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THE WORKS OF HUBERT HOWE BANCROFT.

VOLUME IV.

THE NATIVE RACES.

VOL. IV. ANTIQUITIES.

San Francisco:

A. L. Bancroft & Company, Publishers.

1883.

Entered according to Act of Congress in the Year 1882, by

Hubert H. Bancroft.

In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.

All Rights Reserved.

CONTENTS OF THIS VOLUME.

CHAPTER I.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION.

PAGE.

Monumental Archæology -- Scope of the Volume -- Treatment

of the Subject -- Sources of Information -- Tangibility of

Material Relics --Vagueness of Traditional and Written

Archæology -- Value of Monumental Relics, as conveying

Positive Information respecting their Builders, as

Corroborative or Corrective Witnesses, as Incentives to

Research --Counterfeit Antiquities -- Egyptian, Assyrian

and Persian monuments --Relics proving the Antiquity of

Man -- Exploration of American Ruins -- Key to Central

American Hieroglyphics -- No more Unwritten History 1

CHAPTER II.

ANTIQUITIES OF THE ISTHMUS, COSTA RICA, MOSQUITO COAST,

AND NICARAGUA.

The Isthmus -- Roman Coin and Galley -- Huacas of Chiriquí

-- Incised Stone-carvings -- Sculptured Columns -- Human

Remains -- Golden Ornaments -- Weapons -- Implements --

Pottery -- Musical Instruments -- Costa Rica -- Stone

Hammers -- Ancient Plantations -- Images of Gold --

Terra-Cottas -- Axe of Quartz -- Wonderful Hill -- Paved

Road -- Stone Frog -- Mosquito Coast -- Granite Vases --

Remarkable Reports -- Animal Group -- Rock-Paintings --

Golden Figure -- Home of the Sukia -- Nicaragua --

Authorities -- Mounds -- Sepulchres --Excavations --

Weapons -- Implements -- Ornaments -- Statues -- Idols --

Pottery -- Metals 15

CHAPTER III.

ANTIQUITIES OF SALVADOR AND HONDURAS, RUINS OF COPAN.

Salvador -- Opico Remains -- Mounds of Jiboa -- Relics of

Lake Guijar -- Honduras -- Guanaja -- Wall -- Stone Chairs

-- Roatan -- Pottery --Olancho Relics -- Mounds of Agalta

and Abajo -- Hacienda of Labranza -- Comayagua -- Stone

Dog-idol -- Terraced Mounds of Calamulla --Tumuli on Rio

Chiquinquare -- Earthen Vases of Yarumela -- Fortified

Plateau of Tenampua -- Pyramids, Enclosures, and

Excavations -- Stone Walls -- Parallel Mounds --

Cliff-Carvings at Aramacina -- Copan --History and

Bibliography -- Palacio, Fuentes, Galindo, Stephens, Daly,

Ellery, Hardcastle, Brasseur de Bourbourg -- Plan of Ruins

Restored --Quarry and Cave -- Outside Monuments --

Enclosing Walls -- The Temple -- Courts -- Vaults --

Pyramid -- Idols -- Altars -- Miscellaneous Relics --

Human Remains -- Lime -- Colossal Heads -- Remarkable

Altars -- General Remarks 68

CHAPTER IV.

ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA AND BELIZE.

The State of Guatemala -- A Land of Mystery -- Wonderful

Reports --Discoveries Comparatively Unimportant -- Ruins

of Quirigua -- History and Bibliography -- Pyramid,

Altars, and Statues -- Comparison with Copan -- Pyramid of

Chapulco -- Relics at Chinamita -- Temples of Micla --

Cinaca-Mecallo -- Cave of Peñol -- Cyclopean Débris at

Carrizal -- Copper Medals at Guatemala -- Esquimatha --

Fortification of Mixco -- Pancacoya Columns -- Cave of

Santa María -- Mammoth Bones at Petapa -- Rosario Aqueduct

-- Ruins of Patinamit, or Tecpan Guatemala --

Quezaltenango, or Xelahuh -- Utatlan, near Santa Cruz del

Quiché -- Zakuléu, near Huehuetenango -- Cakchiquel Ruins

in the Region of Rabinal -- Cawinal -- Marvelous Ruins

Reported -- Stephens' Inhabited City -- Antiquities of

Peten -- Flores -- San José -- Casas Grandes -- Tower of

Yaxhaa -- Tikal Palaces and Statues -- Dolores

--Antiquities of Belize 106

CHAPTER V.

ANTIQUITIES OF YUCATAN.

