GROUP A

            Group A, by far the largest, consists of 12 mounds surrounding courts and plazas. West of Mounds 1, 6, and 7 the land falls abruptly away to level ground about 14 m. lower. The edge of the drop is straight and level and one suspect that a natural slope was built up to form a terrace wall. Mound 1, highest in Group A, is 15 m. high; Mound 2, 10 m. Each was pyramidal with a frontal platform covering a large vaulted tomb. They face each other across a court or small plaza. Both had undergone enlargements, Mound 2 at least six times. After the final increment was added to Mound 2 in the post-Classic period, stone monuments were erected, one on the frontal platform, one at its base at the center of the stairway. Mound 3, a low platform 1.5 m. high, lies at the north end of the same court. To the south a large terrace supports Mounds 4 to 8.

Mounds 4 and 5 respectively 9.5 and 8.5 m. high, almost surely formed the two ranges of a ball court. Unfortunately, the sides of the ranges facing the playing alley had been so much cut away for farming purposes that it was impossible to ascertain the original slope of the playing walls; and as corn was planted in the alley we were unable to run the short transverse trench that would have proved beyond question whether or not we were dealing with a ball court and would doubtless have yielded potsherds for dating the structure. Mound 5, the southern range, has a long, narrow, presumably secondary extension to the east; Mound 4 is the same size as the main part of 5. The two, minus the extension, would have formed a normal open-ended ball court. Two rough stones, 60 cm. high, had been set in the longitudinal axis 6 m. high, beyond either end of the supposed playing  alley, perhaps to mark the extent of end zones.

            Mound 6, a rectangular platform 5.4 m. high, is centered on the west end of the foregoing pair. Three monuments, on the top, the side, and at the base of the mound, are aligned with the two at the ends of the ball court. Mound 7, of the same shape as and directly south of 6, is 5.25 m. high; Mound 8, south of 5, 8 m. high. Probably originally rectangular, Mound 8 has been badly plowed down at both ends. Mounds 5, 7, and 8 border the north, west, and south sides of a long, narrow court.

            East of Munds 4, 5, and 8, a terrace drops to the Great Plaza with its many stone monuments. Mound 9, on its east side, is a large, almost square platform; it measures 11.8 m. to the highest point of its uneven top.  The base of the 14-m.-high pyramidal Mound 10, lying east of 9, shows signs of recent digging. North of it is a huge rectangular platform. Also 14 m. high, evidently made by leveling the top and building up the sides of a natural hillock to form a great substructure whose south and north ends support Mounds 11 and 12, the latter apparently a small temple pyramid. The above-mentioned stream bed separates it from the town.

            South of Group A is the modern cemetery of Nebaj. It occupies the top of a large platform similar to the foregoing and probably made in the same way. Presumably once a part of Group A, it too may well have carried mounds, but if so they were razed when it was taken over as a burial ground.

            The 26 stone monuments at and about Group A are of interest because of their possible significance as astronomic markers. Their position relative to each other and the bearings of their various alignments were taken with a Brunton compass. They stand in courts and plazas, on the sides of the high mounds thought to have supported temples, and on the sides and tops of platforms. Most are very rough; a few are cut and smoothed, as if to have served as formal stelae. None, however, is carved or, with the possible exception of V, bears any trace of plaster surfacing or painting.

            In the center of the Great Plaza, which contains the greatest number of monuments, is Altar M, an irregular flat stone 2 m. each way and 60 cm. high. It lines up with Monuments R and S in one direction and with P, L, K, J, F, E, and D in another. There are two stela-shaped natural rock outcrops off the southwest corner of the cemetery platform. Each has a projecting spur into which rough steps have been cut to give access to their tops.

            Lincoln (1945, p 225) describes and gives a plan or an arrangement of stones that is used today by that native priests (zahorins) as a sun observatory  to determine when to plant and harvest. It extends from the west side of the cemetery platform a distance of 1.5 km. To the top of a high hill west of town. Tejeda and I climbed the hill and found that a small site called vitenam, which we had mapped in 1946, corresponds to Lincoln’s description of the west end of the “observatory,” The stone markers indicated on his plan are natural outcrops, but because there are so many of these and because the plan is not to scale, we were unable to tell which are the ones involved. The only way to determine this would be to visit Nebaj on the dates specified by Lincoln and see which of them are used by the priests.

GROUP B

            Group B lies on a rise 100 m. north of Mound 1, Group A. Its six mounds, all much reduced in height and their original shapes distorted by years of cultivation, comprise what is best termed a ball court group, i.e. an assemblage in which a ball court with open ends occupies an important position at one side of a little plaza in whose center is a small altar platform. Sites such as Huil, Oncap, and others in this area are larger examples of the type.

