When Shook was able to join the project, he immediately began to scout the outlying terrain and to investigate the background that allowed the development of so pretentious a city. Water supply was a point of interest, and of course pottery collection was in our minds at all times.

The Indian laborers reported a cenote called Xtompul, some distance to the east, where pottery fragments were plentiful, and Shook promptly visited it, obtaining a good collection. His route lay over one of the well-leveled modern tranvia roadbeds. About a kilometer out, it cut diagonally through a long, low platform with the exposure showing ancient floors which have been plastered, raised, and replastered (Fig. 58).