Yucatan, the Country and the People -- Abundance of Ruined

Cities --Antiquarian Exploration of the State -- Central

Group -- Uxmal --History and Bibliography -- Waldeck,

Stephens, Catherwood, Norman, Friederichsthal, and Charnay

-- Casa del Gobernador, Las Monjas, El Adivino, Pyramid,

and Gymnasium -- Kabah, Nohpat, Labná, and nineteen other

Ruined Cities -- Eastern Group; Chichen Itza and vicinity

--Northern Group, Mayapan, Mérida, and Izamal -- Southern

Group; Labphak, Iturbide, and Macoba -- Eastern Coast;

Tuloom and Cozumel --Western Coast; Maxcanú, Jaïna, and

Campeche -- General Features of the Yucatan Relics --

Pyramids and Stone Buildings -- Limestone, Mortar, Stucco,

and Wood -- The Triangular Arch -- Sculpture, Painting,

and Hieroglyphics -- Roads and Wells -- Comparisons --

Antiquity of the Monuments -- Conclusions 140

CHAPTER VI.

ANTIQUITIES OF TABASCO AND CHIAPAS, RUINS OF PALENQUE.

Geographical Limits -- Physical Geography -- No Relics in

Tabasco --Ruins of Palenque -- Exploration and

Bibliography -- Name; Nachan, Culhuacan, Otolum, Xibalba

-- Extent, Location, and Plan -- The Palace -- The

Pyramidal Structure -- Walls, Corridors, and Courts --

Stucco Bas-Reliefs -- Tower -- Interior Buildings --

Sculptured Tablet --Subterranean Galleries -- Temple of

the Three Tablets -- Temple of the Beau Relief -- Temple

of the Cross -- Statue -- Temple of the Sun

--Miscellaneous Ruins and Relics -- Ruins of Ococingo --

Winged Globe --Wooden Lintel -- Terraced Pyramid --

Miscellaneous Ruins of Chiapas --Custepeques, Xiquipilas,

Laguna Mora, Copanabastla, and Zitalá --Huehuetan -- San

Cristóval -- Remains on the Usumacinta -- Comparison

between Palenque and the Cities of Yucatan -- Antiquity of

Palenque --Conclusion 286

CHAPTER VII.

ANTIQUITIES OF OAJACA AND GUERRERO.

Nahua Antiquities -- Home of the Zapotecs and Miztecs --

Remains in Tehuantepec -- Fortified Hill of Guiengola --

Petapa, Magdalena, and Laollaga -- Bridge at Chihuitlan --

Cross of Guatulco -- Tutepec --City of Oajaca and Vicinity

-- Tlacolula -- Etla -- Peñoles --Quilapan -- Ruins of

Monte Alban -- Relics at Zachila -- Cuilapa --Palaces of

Mitla -- Mosaic Work -- Stone Columns -- Subterranean

Galleries -- Pyramids -- Fortifications -- Comparison with

Central American Ruins -- Northern Monuments -- Quiotepec

-- Cerro de las Juntas -- Tuxtepec -- Huahuapan --

Yanguitlan -- Antiquities of Guerrero 366

CHAPTER VIII.

ANTIQUITIES OF VERA CRUZ.

Physical Features of the State -- Exploration and Reports

-- Caxapa and Tuxtla -- Negro Head -- Relics from Island

of Sacrificios --Eastern Slope Remains -- Medelin --

Xicalanco -- Rio Blanco -- Amatlan -- Orizava -- Cempoala

-- Puente Nacional -- Paso de Ovejas --Huatusco --

Fortifications and Pyramids of Centla -- El Castillo

--Fortress of Tlacotepec -- Palmillas -- Zacuapan --

Inscription at Atliaca -- Consoquitla Fort and Tomb --

Calcahualco -- Ruins of Misantla or Monte Real -- District

of Jalancingo -- Pyramid of Papantla -- Mapilca -- Pyramid

and Fountain at Tusapan -- Ruins of Metlaltoyuca -- Relics

near Pánuco -- Calondras, San Nicolas, and Trinidad 425

CHAPTER IX.

ANTIQUITIES OF THE CENTRAL PLATEAUX.

Anáhuac -- Monuments of Puebla -- Chila, Teopantepec,

Tepexe, Tepeaca, San Antonio, Quauhquelchula, and Santa

Catalina -- Pyramid of Cholula -- Sierra de Malinche --

San Pablo -- Natividad -- Monuments of Tlascala -- Los

Reyes -- Monuments of Mexico -- Cuernavaca, Xochicalco,

Casasano, Ozumba, Tlachialco, Ahuehuepa, and Mecamecan

--Xochimilco, Tlahuac, Xico, Misquique, Tlalmanalco, and

Culhuacan --Chapultepec, Remedios, Tacuba, and Malinalco

-- City of Mexico --Tezcuco -- Tezcocingo -- Teotihuacan

-- Obsidian Mines -- Tula --Monuments of Querétaro --

Pueblito, Canoas, and Ranas -- Nahua Monuments 464

CHAPTER X.

