Excavation was commenced at once in the floor of the chamber. At a depth of 8 inches the hard floor gave place to soft brown sand, which was continuous to a depth of 2 feet, where several small deposits or pockets of lime were found inclosed within it, each of which contained a number of obsidian knives and small cores. The knives were deeply indented on each side of the base, as if to facilitate hafting. The cores, of which 20 were found, were slender and varied from 1 to 3 inches in length. On digging down through an additional 18 inches of the brown sand a layer of lime was exposed about 18 inches in thickness, filling the entire lumen of the chamber, in which were found irregularly scattered 60 cruciform objects, finely chipped in obsidian, each from 3 to 4 inches in length (fig. [31], a). These would have served as either arrowheads or small javelin heads, or possibly were intended for ceremonial purposes only. With them were a single pottery vase and two small triangular javelin heads of obsidian. The vase (fig. [31], b) was circular in shape, 6 inches in diameter, with a long piglike face protruding from one side. It was made of dark-brownish pottery, painted red and finely polished externally. It was filled with small mussel-like bivalve shells embedded in lime. A number of these shells were found also closely adjacent to the vase in the lime which surrounded it. Beneath the layer of lime lay a layer of brown sand, 3 feet thick, in which absolutely nothing was found. Below this appeared another layer of lime, mixed with sand, 4 feet thick, near the bottom of which were found 40 human skulls, neatly disposed in rows. These, when first uncovered, seemed to be in a moderately good state of preservation, but when removed from their bed of lime and sand they crumbled so easily that it was found impossible to preserve them. The skulls were all placed in the same horizontal plane, each one nearly in contact with its neighbor. No other bones were found with them, or in fact in any other part of this mound, with the exception of two small oblong objects of bone, about 2 inches in length, each still bearing traces of paint, which were discovered among the skulls. These skulls would seem to have been either the result of secondary interments or the remains of sacrificial victims whose bodies were either eaten or buried elsewhere. In favor of the first theory is the fact that the Maya did not practice human sacrifice to anything like the same extent that their neighbors, the Aztecs, did, and slaughter involving forty-odd victims must have been practically unknown among them. Furthermore, in one or two instances small shallow stone-lined graves, covered with large slabs of stone, have been found at and around the bases of large mounds, and it seems quite possible that these graves may have held the bodies of distinguished dead until their skulls were in a fit condition to be removed to the mound or until a sufficient number had accumulated to make it worth while opening the chamber for their reception. In favor of the second theory is the fact that, judging by what could be seen of the teeth and lower jaws, all the skulls were of individuals in the prime of life, no jaws of very young or of very old individuals being discovered. Immediately beneath the skulls were unearthed 12 objects of chert fashioned with great care. Seven of these were spearheads, the other five of eccentric form. The spearheads varied in length from 37 cm. (pl. [15], c) to 29 cm. (pl. [15], f); they were very well made, some from gray, others from brownish-yellow, chert. The eccentric flints comprised: (a) An animal form, possibly meant to represent a bush rabbit, 30 cm. in length from the forehead to the tip of the tail (pl. [15], a); (b) an animal form, evidently meant to represent a turtle or tortoise, 28 cm. in length from the head to the tip of the tail (pl. [15], g); (c) a halberd-shaped implement (pl. [15], b), exquisitely chipped from light-ocher-colored chert, 44 cm. in its greatest length by 19 cm. in breadth across the widest part of the head. This implement is furnished with two sharp-pointed cutting projections in front, separated by a groove; at the back is a larger triangular sharp projection. The whole implement is well balanced, for use in the hand, by a bulging or thickening of its body between these three projections; (d) an implement chipped from yellowish chert, 44 cm. in length, serrated on each side, pointed at one end and rounded at the other (pl. [15], d); (e) a crescentic implement, chipped from yellowish chert, 26 cm. in its greatest length, 171/2 cm. across the widest part of the crescent. From the convexity of the crescent project three spines, the central one long and serrated, the lateral ones merely pointed knobs. This object is more crudely chipped and less symmetrical than any of the others (pl. [15], e).
These eccentrically shaped flint and chert objects seem to be limited in their distribution to that part of the Maya area comprised in southern Yucatan, eastern Guatemala, and most of the colony of British Honduras. The earliest known specimens are probably those now preserved in the Salisbury Museum, England, which have been thus described:
Among the numerous stone weapons and implements which have been discovered, and serve to illustrate the primitive arts of the New World, three remarkable relics from the Bay of Honduras, in South America, are deserving of special attention. They were found about the year 1794, with other examples, in a cave between two and three miles inland. * * * One is a serrated weapon, pointed at both ends, measuring 161/2 inches long. [This object is almost exactly similar to plate [15], d, except that the latter is pointed at one end only, the opposite one being rounded.] Another is in the form of a crescent, with projecting points. It measures 17 inches in its greatest length, and it is conjectured may have served as a weapon of parade, like the state partisan or halbert of later times. The third, which is imperfect, has probably resembled the previous one in general form.[38]
The second of these implements very closely resembles that shown in plate [15], e, the Salisbury specimen being somewhat larger, more symmetrical, and more carefully chipped.
About 3 feet beneath these flint objects, embedded in the sand which filled this part of the chamber, were discovered 20 cruciform obsidian arrowheads or javelin heads, similar to that shown in figure [31], a; 40 small obsidian cores; 2 obsidian arrowheads, of the shape shown in figure [32]; 12 well-made obsidian knives, grooved on each side of the base, and two crescentic objects chipped from chert, somewhat resembling that seen in plate [15], e, but smaller, without projecting spines at the convexity of the crescent, and altogether more crudely and carelessly made.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY BULLETIN 64 PLATE 15.
