Fig. 38.—Flint objects.
Several more mounds were excavated at Kendal, but nothing was found in them. They were all composed of earth and large, water-worn bowlders, the former greatly predominating. Close to many of the mounds a deep excavation in the surface is to be seen, from which the material to construct the mound was evidently taken. These mounds form a decided contrast to those in the north of British Honduras and in southern Yucatan: they are lower, flatter, more diffuse and irregular in outline, with the line of demarcation between the base of the mound and the surrounding soil very poorly defined. The northern mounds are more clearly defined, with steeper sides, smaller summits, and base lines easily distinguishable. The reason for this difference is to be sought in the material from which the mounds were constructed, which in the south is clay, with a small admixture of river bowlders, both of which are easily washed down by the torrential tropical rains of the district. Year by year the mound becomes flatter and less well defined, till at length most of these mounds will be hardly distinguishable from the surrounding earth. In the north, on the contrary, the mounds are built of large blocks of limestone, with only a small admixture of earth and limestone dust. In many cases the blocks are mortared together, and in nearly all cases layers of cement are alternated with layers of stone. The whole forms a practically solid block of masonry, capable of withstanding for all time the less heavy rainfall of this part of British Honduras and Yucatan. About the center of a triangular space, bounded at each angle by a small mound, situated close to the mound last described, was found a piece of water-worn rock measuring 4 feet 10 inches in length, which had evidently been carried up from the river bed a quarter of a mile away. Three or four inches of it appeared above the soil. Beneath the rock extended a layer of water-worn river stones to a depth of 2 feet. Among these were found numerous fragments of pottery and patches of charcoal. On the western side of the rock, close to its edge, and buried 10 inches beneath the surface, were found three rather well-chipped flint spearheads, the largest of which was 25 cm. in length (fig. [37], a, b, c); these were placed erect in the earth, points upward, and close to them lay the small, eccentrically shaped object seen in figure [38], b, very well chipped from dark-blue flint, measuring 71/2 cm. in length. A few feet to the north of these objects, buried at about the same depth and quite close to the rock, were found the serrated flint spearhead shown in figure [38], c, 27 cm. in length, together with the eccentrically shaped object seen in figure [38], a, 28 cm. in length; both of these were placed perpendicularly, the spearhead point upward.
Fig. 39.—Devices scratched on stucco in aboriginal building.
About 11/2 miles from the village of Benque Viejo, in the Western District, is the only considerable aboriginal building in British Honduras, still in a fairly good state of preservation. This is a two-story temple standing upon a small natural elevation. Each story contains 12 small rooms, three on the north side and three on the south side, each of which has a narrower room in the rear. The central rooms are 27 feet in length, the side rooms 17 feet 6 inches. The breadth of the smaller rooms is 4 feet 6 inches; the dividing walls are 3 feet thick. All the rooms in the lower story are filled in with large blocks of stone, loosely held together with a small amount of mortar. This seems to have been a favorite device among the Maya architects, its object probably having been to give greater strength and stability to the new upper story erected upon a building of older date. All the rooms are roofed with the triangular so-called "American arch." The height of the rooms is 5 feet 10 inches to the top of the wall, and 5 feet 10 inches from the top of the wall to the apex of the arch. All the rooms had been covered with stucco, and upon the wall of one of the inner chambers completely covered over with green mold the devices shown in figure [39] were found, rudely scratched upon the stucco. In both the upper and the lower part of the drawing are what may be taken as crude representations of "Cimi," the God of Death, probably, like the "grafiti" of Rome and Pompeii, scratched on the wall after the abandonment of the temple by its original builders.[40] Whoever executed the drawing must have had some knowledge, however crude, of Maya art and mythology, as the Cimi head shown in the lower and the conventional feather ornaments in the upper part of figure [39] are unmistakably of Maya origin. To the north of this building lies a considerable group of ruins.
Fig. 40.—Eccentrically shaped implements found at summit of mound.