PREHISTORIC RUINS.
“Thou unrelenting Past!
Strong are the barriers round thy dark domain--
And fetters strong and fast,
Hold all within thy unbreathing reign.
“Far in thy realm withdrawn,
Old empires sit in sullenness and gloom;
And glorious ages gone,
Lie deep within the shadow of thy womb.
“Full many a mighty name
Lurks in thy depths, unuttered, unrevealed;
With thee are silent fame,
Forgotten arts, and wisdom disappeared.”
What strange people first entered this land? Who built these stupendous
monuments? Whence did they come and whither did they go? And what
characters are these engraved on walls which no man can read? And what
catastrophe removed from the continent every single inhabitant of a
gifted race? And why do we strive so hard to lift the veil which for so
long has guarded these strange portals?
Every man who has looked upon these speechless but eloquent landmarks of
these vanished races feels a burning desire to know more of them. To
the curious and inquisitive, Mexico offers an endless field, and a few
of these most noted ruins will be mentioned here.
The pyramid of Cholula, covering forty-four acres of ground, has already
been mentioned. On Lake Texcoco stood the ancient city of Texcoco, and
here have been found the foundations of three great pyramids, built of
adobe and burnt brick. Sculptured blocks with finely chiseled bas
reliefs have also been found. Three miles from Texcoco is a group of
ruins called the Hill of Tezcocingo. The hill is very regular in outline
and rises to the height of six hundred feet. The most noted part of this
hill is the aqueduct which supplied it with water. The embankment which
leads the aqueduct from the mountain is from sixty to two hundred feet
high. The canals which brought the water are cemented with mortar mixed
with pounded brick. Thirty miles from the capital are the ruins of
Teotihuacan, “The City of the Gods.” Here are two immense pyramids
dedicated to the Sun and Moon. The one to the Sun is seven hundred and
sixty feet square and two hundred and sixteen feet high, with three
terraces, the one to the Moon is one hundred and fifty feet high.
Between them is a paved road one hundred and thirty feet wide. There are
a number of smaller pyramids dedicated to the stars and the whole valley
for six miles is strewn with relics.
On the Mexican Central Railroad, sixty miles from the city, is the town
of Tula, or Tollan as it was called by the Toltecs. This was their
ancient capital and is covered with ruins. There are two pyramids,
probably dedicated to the Sun and Moon. One is one hundred and ninety
six feet square and forty-six feet high, and the other one hundred and
thirty one feet square and thirty-one feet high, and both rest upon
raised foundations. The hillside for a mile has evidences of buildings
made from adobe, brick and cut stone. At Queretaro, it was found that
all the projecting points were made strong by ditches, walls and
embankments. Bancroft in his “Native Races” says that at Canoas there is
a fortified hill with forty-five defensive works, including a wall forty
feet high, and a rectangular platform with an area of five thousand
square feet.
At Quemada in the state of Zacatecas is said to be a hill whose every
approach is guarded by walls of stone, with paved roads for many miles
surrounding it. On top of the hill was a citadel, guarded by a wall
twenty feet high and nine feet thick. To the south of Cholula are the
ruins of Xochicalco, the “Hill of Flowers,” said to be the finest ruins
in Mexico. The hill is a natural one rising nearly four hundred feet and
having a circumference of nearly three miles. The hill was surrounded by
a wide ditch and terraced to the top. Five of these terraces wind around
the hill, and are paved with stone laid in mortar, and supported by
perpendicular walls of stone. The top of the hill was leveled to an area
of two hundred and eighty-five by three hundred and twenty-eight feet,
upon which was a pyramid five stories high. The neighboring farmers have
been using it as a stone-quarry, but there yet remain some fine
specimens of chiseled bas-relief. These huge masses of porphyry were cut
by people unacquainted with the use of iron, and as one sculptured
block is eight feet long and three feet broad, and was carried nearly
four hundred feet up the mound, we can appreciate the labor involved.
There is no stone in this neighborhood, and yet the whole of this hill,
three miles in circumference, is cased in stone. What a warlike
neighborhood this must have been to require such fortification!
At Monte Alban is another group of a similar kind. At the summit of the
hill is a platform half a mile wide, literally covered with sculptured
stone. Mr. Bandelier considers this the most precious remains of
aboriginal work on the continent. In the state of Oaxaca are the
celebrated ruins of Mitla, built by a different people from the others.