ANTIQUITIES OF THE NORTHERN MEXICAN STATES.

The Home of the Chichimecs -- Michoacan -- Tzintzuntzan,

Lake Patzcuaro, Teremendo, Aniche, and Jiquilpan -- Colima

-- Armería and Cuyutlan -- Jalisco -- Tonala, Guadalajara,

Chacala, Sayula, Tepatitlan, Nayarit, Tepic, Santiago

Ixcuintla, and Bolaños --Guanajuato -- San Gregorio and

Santa Catarina -- Zacatecas -- La Quemada and Teul --

Tamaulipas -- Encarnacion, Santa Barbara, Carmelote,

Topila, Tampico, and Burrita -- Nuevo Leon and Texas

--Coahuila -- Bolson de Mapimi, San Martero, Durango,

Zape, San Agustin, and La Breña -- Sinaloa and Lower

California -- Cerro de las Trincheras in Sonora -- Casas

Grandes in Chihuahua 568

CHAPTER XI.

ANTIQUITIES OF ARIZONA AND NEW MEXICO.

Area enclosed by the Gila, Rio Grande del Norte, and

Colorado -- A Land of Mystery -- Wonderful Reports and

Adventures of Missionaries, Soldiers, Hunters, Miners, and

Pioneers -- Exploration -- Railroad Surveys --

Classification of Remains -- Monuments of the Gila Valley

-- Boulder-Inscriptions -- The Casa Grande of Arizona --

Early Accounts and Modern Exploration -- Adobe Buildings

-- View and Plans -- Miscellaneous remains, Acequias, and

Pottery -- Other Ruins on the Gila -- Valley of the Rio

Salado -- Rio Verde -- Pueblo Creek -- Upper Gila --

Tributaries of the Colorado -- Rock-Inscriptions, Bill

Williams' Fork -- Ruined Cities of the Colorado Chiquito

-- Rio Puerco -- Lithodendron Creek -- Navarro Spring --

Zuñi Valley -- Arch Spring -- Zuñi -- Ojo del Pescado --

Inscription Rock -- Rio San Juan --Ruins of the Chelly and

Chaco Cañons -- Valley of the Rio Grande --Pueblo Towns,

Inhabited and in Ruins -- The Moqui Towns -- The Seven

Cities of Cíbola -- Résumé, Comparisons, and Conclusions 615

CHAPTER XII.

ANTIQUITIES OF THE NORTHWEST.

General Character of North-western Remains -- No Traces of

Extinct or of Civilized Races -- Antiquities of California

-- Stone Implements --Newspaper Reports -- Taylor's Work

-- Colorado Desert -- Trail and Rock-Inscriptions --

Burial Relics of Southern California -- Bones of Giants

-- Mounds in the Saticoy Valley -- New Almaden Mine

--Pre-Historic Relics in the Mining Shafts -- Stone

Implements, Human Bones, and Remains of Extinct Animal

Species -- Voy's Work -- San Joaquin Relics -- Merced

Mounds -- Martinez -- Shell-Mounds round San Francisco

Bay, and their Contents -- Relics from a San Francisco

Mound -- Antiquities of Nevada -- Utah -- Mounds of Salt

Lake Valley --Colorado -- Remains at Golden City --

Extensive Ruins in Southern Colorado and Utah -- Jackson's

Expedition -- Mancos and McElmo Cañons -- Idaho and

Montana -- Oregon -- Washington -- Mounds on Bute Prairie,

and Yakima Earth-work -- British Columbia -- Deans'

Explorations -- Mounds and Earth-works of Vancouver Island

-- Alaska 687

CHAPTER XIII.

WORKS OF THE MOUND-BUILDERS.

American Monuments beyond the Limits of the Pacific States

-- Eastern Atlantic States -- Remains in the Mississippi

Valley -- Three Geographical Divisions -- Classification

of Monuments -- Embankments and Ditches -- Fortifications

-- Sacred Enclosures -- Mounds --Temple-Mounds,

Animal-Mounds, and Conical Mounds -- Altar-Mounds, Burial

Mounds, and Anomalous Mounds -- Contents of the Mounds --

Human Remains -- Remains of Aboriginal Art -- Implements

and Ornaments of Metal, Stone, Bone, and Shell -- Ancient

Copper Mines --Rock-Inscriptions -- Antiquity of the

Mississippi Remains --Comparisons -- Conclusions 744

CHAPTER XIV.

