About 6 feet to the north of the center of the mound, at a depth of 3
feet below the surface, was discovered a small stone cist or chamber,
18 inches square, built of roughly cut blocks of limestone. Within
this were found most of the bones of a male of medium height and fair
muscular development. These bones were exceedingly friable, but showed
no effects of fire; with the exception of the tibiæ, they were in
no way abnormal. The upper articular surface of the right tibia had
disappeared. The shaft was rounded in section, the prominent angles
at the front and sides being obliterated. It was slightly bowed, with
the convexity anteriorly, and was considerably enlarged, especially
in its upper two-thirds, which were composed chiefly of very friable
cancellous tissue, rendering the bone much lighter than its appearance
indicated. The surface of the upper part of the bone was marked by the
presence of a number of small pits or depressions. Of the left tibia
only a few fragments were found, but so far as could be judged from
these a change somewhat similar to that observed in the right tibia
had taken place in it. The bones and other objects found in this mound
would suggest at first sight the possibility of the individual buried
beneath it having suffered during life from some form of venereal
disease, closely allied to, if not identical with, syphilis. On reading
Landa's account[27] of two forms of ceremonial self-mutilation carried
out by the Yucatecan Maya at the time of the conquest there can be
little doubt, however, that the figurines shown in plate 9 and figure
15 are meant to represent individuals inflicting on themselves one
or other of these, but, owing to the crudeness of the workmanship,
it is difficult to determine which. In one the foreskin was pierced
and expanded in much the same way that the ears were treated when
sacrificing to the idols. In the other, a number of men, sitting in
a row in the temple, each pierced his glans penis from side to side,
and passing a long piece of cord through all the apertures, strung
themselves together in this way.
MOUND NO. 2
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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