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4. Excavations in House Mounds at Mayap
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31 The dwelling-type structures at Mayapán follow closely Landa’s description of native houses in Yucatán in the sixteenth century. A large number of these structures are shown on the map of Mayapán (Jones 1952). Essentially they consist of a front and a back room but with considerable variation in detail of floor plan (see Ruppert and Smith 1951:231). Landa says, “. . . they build a wall in the middle dividing the house lengthwise, leaving several doors in the wall into the half which they call the back of the house . . . and the other half . . . has no doors, but is open the whole length of the house” (Tozzer 1941:85–86). Landa further writes of the commoners being buried in or behind their houses (Tozzer 1941:130). The presence of burials in the Mayapán structures, therefore, provides evidence to corroborate our identification of dwellings, as well as offering additional information on burial practices . It is also hoped that the grave furniture and other remains derived from excavation will throw light upon the household economy of the aboriginal Maya. During the 1951–1952 survey of dwelling-type structures likely places for excavation were noted. Such locations consisted of depressions in benches or any visible construction below bench level, such as exposed capstones or bared vaults or walls. Besides digging in places where definite subfloor constructions existed, we made exploratory pits in benches. These excavations revealed tombs, cists, and a refuse dump. Test pits were also made in the terraces supporting structures. Our work clearly indicated that the tombs and cists were built at the time the structures were erected. In this paper a cist is considered as a stonelined pit which may or may not have been built for burial purposes but in which there is no indication of human burial. A tomb is similar to a cist but contains evidence of human burial. Since such evidence was found in three instances, it is possible that all cists C u r r e n t R e p o r t s Carnegie Institution of Washington Department of Archaeology No. 4 December 1952 Excavations in House Mounds at Ma yapán Karl Ruppert and A. Ledyard Smith Karl Ruppert and A. Ledyard Smith 32 were built in preparation for interment, presumably of the occupants of the house. Material recovered from a single locality, such as a pit, tomb, cist, or stratified area, is designated by a lot number. Sherd material was turned over to R. E. Smith for examination (see R. Smith 1952, Table 1). It is significant that in all excavations pottery of the major, and supposedly latest, period of occupation of Mayapán was recovered. However, it is interesting to note that in one instance (Str. J-49a) the earlier, Puuc type of pottery predominated. All material recovered from excavations is listed in the captions of the figures under the lot number to which it belongs. Two cow’s teeth need some explanation . They were found in the midden under the east bench of Structure J-50a (Lot A-13). Here one of the capstones had fallen, leaving the pit unsealed, so the teeth may well be intrusive. We wish to thank Drs. Robert T. Hatt, Josselyn Van Tyne, Robert W. Storer, Norman Hartweg, T. Edinger, and Miss Barbara Lawrence for identification of mammal, fish, and bird bones. Structure J-131a (50 N, 520 E) Structure J-131a (Fig. 4.1) is located on the east side of a two-structure group. It shows the remains of two benches. The south bench is in better state of preservation than the north. South Bench. When first examined, capstones and some vaulting of what proved to be a tomb were exposed under the south end of the bench. Tomb (Figs. 4.1, Lot A-1; 4.6a,b). Measures 1.25 by 2.00 m. Floor of well-packed lime mortar 1.30 m, below floor of J-131a. Walls rise 75 cm to offset of vault. Stepped vault rises 75 cm. Most of vault stones had fallen into tomb. Three capstones recovered , of which two were in position. At west end the wall rose vertically at least 1.10 m. The tomb was filled with debris to height of end walls. Plaster still remains on walls to height of vault offset. Masonry of medium-sized blocks. Vault stones not beveled. Bedrock lies 12 cm below floor. Material found in the tomb is described under Figure 4...