PERUVIAN ANTIQUITIES.

Two Epochs of Peruvian Civilization -- Aboriginal

Government, Religion, and Arts -- Contrasts -- The Huacas

-- Human Remains --Articles of Metal -- Copper Implements

-- Gold and Silver Vases and Ornaments -- Use of Iron

unknown -- Aboriginal Engineering -- Paved Roads --

Peruvian Pottery -- Ruins of Pachacamac -- Mausoleum of

Cuelap -- Gran-Chimú -- Huaca of Misa -- Temple of the Sun

-- Remains on the Island of Titicaca -- Chavin de Huanta

-- Huanuco el Viejo --Cuzco -- Monuments of Tiahuanaco --

Island of Coati 791

[Illustration: NATIVE RACE OF THE PACIFIC STATES SHOWING THE

LOCATION OF ANCIENT MONUMENTS]

THE NATIVE RACES

OF THE

PACIFIC STATES.

ANTIQUITIES.

CHAPTER I.

ARCHÆOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION.

MONUMENTAL ARCHÆOLOGY -- SCOPE OF THE VOLUME -- TREATMENT

OF THE SUBJECT -- SOURCES OF INFORMATION -- TANGIBILITY OF

MATERIAL RELICS -- VAGUENESS OF TRADITIONAL AND WRITTEN

ARCHÆOLOGY -- VALUE OF MONUMENTAL RELICS, AS CONVEYING

POSITIVE INFORMATION RESPECTING THEIR BUILDERS, AS

CORROBORATIVE OR CORRECTIVE WITNESSES, AS INCENTIVES TO

RESEARCH -- COUNTERFEIT ANTIQUITIES -- EGYPTIAN, ASSYRIAN,

AND PERSIAN MONUMENTS -- RELICS PROVING THE ANTIQUITY OF

MAN -- EXPLORATION OF AMERICAN RUINS -- KEY TO CENTRAL

AMERICAN HIEROGLYPHICS -- NO MORE UNWRITTEN HISTORY.

[Sidenote: TREATMENT OF THE SUBJECT.]

The present volume of the NATIVE RACES OF THE PACIFIC STATES treats of

monumental archæology, and is intended to present a detailed

description of all material relics of the past discovered within the

territory under consideration. Two chapters, however, are devoted to a

more general view of remains outside the limits of this

territory--those of South America and of the eastern United States--as

being illustrative of, and of inseparable interest in connection with,

my subject proper. Since monumental remains in the western continent

without the broad limits thus included are comparatively few and

unimportant, I may without exaggeration, if the execution of the work

be in any degree commensurate with its aim, claim for this treatise a

place among the most complete ever published on American antiquities

as a whole. Indeed, Mr Baldwin's most excellent little book on Ancient

America is the only comprehensive work treating of this subject now

before the public. As a popular treatise, compressing within a small

duodecimo volume the whole subject of archæology, including, besides

material relics, tradition, and speculation concerning origin and

history as well, this book cannot be too highly praised; I propose,

however, by devoting a large octavo volume to one half or less of Mr

Baldwin's subject-matter, to add at least encyclopedic value to this

division of my work.

There are some departments of the present subject in which I can

hardly hope to improve upon or even to equal descriptions already

extant. Such are the ruins of Yucatan, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, so

ably treated by Messrs Stephens, Catherwood, and Squier. Indeed, not a

few relics of great importance are known to the world only through the

pen or pencil of one or another of these gentlemen, in which cases I

am forced to draw somewhat largely upon the result of their

investigations. Yet even within the territory mentioned, concerning

Uxmal and Chichen Itza we have most valuable details in the works of

M. M. Waldeck and Charnay; at Quirigua, Dr Scherzer's labors are no

less satisfactory than those of Mr Catherwood; and Mr Squier's careful

observations in Nicaragua are supplemented, to the advantage of the

antiquarian public, by the scarcely less extensive investigations of

Mr Boyle. In the case of Palenque, in some respects the most

remarkable American ruin, we have, besides the exhaustive delineations

of Waldeck and Stephens, several others scarcely less satisfactory or

interesting from the pens of competent observers; and in a large

majority of instances each locality, if not each separate relic, has

been described from personal examination by several parties, each

noting some particulars by the others neglected. By a careful study

and comparison of information drawn from all available sources

respecting the several points, the witnesses mutually corroborating or

correcting one another's statements, I expect to arrive in each case

practically at the truth, and thus to compensate in a measure for that

loss of interest inevitably incurred by the necessary omission of that

personal experience and adventure by which antiquarian travelers are

wont to impart a charm to their otherwise dry details.

