Mound No. 40, situated near Pueblo Nuevo, on the Rio Hondo, consisted of a ridge about 10 feet high by 40 feet in length. On the summit of the ridge near its center, covered only by a layer of humus, was found a small rough three-legged vase 3 inches high, containing a single long, polished, greenstone bead. The upper part of the ridge was found to consist of blocks of limestone, limestone dust, and rubble, on removing which to a depth of about 4 feet the ruins of a building were brought to light (fig. [84]). The bones were in so poor a state of preservation that it was difficult to determine the exact position in which the body had been placed at the time of burial; it had, however, certainly been fully extended.
Close to the head were found fragments of three round bowls, all precisely similar in both size and coloring. Each was of the shape shown in figure [71], b, 31/2 inches high by 61/2 inches in diameter, and was made of rather fine ash-colored pottery, finely polished. Each of these bowls before burial had the bottom knocked out. The mound beneath the building was composed of blocks of limestone, rubble, and limestone dust, forming a tough, solid, compact mass. This would seem to have been a small private house, not a temple, which (probably on account of the death of its owner) had been deliberately wrecked, and the owner's body buried beneath the cement floor of the one chamber remaining partially intact. Fresh cement seems to have been applied over the grave before the greater part of the house was pulled down and the wreckage piled up, to form a capping to the mound upon which the house stood.
Fig. 84.—Ruins found in Mound No. 40. These consisted of broken-down walls about 2 feet high, joining each other at right angles. Of the wall A-B, 10 feet remained standing; of the wall B-C, 8 feet. The shaded space included between the walls was covered with hard smooth cement, which had been broken away to a rough edge at its outer border and was continuous at its inner border with the stucco which was still partly adherent to the walls. The walls themselves were built of blocks of limestone (squared on their outer surfaces but rough within), rubble, and mortar; they were nearly 2 feet thick. The long diameter of the ridge pointed almost due east and west. An excavation was made in the cement floor, and at the depth of 18 inches, at the point marked D, a single interment was brought to light.
Mound No. 41
Mound No. 41 was situated in the northern district of British Honduras, about 9 miles from Corozal. It consisted of a circular wall or rampart varying from 4 to 10 feet in height, inclosing a space 30 yards in diameter. The wall was built of earth and blocks of limestone, and in places had become considerably flattened out from the action of the heavy tropical rains of this region. To the north an opening or gap existed about 10 yards across. Excavations were made in the encircling wall of the inclosure, and also in the central space, but nothing except fragments of pottery was discovered.
Mounds of this kind are found throughout the area, though not in great numbers. Some of these are circular or horseshoe shaped, some crescentic, and others curved or even straight ridges. As a rule they contain nothing except a few potsherds, which would naturally be picked up with the earth of which most of them are made; in some, however (especially in the straight ridges), superficial interments have been found. These mounds were probably used as fortifications, the circular, horseshoe-shaped, and crescentic mounds being particularly well adapted to this purpose.