Besides the two mounds, Mr. Bandelier found the remains of thirty-nine
buildings, most of which were built of stone. Huge blocks of stone were
used and covered with a facing in which were traced peculiar geometrical
designs. The columns are huge stone pillars without chapter or base.
Mitla is an isolated spot with the pall of the tomb around it, except
for the Zapotec Indians who live near. At Guingola in the same state is
a fortified hill and a ruined settlement. In the state of Vera Cruz on
the Panuco river Mr. Norman found twenty mounds and the ruins of a great
city now covered by a forest. Cortez found this place inhabited by
Totonac Indians whose traditions knew nothing of the ruins. The largest
mound covers two acres, and was faced with stone 18 inches square. From
the sculptures and inscriptions it was probably the work of the Mayas.
The Smithsonian Report of 1873, page 373, says: “There is hardly a foot
of ground in the state of Vera Cruz, in which, by excavation, either a
broken obsidian knife or a piece of pottery is not found.” The Mayas
here probably made their last stand against the invading Nahuas, who
also had to retreat before the advancing Totonacs. The ruins around
Orizaba and Jalapa belong to this class. At Papantla is a pyramid ninety
feet square and seven stories high, built solid, with a stairway leading
to the top. Also at Tuscapam is another pyramid and the remains of many
other buildings. When the country is fully explored, there will probably
be as many more found as are already known.
One of the latest discoveries happened while I was in Mexico in 1896,
and was by a Cuban, Mr. G. M. Moliner, who lives in the city of Mexico.
He spent four years in Egypt, and for ten years has studied archæology
in America. He has a sword which he found in Mexico and which he claims
is coeval with the time of the Phoenicians. It is of copper and weighed
eight pounds when discovered, and the scabbard four. The characters on
one side he describes as Persian, and on the other as Phoenician. The
inscription “_Tai Abracadabra_” was pointed out to a representative of
the Mexican Herald, and the symbols of the gnostic beasts, the man, the
eagle and the dragon, and the blade represents the bull’s tongue. He has
also discovered a curio of copper, representing episodes in the history
of the mound-builders as he claims, showing the city of the sun, figures
of warriors, the conquering race armed with swords and oval shields, and
bearing the insignia of the wolf’s head, while the conquered race is
armed with battle axes and fire poles, and have the insignia of a
bird’s claw. When he discovered this piece of copper, he also discovered
what he calls the missing link between the past and present. It is a
piece of jet black marble about ten inches square and polished as smooth
as glass.
Mr. Moliner claims that this stone contains an epitome of the
prehistoric race and the link that connects them to Asia. This missing
link is the imprint of the head of Hermes, found in one corner of the
lustrous black marble. This design is about two inches square, and
though the marble is half an inch thick, the impression is on both
sides. He claims that the design was painted and imbedded by discoloring
acids. He has had the stone photographed and the study of the photograph
is most interesting. The room must be darkened and only a little light
must reach it. He explained that the ancient priests did this painting
in the dark, through green obsidian glasses, and it must be viewed under
similar conditions. Looking at the photograph in full light, it
presented an enlarged representation of the alleged head of Hermes as
found on the marble. When the room was darkened and the full glare of
the light shone on it through green glasses, the photograph had the
appearance of burnished silver. By shifting the photograph, caves and
rocks would appear, and by another shifting appeared the outlines of a
building with towers and turrets on the crest of a rock, showing a
building of archaic architecture such as is seen in ancient biblical
illustrations. Mr. Moliner declares this to be the ancient Chapultepec.
By another shifting of the light, the head of Hermes appeared with five
component parts, to wit: the sacred Maya stone, the sacrificial knife,
the imperial diadem, and the mask and artificial snout found in Mexico
by the conquerors, the last three being in use by the Aztecs from time
immemorial. From the upper part of this head of Hermes rose a trinity of
faces, more or less distinct, one looking straight ahead, and the other
two right and left.
One of the oldest of religious trinities is that of Hermes, and Mr.
Moliner claims that his discovery is similar to the symbol in the Louvre
in Paris. The head of Hermes as found in the Louvre is on white marble,
a slab eight feet high, and underneath it the inscription “Hermes from
the Pelagic Times.”
