Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/404

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ZAPOTECAN TOMBS
353

cotta figure representing a human body with a necklace, and having a tiger's head and limbs. This excavation was made from the northern side, about two-thirds of the distance through its width, and down to the level of the plaza. A tunnel was also made in the center about ten feet through hard adobe construction. A curious feature of the mound was revealed a few feet from the surface in the cross-section made by the trench. Three cement floors were found, one above the other and about one foot apart. Almost in the center, from east to west, these floors were found broken, and the northern part more than a foot lower than the southern, showing the whole northern part of the structure to have settled. This was probably due to the action of an earthquake, the region being subject to more or less severe disturbances of this nature.

Mound 5—In this mound the tomb excavated by Dr Sologüren had been nearly covered by earth washed in during the rainy season. Past experience had shown the value of examining tombs which had previously been explored, and in this instance I was rewarded by the discovery of interesting material not reached by the former exploration. This tomb was in the form of a stone chamber about fifteen feet from the top of the mound, and was covered, from the upper part of the roof upward, by adobe constructions. The inner roof was made of nicely dressed flat slabs of stone, laid horizontally. The lintel was a long block of stone, on the outer face of which a fret was painted in red. Above the lintel were stucco decorations, the figure in the center being in the form of a crouching human body with the well-known Zapotecan form of mask. On either side were small heads, one representing an owl and the other a mask-face. Dr Sologüren found five large funeral urns in a row on the roof, just above the stucco figures, of the box-and-cover variety. The door of the tomb was sealed by a large square stone elaborately carved on the outer surface[1]; in front of the

  1. This has been figured by Leopoldo Batres in Arqueologia Mexicana, pi. 6, fig. 4.