Although necessarily to a great extent a compilation, this volume is

none the less the result of hard and long-continued study. It embodies

the researches of some five hundred travelers, stated not merely en

résumé, but reproduced, so far as facts and results are concerned, in

full. Very few of the many works studied are devoted exclusively or

even chiefly to my subject; indeed most of them have but an occasional

reference to antiquarian relics, which are described more or less

fully among other objects of interest that come under the traveler's

eye; hence the possibility of condensing satisfactorily the contents

of so many volumes in one, and of making this one fill on the shelves

of the antiquary's library the place of all, excepting, of course, the

large plates of the folio works. Full references to, and quotations

from, the authorities consulted are given in the notes, which thus

become a complete index to all that has been written on the subject.

These notes contain also bibliographical notices and historical

details of the discovery and successive explorations of each ruin, and

other information not without interest and value. That some few books

containing archæological information may have escaped my notice, is

quite possible, but none I believe of sufficient importance to

seriously impair the value of the material here presented. In order to

give a clear idea of the great variety of articles preserved from the

past for our examination, the use of numerous illustrations becomes

absolutely essential. Of the cuts employed many are the originals

taken from the published works of explorers, particularly of Messrs

Stephens and Squier, with their permission. As I make no claim to

personal archæological research, save among the tomes on the shelves

of my library, and as the imparting of accurate information is my only

aim, the advantage of the original cuts over any copies that could be

made, will be manifest to the reader. Where such originals could not

be obtained I have made accurate copies of drawings carefully selected

from what I have deemed the best authorities, always with a view to

give the clearest possible idea of the objects described, and with no

attempt at mere pictorial embellishment.

Confining myself strictly to the description of material remains, I

have omitted, or reserved for another volume, all traditions and

speculations of a general nature respecting their origin and the

people whose handiwork they are, giving, however, in some instances,

such definite traditions as seem unlikely to come up in connection

with ancient history. This is in accordance with the general plan

which I adopt in treating of the Native Races of this western half of

North America, proceeding from the known to the unknown, from the near

to the remote; dealing first with the observed phenomena of aboriginal

savagism and civilization when first brought within the knowledge of

Europeans, as I have done in the three volumes already before the

public; then entering the labyrinthine field of antiquity from its

least obstructed side, I devote this volume to material relics

exclusively, thus preparing the way for a final volume on traditional

and written archæology, to terminate with what most authors have given

at the start,--the vaguest and most hopelessly complicated department

of the whole subject,--speculations respecting the origin of the

American people and of the western civilization.

In the descriptions which follow I proceed geographically from south

to north for no reason more cogent than that of convenience. From the

same motive, much more weighty however in this case, I follow the same

order in my comparisons between remains in different parts of the

continent, comparing invariably each ruin with others farther south

and consequently familiar to the reader, rather than with more

northern structures to be described later. It is claimed by some

writers that the term antiquities is properly used only to designate

the works of a people extinct or only traditionally known. This

restriction of the term would exclude most of the monumental remains

of the Pacific States, since a large majority of the objects described

in the following pages are known to have been the work of the peoples

found by Europeans in possession of the country, or of their immediate

ancestors. I employ the term, however, in its more common application,

including in it all the works of aboriginal hands presumably executed

before native intercourse with Europeans, at dates varying

consequently with that of the discovery of different localities.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: REALITY OF MATERIAL RELICS.]

Monumental archæology, as distinguished from written and traditional

archæology, owes its interest largely to its reality and tangibility.

The teachings of material relics, so far as they go, are irrefutable.

Real in themselves they impart an air of reality to the study of the

past. They stand before us as the actual work of human hands,

affording no foothold for scepticism; they are the balance-wheels of

tradition, resting-places for the mind wearied with the study of

aboriginal fable, stepping-stones on which to cross the miry sloughs

of mythic history. The ruins of a great city represent and recall

vividly its original state and the populace that once thronged its

streets; the towering mound or pyramid brings before the observer's

mind toiling bands of slaves driven to their unwelcome task by strong

progressive masters; temples and idols are but remnants of religious

systems, native fear, superstition, and faith; altars imply victims

and sacrificial ceremonies; sculpture, the existence of art; kingly

palaces are the result of a strong government, wars, and conquest;

sepulchral deposits reveal thoughts of another life; and hieroglyphic

inscriptions, even if their key be lost, imply events deemed worthy of

record, and a degree of progress toward letters.

