MONUMENT 8 (fig. 431)

Category: Rectangular altar.

Material: Basalt, Cerro Cintepec Type A.

Dimensions: 1.62 meters long, 1.19 meters wide, 28 centimeters thick.

Local name: Mesa de Billares.

Location when discovered: Stirling describes finding this slab at the edge of a ravine, near Monument 7 (1955: 13). We rediscovered it on the southern edge of the Group C Ridge, just about due south of Monument 7.

Stratigraphic situation: Unknown. Stirling’s journal says that it was excavated and “turned over” in 1946 (p. 3); the excavation can be seen in his 1955 report (pl. 15a). No pottery or artifacts were apparently saved form this cut. The stone must have tumbled from the end of a buried north-south line.

Description: This altar, with its raised border on three sides, must be broken off from a much larger rectangular slap. The reverse side is plain. Six celt-shaped slots are placed at intervals on the surviving piece.

Mutilation and destruction: As stated, the monument is just one portion of a larger slab split by fracturing. Whether the celt-shaped depressions represent a form of mutilation by slotting cannot be determined.

Comments: Monument 16 from Laguna de los Cerros is a very similar slab, with one celt-shaped depression.