the rattles are at the top of the panel, the winding serpent body in the middle, and the head in front view at the bottom. This dorsal view of the rattles and full-face view of the head indicate the columns were meant to represent serpent columns with the tail and head carved in full round. These sculptures resemble serpent stairway ramps more than they do traditional serpent columns, but even stairway ramps normally have attached a serpent head carved in full round. Apart from these columns, undulating serpent bodies are found only on ramps or facades. The sculptured columns of structure 2C1 resemble ramp sculpture set vertically, with the head moved into the plane of the relief rather than tenoned in the round to the bottom of the column. In addition to this unique carving on the columns, small serpent heads, like those associated with the Venus platform (structure 2D4), and a rather stiff looking standard bearer were also discovered at 2C1 (Ruppert 1952:Fig. 117d, Seler 5:Figs. 178,179).

Structures 2C3, 2C5 and 2C6, Ruppert 1952:Figs. 8, 10, 11

Structure 2C3 opened onto the courtyard on its east side, and like 2C1, 2C3 has a shrine built against its rear wall (Ruppert 1952:14). The two 65 cm. square columns of the triple doorway are clearly reused (Seler 5:Pl. 33). Blocks carved with the upper torso, head and headdress, or feet of human figures are positioned indiscriminately above or below mask panels correctly positioned only above or below the central figure on a column, and two of these blocks are even placed upside down. The fragments of the mask panels incorporated into these two columns vaguely resemble some of the masks of the Great Ball court, in contrast to some of the later types (Tozzer 1957:Figs. 320, 342). These columns possibly were assembled from the remains of a structure somehow related to the nearby ball court. Only slight inferential evidence exists to place the buildings of this group in the architectural history of ChichĂŠn ItzĂĄ. Tozzer believed that the group is late and that the arrangement of the buildings resembles some of the courts at MayapĂĄn (1957:68). The shoddy reuse of columns in structure 2C3, completed without interest in placing the column blocks in their correct positions, indicates that some structures had been dismantled by the time this structure was built. The serpent columns are difficult to assess, for they are unlike others at the site. Comparing them to

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