Three kinds of burial seem to have been commonly employed among the ancient inhabitants of this part of the Maya area. The poorest class were buried in large flat mounds, some of them a half an acre in extent and containing as many as 40 to 50 interments. The body was usually buried with the feet drawn under the pelvis, the knees flexed on the abdomen, the arms crossed over the chest, and the face pressed down on the knees; the position, in fact, in which it would occupy the smallest possible space. With the remains are usually found a few objects of the roughest workmanship, as flint hammerstones, scrapers, and spearheads, pottery or shell beads, stone metates and henequen scrapers, small obsidian knives and cores, and unglazed, rough pottery vessels. In the second class of burials, each individual has a mound, varying from 2 to 30 feet in height, to himself. Several mounds of this class have already been described from the neighborhood of Corozal. The objects found with interments of this class are usually more numerous and of better workmanship than those found in the multiple burial mounds, though they do not show much greater variety. The position of the skeleton, where it has been possible to ascertain this, is usually the same as in the multiple burial mounds; occasionally, however, it is found in the prone position, and, in rare instances, buried head down. The third mode of burial was probably reserved for priests, caciques, and other important individuals. The interment took place in a stone cist or chamber, within a large mound, varying from 20 to 50 feet in height. The skeleton is found in the prone position, surrounded by well painted and decorated vases, together with beautiful greenstone, shell, obsidian, and mother-of-pearl beads, gorgets, studs, ear plugs, and other ornaments.[56] Some of these mounds contain two or even three chambers or cists, superimposed one upon the other. The skeleton is then usually found in the top cist, the accompanying objects being placed in the lower ones. In one instance partial cremation seemed to have been practiced, as fragments of half-burned human bones were found in a largo pottery urn.
Mound No. 31
Fig. 73.—Pottery vessels found in Mound No. 31.
Fig. 74.—Chocolate pot found in Mound No. 31.