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Pusilhá is the southernmost site in Belize where hieroglyphic texts have been identified, and is located a short distance fromtheGuatemalanborder.Sinceitwasdiscoveredin1926, 26 sculptured stone monuments (21 stelae, two fragments, and three altars) have been found. All of these monuments were located in the stelae plaza. 13.1. SYLVANUS G. MORLEY Report on the Pusilhá Expedition YB 27:318–320, 1928 The ruins of Pusilhá are located in the extreme southern part of British Honduras, about a mile [1.6 km] east of the Guatemala frontier, on a point of land be13 .0. Pusilhá 391 tween the Pusilhá and Machaka Rivers, which unite here to form the Mojo River. Hills surround the site on all sides, enclosing a valley of very great fertility; even today the rain fall is so excessive, probably being between 140 inches [355.6 cm] and 150 inches [381 cm], that it is possible to raise three crops of corn a year. There are the remains of an ancient bridge over the Pusilhá River, two stone piers, perhaps 20 feet [6.1 m] high 30 feet [9.1 m] long and some 30 feet [9.1 m] apart, one on either side of the river. The sides of these piers, facing upstream, have been given concave outlines so that logs coming down at high water and striking them would be diverted toward the middle, and thus more easily pass beneath the bridge without blocking (Joyce, Clark, and Thompson 1927:315). The word pusilhá means in Maya, pusil, stagnant; ha, water, that is, stagnant water, a name possibly derived from some fancied characteristic of the river of the same name which flows by the group. Pusilhá was discovered during the summer of 1927byMr.JamesR.Mason,inchargeofthemahogany T H E C A R N E G I E M A Y A 392 PUSILHÁ operations of Mr. Lee Pierce of Punta Gorda. Mr. J. Eric S. Thompson, of the Field Museum of Natural History , Chicago, visited the site a few months later and deciphered four of the Initial Series there, those on Stela D (first Initial Series), K, M and O (Thompson 1928:95). In December 1927 and again in March 1928, Dr. T. Gann visited Pusilhá on behalf of the British Museum, spending five weeks at the site during his second visit and removing four of the monuments, Stelae M, O, P and Q, to Punta Gorda for transportation to the British Museum, On his second visit Dr. Gann deciphered three additional dates, Stela H (first Initial Series), Stela Q and Stela Y (first Initial Series). Dr. Morley was at Pusilhá from May 5 to May 7 and deciphered five other dates as follows: Stela D (second Initial Series), Stelae E and F, and Stelae H and Y (second Initial Series). A complete list of the dated monuments at Pusilhá, arranged in their chronological sequence, is given in the following table: Table 13.1.1. Calendrical Decipherments, Pusilhá. Christian Monument Maya Date Era (A.D.) Kind of Date Stela O 9.7.0.0.0 314 Initial Series Stela Q 9.8.0.0.0 334 Initial Series Stela F 9.9.13.0.0 367 Period Ending Stela D 9.3.0.0.0 334 Initial Series* Stela D 9.10.15.0.0 388 Initial Series Stela Y 9.7.0.0.0 314 Initial Series Stela Y 9.10.15.0.0 388 Initial Series Stela H 9.11.0.0.0 393 Initial Series Stela H 9.7.12.6.7 326 Initial Series Stela K 9.12.0.0.0 413 Initial Series Stela M 9.14.0.0.0 452 Initial Series Stela E 9.15.0.0.0 472 Initial Series * The katun coefficient in this Initial Series is recorded as three. Katun 8, however, is clearly recorded in Glyph A8, and Glyph A7b may represent its corresponding month position, 3 Chen. In any event the contemporaneous date of Stela D is not the first but the second Initial Series, 9.10.15.0.0 There are 20 monuments in the principal plaza at Pusilhá, all but two of them (Stelae U and Y) on the south side in front of Mound 1. Of these, the dates of nine have been deciphered. Three others, Stelae N, P, and U, formerly had Initial Series, a fact proved by presence of the accompanying Supplementary Series in each case, but they are now too effaced to permit decipherment. The Supplementary Series of Stela P...

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