“Many disks of gold were brought up, which are covered with finely worked figures in repoussé, while around the outer edges are characters and symbols and sometimes hieroglyphs. Some of these disks were originally flat and others have curving surfaces like breastplates. A few are plain or nearly so, but the majority are completely covered with incised work. One disk, a mask, is two thirds the actual size of a human face and represents a face with the eyes closed. Upon the closed eyelid is engraved a symbol of unknown meaning. Another disk of solid gold is eleven inches in diameter and weighs nearly a pound. It contains no carving or design and I judge it to have been some sort of temple basin or standard.
“Among the golden objects are two very handsome tiaras representing entwined feathered serpents, worked partly in repoussé and partly in filagree. There are also a number of emblematic figures, dancing frogs and monkeys, and several queer objects like brooches. They are from one to three inches high and very thick. There are objects like sandals and objects similar to candlesticks. Some of the latter are of copper, gold-plated. I found, too, a considerable amount of gold-leaf nearly as fine and pure as that of to-day.
“Also among the golden treasures are several specimens that look like the heads of canes. These I believe to have been the tops of the official wands or emblems of authority—the caluac pictured many times upon the walls of the temples.
“I found virtually no silver and no metals other than those mentioned, except iron pyrites. This substance, backed with hard-baked clay or stone, was used for mirrors, and I found large fragments of several such mirrors with the mirror surface of iron pyrites still bright and shiny. One metal object about three inches in diameter is white like silver, absolutely uncorroded, and seemingly as hard and refractory as tin alloy or hard steel. I do not know yet what the metal is, but shall know as soon as it can be examined by metallurgists. Can it be that rare, indestructible metal, platinum?
“And with all the precious objects I have taken by force from the Rain God I am very sure that I have wrested from him not a tenth of his jealously held treasure. There are many, many more golden ornaments hid away in the recesses of the uneven floor of the pit, and many, many things even more priceless than gold to the antiquarian.
“All this I leave to the engineer of a future day—and I say engineer advisedly, for it is going to be an engineering task to strip the old well of all it holds. It will first have to be dredged over its whole area, not with the crude hand-operated device which I have used, but with more powerful and modern, mechanically operated equipment. Then a huge, specially designed diving-bell will be required, so that men may work under it quite protected from the water and with ample illumination.
“Among the treasures we found are three sacrificial knives. One is perfect, while the flint blades of the other two are broken close to the hilt. I am inclined to think that the two broken ones were purposely broken or ‘killed’ before being thrown into the well and that the perfect one was not cast into the pit but fell in by accident. These knives have intricately worked and fluted handles of gold. The one which is unbroken is especially lovely—a bit of perfect artistry worthy of a Cellini.
“One golden bowl is nine inches in diameter, and we obtained several smaller ones about three inches in diameter. These, I think, were temple dishes used by the high priests. The several gold disks of the Sun God vary from seven to eleven inches in diameter. And we recovered forty flat gold washers about an inch and a fourth in diameter, each with a hole in the center. Regarding the use to which they were put I have no clue and can only surmise that they were fastened to the garments of priests or of sacrificial victims.
“The several brooches, as indicated by the designs upon them, were used for personal adornment. The finger rings are peculiar in that they have an enlarged face like a signet-ring, but the enlarged portion is designed to fit at the side of the finger, rather than on top, and this enlarged part always contains a pictured face.
“There are many golden figures of animals and insects, the most interesting being frogs with exaggerated flat feet, such as are found in the graves of Puerto Rico. Among the great quantity of other articles, too numerous to describe here, are twelve plain disks of gold which I imagine are blanks, originally intended by the goldsmith for some craftsman to ornament with designs, but for some reason or other thrown into the Sacred Well in their uncompleted state.