Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/418

 SAVILLl] ZAPOTECAN TOMBS 36 1

to light a very interesting feature in the discovery of a house site. This excavation (b, figure 8) was made in the open field at a short distance from the main group. Several feet below the sur- face was a cement floor upon which was a raised platform of cement with a faced edge of cut stone. There was not sufficient time to complete this excavation, nor even to extend it as I had wished, but it was evidently the foundation of a dwelling, and it indicates the great amount of work necessary in order to thoroughly explore the remains of Xoxo alone.

Excavations in Mounds 10 and 12 would unquestionably bring to light tombs of perhaps greater interest and importance than those already discovered.

Conclusions

Summarizing in a general way the results of the explorations, the following facts are brought out :

1. The mounds of this group are burial mounds, containing stone vaults, the doorways of which face the west and are sealed by large stones.

2. Funeral urns are placed in series of five in front of the tombs, on the roof, or fastened into the fajade.

3. These vaults are properly ossuaries or places where the bones of the dead were deposited. Tombs exist in Xoxo outside of the burial mounds. House sites may be looked for in the vicinity of the main group. The absence of stone implements is notable, only a single tiny arrowpoint and two celts being found.

4. The mortuary custom of painting the bones red, the placing of food and incense in the tomb, the interment of decapitated heads, the sparsity of personal ornaments buried with the dead, and the absence of decorated vessels in the vaults, are features brought out by these explorations.

5. The custom of filing and inlaying the teeth was practiced, and the use of hematite as an inlay was found for the first time.

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