in the ancient stone carvings, but the moustaches on the latter are rather problematical, and in any case are not nearly so full as those of the pottery faces of Vera Paz. Another find in the same district, highly interesting from the point of view of technique, consists in a number of spherical pottery beads, overlaid with gold-foil of extreme thinness. 'The process by which the gold was applied to the clay constitutes a problem of some difficulty, though the specimens themselves recall the wooden beads, similarly overlaid, discovered in the Totonac region (p. 144).
A certain amount of pottery has been discovered in the caves, both in Yucatan and in the neighbourhood of Copan, which show traces of human occupation. This pottery is peculiar in the fact that it appears in no case to bear any definite relation to the other pottery of the district. The Copan cave-pottery is for the most part in bottle form, with faint gadroon mouldings or impressed key-patterns; while fragments from a cave at Loltun, in Yucatan (immediately south of Uxmal), seem to be in the main of bowls, sometimes with small ring-handles, and usually with fine incised linear designs. The ware of the latter is black and thin, and fragments of figurines occur, the technique of which recalls that of British Honduras.
As stated before, the material is not sufficient to furnish support to important theories, but the close connection of the Vera Paz pottery with that of Sacrificios appears obvious, a connection which extends through to the Chacula region. But too much stress must not be laid upon this, because many forms and details of ornament connect the Vera Paz area with the Copan district, notably the engraved, mould-made and painted pots which bear glyphs. The practice of cutting away the background extends from the Totonac country, through Vera Paz and the Chacula district up into Oaxaca, but no trace is found of the champ-levé