            Of Group B, Mound 1 is the principal structure, a rectangular platform 4. high. Southwest of it are the two ranges of the ball court, Mounds 2 and 3, each about 2.3 m. high. Both have been so severely plowed down and so much washing has taken place that without excavation nothing can be learned as to the nature of the two sides of the playing alley. It is probable that they rose on a moderate batter as in the better-preserved ball courts at Huil and Oncap. The benches are completely buried.

          Mound 4, the small central altar platform off the west end of the ball court, had been dug into and very little remained. In its present state it is 2 m. high. On the west side of the plaza is the 3-m-high Mound 5, which may have borne a temple of perishable materials. On the north is Mound 6, a 2-m-high rectangular platform.

          North and east of Mound 2, the land is 11. m. higher than the ball court’s playing alley. Mound 1 is on this upper level, which is finished off by an L-shaped terrace extending east and south from the southeast corner of Mound 2. East of this terrace is a second, 3.6 m. high.

Group C

            Group C is about 400 m. north of Group B. situated on a hill, it is in even worse condition than, but was probably similar to, B. Nothing remains but a terrace and  three mounds, Nos. 1 and 2  being the two ranges of an open-ended ball court, no. 3 a small altar platform west of the ball court in line with the long axis of the latter’s playing alley.

            Both here and in Group B there was no stonework sowing, nor any evidence of superstructures, but slabs of plaster on the surface indicated the former presence of masonry.

            On the summits of Mounds 1,2, 5, 10, and 12 in Group A and Mound 2 in Group C are one or more wooden crosses and small crude shrines of rough stones. At these the Indians often burn incense and pray. Some of the mounds with crosses are named. Their designations, as given me by Gaspar Cedillo, are as  follows:

Mound 1, Chisis or Vichiapavitz (vi, on top of; chiapa, tree bearing various kinds of fruit seeds now gone, but once grew on summit of mound; vitz, Hill) Mound 2 Chiapa. Mound 10,  vipucshuk (pucshuk, basket). Mound 12, vicuyih (cuyih, midwife). In the plaza at the north base of Mound 4 is one of the most important shrines with crosses, at which Indians are constantly stopping to pray. One (1) is called Xolchaxbatz  which, as nearly as I could make out from Gaspar Cedillo, means “pray to God” or “pit or depression of God” and is dedicated to the fourth Alcalde del Mundo, yearbearer or guardian of the town. Lincoln calls it  Chaxbatz  and says (1945, p. 140), “On December 9 I went with Diego L. the Fiscal of the curch to look for ruins outside of town. There are many mounds in a cornfield on the property of Gaspar Cedillo, is one of the important crosses or  lugares de costumbre. Diego tells me that this is one of the four main crosses dedicated to the Alcaldes del Mundo  or Yearbearer days of the year. This one was called Chaxbatz,  and the others Tiicaj, Tiicuishal, and Koochoochun, the latter meaning ‘Donde se juntaron los Reyes de antes.’” The last three of these shrines are on mounds in Nebaj and, according to Tejeda, who visited them with Gaspar Cedillo, are dedicated to the first, second, and third Alcaldes del Mundo. Two others in Nebaj are Nimlatap and Cholatap, dedicated to the first and second Regidores.

            An interesting tale told to Lincoln (1945, p. 141) undoubtedly refers to the Chiapas tree said by Gaspar Cedillo to have once grown on top of Mound 1. It is near the Chaxbatz or Xolchaxbatz shrine.

            While at the cross or crosses of Chaxbatz with Diego discussing the prayer to Dios Mundo given to me at Zotzil, he told me a story which his uncle told him. Formerly, according to his uncle, next to Chaxbatz grew a remarkable tree, which bore many other kinds, all on the same tree. If, however, a leaf blew away from this tree and fell on a distant village in Chiapas, all the inhabitants of that town would die. The people decided that the tree should be cut down, and many went and cut and chopped, but the tree would no be felled. Finally, a mass had to be held at the tree before it was possible to cut it down. Afterwards the tree was felled with ease. Diego swears that his uncle told him that this was a true story.

            In corroboration of the story, Gaspar Cedillo later told me that when a leaf of the tree fell on the distant town in Chiapas only one inhabitant of that town would die, not all the inhabitants. This apparently happened several times until people from Chiapas came to Nebaj to investigate. It was then decided to fell the tree.