What the personal souvenir is to the memory of dead friends, what the

ancestral mansion with its portraits and other relics is to family

memories and pride of descent, what the ancient battle-ground with the

monument commemorating early struggles for liberty is to national

patriotism, what the familiar hill, valley, stream, and tree to

recollection and love of home,--all this and more are material relics

to the study of ages gone by. Destroy such relics in the case of the

individual, the family, and the nation, and imagine the effect on our

interest in a past, which is, however, in nearly every instance

clearly recorded. What would be the consequence of blotting from

existence the ruins that stand as monuments of a past but vaguely

known even in the most favorable circumstances through the medium of

traditionary and written annals? Traditional archæology, fascinating

as its study is and important in its results, leaves always in the

mind a feeling of uncertainty, a fear that any particular tradition

may be in its present form, modified willfully or involuntarily in

passing through many hands, a distortion of the original, or perhaps a

pure invention; or if intact in form its primary signification may be

altogether misunderstood. And even in the case of written annals, more

definite and reliable of course than oral traditions, we cannot forget

that back beyond a certain time impossible to locate in the distant

past, history founds its statements of events on no more substantial

basis than popular fable.

[Sidenote: COUNTERFEIT ANTIQUITIES.]

It is true that false reports may be made respecting the discovery or

nature of ruined cities and other monuments; and relics may be

collected and exhibited which have no claim whatever to antiquity.

Indeed it is said that in some parts of Spanish America, Aztec,

Chichimec, or Toltec relics, of any desired era since the creation,

are manufactured to order by the ingenious natives and sold to the

enthusiastic but unwary antiquarian. To similar imposition and like

enthusiasm may be referred the long list of Roman, Greek,

Scandinavian, Tyrian, and other old-world coins, medals, and

inscriptions, whose discovery in the New World from time to time has

been reported, and used in support of some pet origin-theory. Yet

practically these counterfeit or fabulous antiquities do little harm;

their falsity may in most cases be without difficulty detected, as

will be apparent from several instances of the kind noted in the

following pages. There are, as I have said, few ruins of any

importance that have not been described by more than one competent and

reliable explorer. The discovery of wonderful cities and palaces, or

of movable relics which differ essentially from the well-authenticated

antiquities of the same region, is not accepted by archæologists, or

by the public generally, without more positive proof of genuineness

than the representations of a single traveler whose reliability has

not been fully proved.

* * * * *

The study of ancient monuments, in addition to its high degree of

interest, is moreover of great practical value in the development of

historical science, as a source of positive information, as a

corroboration of annals otherwise recorded, and as an incentive to

continued research. It contributes to actual knowledge by indicating

the various arts that flourished among the peoples of antiquity, the

germs of the corresponding arts of modern times. The monuments show

not alone the precise degree of excellence in architecture and

sculpture attained by the particular people whose work they are, but

by an examination of their differences they throw much light on the

origin and growth of these and other arts, while by comparison with

the works of other peoples better known they serve to establish more

or less clearly national affinities. And not only do they illustrate

the state of the fine and useful arts, but also to a great extent

public institutions and private customs. Temples, idols, and altars

reveal much of religious rites and priestly power; weapons, of

warfare; implements, of household habits; ornaments, of dress; tombs

and sepulchral relics, of burial ceremonies, regard for the dead, and

ideas respecting another life. When, in addition to their indirect

teachings respecting the arts and institutions of their builders,

antique monuments bear also inscriptions in written or legible

hieroglyphic characters, their value is of course greatly increased;

indeed under such circumstances they become the very highest historic

authority.

It is, however, in connection with the other branches of the science,

written and traditional, that material relics accomplish their most

satisfactory results, their corroborative evidence being even more

valuable than the positive information they convey. For instance,

tradition relates wondrous tales of the wealth, power, and mighty

deeds of a people that long ago occupied what is now a barren desert

or a dense forest. These tales are classed with other aboriginal

fables, interesting but comparatively valueless; but some wandering

explorer, by chance or as the result of an apparently absurd and

profitless research, discovers in the shade of the tangled thicket, or

lays bare under the drifting desert-sands, the ruins of a great city

with magnificent palace and temple; at once the mythic fable is

transformed into authentic history, especially if the traditional

statements of that people's arts and institutions are confirmed by

their relics.

Again, the written record of biblical tradition, unsatisfactory to

some, when not supported by corroborative evidence, narrates with

minute detail the history of an ancient city, including its conquest

at a given date by a foreign king. The discovery in another land of

that monarch's statue or triumphal arch, inscribed with his name,

title, and a list of his deeds, confirms or invalidates the scriptural

account not only of that particular event but indirectly of other

details of the city's annals not recorded in stone. In America

material relics acquire increased importance as corroborative and

corrective witnesses, in comparison with those of the old world, from

the absence of contemporary written annals. Beside constituting the

only tangible supports of the more ancient triumphs of American

civilization, they are the best illustrations of comparatively modern

stages of art whose products have disappeared, and by no means

superfluous in support of Spanish chroniclers in later times, "very

many, or perhaps most of whose statements respecting the wonderful

phenomena of the New World culture," as I have remarked in a preceding

volume, "without this incontrovertible material proof would find few

believers among the sceptical students of the present day."

