Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/409

 35<> AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., r, 1899

Zapotecan personage. The two on either side are of the same general size and character, with the exception of the face which is covered with a mask in the form of a grotesque face, possibly the conventionalized serpent, as the bifurcated tongue is one of the most prominent characteristics (plate XXII).

Five feet to the left or westward of the tubing, directly in front of the funeral urns, a curious oven-like structure was encountered, the top being just beneath the cement capping of the mound. We broke into this and found it to be a dome- shape furnace filled with ashes, fragments of rude pottery, large numbers of burnt stones, many adobe bricks burned to a reddish purple color, also several fragments of metates and the handstones for the same. The walls of this oven seem to have been formed by the intense heat to which it had been subjected after being hollowed out of the solid earth and adobe of which the mound was constructed. This burning extended for ten inches and then gradually disappeared. It is probable that this was the kiln in which the funeral urns were fired ; possibly others exist in sur- rounding mounds. Digging eastward, back of the funeral urns, at a distance of five feet, I came upon the front wall of a tomb, in the center of which was a doorway facing the west, sealed by a large, irregular stone. On removing it the chamber was found to be completely filled with earth which had fallen in owing to the destruction of the roof by an earthquake. Upon the roof- stones was a skeleton with several pottery vessels of the same general character as those which were found resting on the floor of the tomb, associated with several human skeletons. The falling of the roof unfortunately caused considerable havoc with the skeletons and pottery vessels, which were in the form of incense burners and pots for household purposes.

Mound 8 — After completing the excavation in Mound 7, a trench was started in the center of the western side of Mound 8, and at a distance of fifteen feet from the beginning of the trench I discovered the front wall of another tomb. The door was

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