. Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. to light during the demolition of these mounds there isunfortunately no record, and the probability is that they were thrownaway as useless. DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOUNDS The site chosen bj the builders of these mounds for their residenceis one of the most favorable for many miles around, being on anextensive plateau 50 to 100 feet above the sea level, about one mileinland, and separated from the sea by a belt of swampy, malarial land,which must have formed a strong natural protection against enem
. Annual report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. to light during the demolition of these mounds there isunfortunately no record, and the probability is that they were thrownaway as useless. DISTRIBUTION OF THE MOUNDS The site chosen bj the builders of these mounds for their residenceis one of the most favorable for many miles around, being on anextensive plateau 50 to 100 feet above the sea level, about one mileinland, and separated from the sea by a belt of swampy, malarial land,which must have formed a strong natural protection against enemies19 ETH. PT 2 7 (itil 662 MOUNDS IN- NORTHERN HONDURAS [ from seaward, the main, if not the only, direction from which theymight be expected. The soil npon the plateau is remarkably produc-tive. The only apparent di-awback to the location is that the nearestfresh-water supply, namely. Rio Nuevo, is at a distance of several miles;but, as will be shown, this defect was remedied by the construction ofunderground reservoirs. When the work of excavation among these mounds was first Fig. 4—Plan of mounds at Santa Rita. in ISlHi, tliirty-two of tlie original number were intact. Of these, six-teen have, up to the present time, lieen thoroughly explored, and it isthe object of the present paper to give some account of tlieir construc-tion and contents. For descriptive purposes the explored mounds may be divided intothree classes, as follow: 1. Mounds constructed over l)uildings. 2. Mounds containing, superhciallj, two broken pottery images, and ^^ WALLS WITHIN MOUND 1 663 more deeply, or on the ground level, painted pottery animals eitherwithin or immediately adjacent to a pottery urn. 3. Mounds vvhioh constitute the solitary representatives of a ,and those ot unknown or doubtful use. CHARACTERISTICS OF ^dOUXD 1 The most important of the mounds erected over huildino-g (class 1)was without doubt that marked 1 on the accompanvinu- ptan (tioure4), as the walls of
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectindians, bookyear1895