* * * * *

[Sidenote: IMPORTANCE OF MATERIAL RELICS.]

The importance of monumental remains as incentives to historical study

and research results directly from the interest and curiosity which

their examination invariably excites. Gibbon relates that he was first

prompted to write the annals of Rome's decline and fall by the

contemplation of her ruined structures. Few even of the most prosaic

and matter-of-fact travelers can resist the impulse to reason and

speculate on the origin of ruins that come under their notice, and the

civilization to which they owe their existence; and there are probably

few eminent archæologists but may trace the first development of a

taste for antiquarian pursuits to the curiosity excited at the sight

of some mysterious relic.

This irresistible desire to follow back remains of art to the artist's

hand and genius, prompted the oft-repeated and so long fruitless

attempts to decipher the Egyptian hieroglyphics and the cuneiform

inscriptions of Persia and Assyria. These efforts were at last crowned

with success; the key to the mysterious wedges, and the Rosetta-stone

were found, by which the tablets of Babylon, Ninevah, and the

pyramids--the Palenque, Copan, and Teotihuacan of the old world--may

be read. The palaces, monuments, and statues of ancient kings bear

legible records of their lives, dominions, and succession. By the aid

of these records definite dates are established for events in the

history of these countries as early as two thousand years before the

Christian era, and thus corroborations and checks are placed on the

statements of biblical and profane history. But the art of

interpreting these hieroglyphics is yet in its infancy, and the

results thus far accomplished are infinitesimal in comparison with

what may be reasonably anticipated in the future.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: THE ANTIQUITY OF THE HUMAN RACE.]

So much for antique monuments and their teachings--alone and in

connection with history and tradition--respecting the peoples to whom

they owe their existence. Another and not less important value they

have, in connection with geology and paleontology, in what they tell

us about the age of the human race on the earth. Biblical tradition,

as interpreted in former times, asserts the earth and its inhabitants

to be about six thousand years old. Geology has enforced a new

interpretation, which, so far as the age of the earth is concerned, is

accepted by all latter-day scholars; and geology now lends a helping

hand to her sister sciences in their effort to prove, what is not yet

universally accepted as truth, that man's antiquity far exceeds the

limit which scripture is thought to establish.

Throughout the successive geologic strata of earthy matter that

overlie the solid rocky foundations below, traces of man's presence are

found. It is in deposits of peat and alluvium that these traces are

most clearly defined and with greatest facility studied. The extremely

slow accumulation of these deposits and the great depth at which human

remains appear, impress the mind of the observer with a vivid idea of

their antiquity. Calculations based on the known rate of increase for

a definite period fix the age of the lowest relics at from six

thousand to one hundred thousand years according to the locality. But

geology tells yet no definite tale in years, her chronology being on a

grander scale, and these calculations are to scientific men the

weakest proofs of man's antiquity. As we penetrate, however, this

superficial geologic formation, we find in the upper layers weapons

and implements of iron; then, at a greater depth, of bronze; and

lowest of all stone is the only durable material employed. In all

parts of the world, so far as explorations have been made, this order

of the ages, stone, bronze, iron, is observed; although they were

certainly not contemporaneous in all regions. With the products of

human skill, in its varying stages of development, are mingled the

fossil trees and plants of different species which flourished and

became locally extinct as the centuries passed away. So animal

remains, no less abundant than the others, indicate successive changes

in the fauna and its relations to human life, the animals pursued at

different epochs for food, the introduction of domestic animals, and

the transition from the chase to agriculture as a means of

subsistence.

From a study of all these various relics of the past--human, animal,

and vegetable--in connection with geologic changes, the student seeks

to estimate approximately the date at which man first appeared upon

the earth. He observes the slow accumulation of surface deposits and

speculates on the time requisite to bury the works of man hundreds of

feet deep in dilluvium. He studies savagism in its different phases as

portrayed in a previous volume; notes how tenaciously the primitive

man clings to old customs, how averse he is to change and improvement;

and then reflects upon the centuries that would probably suffice for

beings only a little above the beast to pass successively from the use

of the shapeless stone and club to the polished stone spear and arrow

and knife, to the partial displacement of stone by the fragment of

crude metal, to the smelting of the less refractory ores and the

mixture of metals to form bronze, and to a final triumph in the use of

iron. He reflects farther that all this slow process of development

precedes in nearly every part of the world the historic period; that

its relics are found in the alluvial plains of the Nile, buried far

below the monuments of Egyptian civilization, a civilization,

moreover, which dates back at least two thousand years before Christ.

