmian area. Human beings, crocodiles, monkeys and birds are all used to decorate these carefully and laboriously made pieces whose use is entirely unknown. Statues in the full round have also been unearthed in quantity at Mercedes which gives every evidence of having been a large city with a long career.
Fig. 66. Simple Crocodile Figures in Red Lines on Dishes from Mercedes, Costa Rica.
Fig. 67. Panels containing Crocodiles painted in White Lines on Large Tripod Bowls from Mercedes, Costa Rica.
Fig. 68. Simplified Crocodile Heads in the Yellow Line Ware of Mercedes, Costa Rica.
We may be reasonably sure that the stone slabs date from a fairly late epoch because an undoubted “Chacmool” exhibiting the same style of carving has been discovered here. The “Chacmool,” a half reclining figure with the knees drawn up, the body supported in part upon the elbows and a bowl for incense or other offerings in the pit of the stomach, gets its fanciful name from Le Plongeon who discovered the original at Chichen Itza. But the unmistakable sculptures of this type were apparently developed by the highland tribes and the cult was introduced into northern Yucatan during the period of Mexican influence. In addition to Chichen Itza examples have been found at Cempoalan, the historic Totonacan capital near Vera Cruz, at Texcoco, in the Valley of Mexico, at Jhuatzio in the Tarascan region, as well as at Chalchuapa far to the southeast in Salvador. All of these occurrences indicate a late Toltecan horizon for its distribution.