The foregoing descriptions have been of ruins of the Nahuatl tribes; we
will now turn to those of the Mayas where
“Antiquity appears to have begun
Long after their primeval race was run.”
The city of Copan, in Honduras near the Guatemala line, claims to be the
oldest city in America. What must be the feelings of the traveler as he
gropes through a tropical forest and comes face to face with this huge
structure? First there is a terrace eight hundred and nine feet one way
and six hundred and twenty-four feet the other way, seventy-six feet
high and containing twenty-six million cubic feet of stone, brought from
a quarry two miles away. On the terrace were four pyramids, the largest
rising one hundred and seventy-two feet, and surmounted by two huge
trees rooted in its mold. Within these ruins were found fourteen
statues, the largest thirteen feet four inches tall, and all covered
with bas reliefs and hieroglyphics whose workmanship was equal to that
on the Egyptian pyramids. In front of the statues stand huge altars six
feet square, divided into thirty-six tablets of hieroglyphics which tell
to the world their history, but they speak in an unknown tongue, and we
do not know whether these are the emblems of a Mayan pantheon or the
relics from the palace of pre-Adamic man. Everywhere is a dark mystery
which has baffled the scholars of the world for these three hundred
years. The curtain falls, the traveler returns, and the æons begin again
their cycles around mysterious Copan.
North of Copan is the hamlet of Quiriga, with ruins similar to those of
Copan, made of cut sandstone. Mr. Catherton found eight standing
statues, one fallen, and the fragments of thirteen more. The
hieroglyphics are similar to those of Copan, but the statues are two or
three times as tall. No people have ever been found with any tradition
whatever concerning these mysterious ruins. Throughout Yucatan and
Guatemala are ruins and inscriptions, but the people and their
traditions have been swallowed up by oblivion. Northward out of
Guatemala in the state of Chiapas in Mexico is Palenque, the sphinx and
Mecca of Central America. This is a fertile, productive country, which
was deserted and covered with ruins when Cortez landed. This old
deserted city covers more than a mile. The pyramid, according to Mr.
Stephens’ measurement at the base was 310 by 260 feet, and was cased in
stone, now thrown down by the growth of trees. In one room of the
temple was found a stone tablet four feet long and three feet broad,
and sculptured in bas relief. It is set in the wall and around it is a
stucco border, but its significance is unknown. The principal figure is
carved with a necklace of pearls around the neck, and suspended from the
pearls is a medallion containing a face. Rising from the center of the
ruins is a tower thirty feet square with a staircase. Southwest of the
palace is the pyramid called the “Temple of Inscriptions,” whose slope
was 110 feet of solid masonry. Each of the corner pieces contained on
its surface hieroglyphics, each of which contained 96 squares.
In Uxmal are ruins that rival Palenque and are the most interesting of
any in Yucatan. There are so many, we will mention only one, and give
the dimensions on the authority of Bancroft. The pyramid is 350 feet
square at the base and surmounts a quadrangle of buildings. The building
on the south is 279 feet long, 28 feet wide and 18 feet high. The one on
the north is 264 feet long, 28 feet wide and 25 feet high. The eastern
one is 158 feet long, 35 feet wide and 22 feet high and the western one
173 feet long, 35 feet wide and 20 feet high. These buildings contained
76 rooms all facing an open court 214 by 258 feet. The walls are
massive, of solid rock and 9 feet thick, and the floors were cemented.
The most attractive part of the whole building is the beautiful facades
which cover 24,000 feet of surface and are pronounced the finest of
native American art. The major trend of the facade is diamond lattice
work, with the turtle, serpent and elephant’s trunk alternating. The
terrace which supported this building contained 60,000 cubic yards of
material. The walls were of massive masonry, and the sculpture is truly
artistic, and yet these people knew not the use of metallic tools.
Here was enacted the greatest tragedy that history has ever recorded. At
these altars unnumbered priests waved their censers in the worship of
Quetzacoatl, the nature god of the Mayas, and now their cities are
overgrown by a tropical forest and are lost to the world, which knows
neither their name nor location, and it was by the merest accident that
we know of their very existence. Nepenthe rules here supreme. A tropical
forest has overgrown their pyramids and trees nine feet in diameter now
close the entrance to their temples, and nine feet of vegetable mold now
cover the altars where sacerdotal processions performed their mysterious
rites probably while Cheops was building.
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