Searching the peat-beds of Denmark, he brings to light fossil Scotch

firs in the lower strata mingled with relics of the stone age;

oak-trees above with implements of bronze; and beech-trunks in the

upper deposits, corresponding with the iron age and also with the

present forest-growth of the country. He tries to fix upon a period of

years adequate to effect two complete changes in Danish forest-trees,

bringing to his aid the fact that about the Christian era the Romans

found that country covered as now with a luxurious growth of beech,

and that consequently eighteen hundred years have wrought no change.

Having thus established in his mind the epoch to which he must be

carried by the relics of the alluvial deposits, he remarks that during

all this period climate has not essentially changed, for the animal

remains thus far discovered are all of species still existing in the

same climatic zone.

But at the same time he finds in southern Europe abundant remains of

polar animals which could only have lived when the everlasting snow

and ice of a frigid clime covered the surface of those now sunny

lands. Still finding rude stone implements, the work of human hands,

mingled with these polar skeletons, he adds to the result of previous

computations the time deemed necessary for so essential a climatic

transformation, and, finally, he is driven to make still another

addition, when he learns that in geologic strata much older than any

yet considered, the bones and works of man have been discovered in

several apparently well-authenticated instances lying side by side

with the bones of mastodons and other ancient species which have long

since disappeared from the face of the earth. With the innumerable

data of which the foregoing is only an outline before him, the student

of man's antiquity is left to decide for himself whether or not he can

satisfactorily compress within the term of sixty centuries all the

successive periods of man's development.

In our examination of relics in the thinly peopled Pacific States we

shall find comparatively few works of human hands bearing directly on

this branch of archæology; yet in the north-west regions, newest to

modern civilization, the Californian miner's deep-sunk shafts have

brought to light implements and fossils of great antiquity and

interest to the scientific world.

* * * * *

[Sidenote: AMERICAN RELICS AND HIEROGLYPHICS.]

In America many years must elapse before explorations equaling in

extent and thoroughness those already made in the old world can be

hoped for. The ruins from whose examination the grandest results are

to be anticipated lie in a hot malarious climate within the tropics,

enveloped in a dense thicket of exuberant vegetation, presenting an

almost impenetrable barrier to an exploration by foreigners of

monuments in which the natives as a rule take no interest. It must be

admitted, however, that even the most exhaustive examination of our

relics cannot be expected to yield results as definite and

satisfactory as those reached in the eastern continent. We have

practically no written record, and our monuments must tell the tale of

the distant past unaided.

Our hieroglyphic inscriptions are comparatively few and brief, and

those found on the stones of the more ancient class of ruins as yet

convey no meaning. By reason of the absence of a contemporary written

language, the difficulties in the way of their interpretation are

clearly much greater than those so brilliantly overcome in Assyria and

Egypt. Only one systematic attempt has yet been made to decipher their

signification, and that has thus far proved a signal failure; it is

believed almost universally that future efforts will be equally

unsuccessful, and that our annals as written in stone will forever

remain wrapped in darkness. Yet not only was the interpretation of the

cuneiform inscriptions long deemed an impossibility, but the very

theory that any meaning was hidden in that complicated arrangement of

wedges was pronounced absurd by many wise antiquaries. Let not

therefore our New World task be abandoned in despair till the list of

failures shall be swollen from one to seventy times seven.

It is believed that the antiquary's zeal for all coming time will be

brought to bear on no other objects than those which now claim our

attention and search; that is, although new monuments will be brought

to light from their present hiding-places, no additions will be made

to their actual number. With the invention of printing and the

consequent wide diffusion of national annals, the era of unwritten

history ceased, and with it all future necessity of searching tangled

forest and desert plain for monumental records of the present

civilization. That the key of our written history can ever be lost,

our civilization blotted out, ruined structures and vague traditions

called anew into requisition for historic use, we believe impossible.

Yet who can tell; for so doubtless thought the learned men and

high-priests of Palenque, when with imposing pageant and sacrificial

invocation to the gods in the presence of the assembled populace, the

inscribed tablets had been set up in the niches of the temple; and

proudly exclaimed the orator of the day, as the last tablet settled

into its place, "Great are our gods, and goodly the inheritance they

have bequeathed to their chosen people. Mighty is Votan, world-wide

the fame of his empire, the great Xibalba; and the annals and the

glory thereof shall endure through all the coming ages; for are they

not here imperishably inscribed in characters of everlasting stone

that all may read and wonder?"