It has been said, very justly, by one explorer of the Mexican and
Central American ruins, that "the American monuments are different from
those of any other known people, of a new order, and entirely and
absolutely anomalous; they stand alone." The more we study them, the
more we find it necessary to believe that the civilization they
represent was originated in America, and probably in the region where
they are found. It did not come from the Old World; it was the work of
some remarkably gifted branch of the race found on the southern part of
this continent when it was discovered in 1492. Undoubtedly it was very
old. Its original beginning may have been as old as Egypt, or even
farther back in the past than the ages to which Atlantis must be
referred; and it may have been later than the beginning of Egypt. Who
can certainly tell its age? Whether earlier or later, it was original.
Its constructions seem to have been a refined and artistic development
of a style of building different from that of any other people, which
began with ruder forms, but in all the periods of its history preserved
the same general conception. They show us the idea of the Mound-Builders
wrought out in stone and embellished by art. The decorations, and the
writing also, are wholly original. There is no imitation of the work of
any people ever known in Asia, Africa, or Europe. It appears evident
that the method of building seen in the great ruins began with the ruder
forms of mound-work, and became what we find it by gradual development,
as the advancing civilization supplied new ideas and gave higher skill.
But the culture and the work were wholly original, wholly American.
The civilized life of the ancient Mexicans and Central Americans may
have had its original beginning somewhere in South America, for they
seem more closely related to the ancient South Americans than to the
wild Indians north of the Mexican border; but the peculiar development
of it represented by the ruins must have begun in the region where they
are found. I find myself more and more inclined to the opinion that the
aboriginal South Americans are the oldest people on this continent; that
they are distinct in race; and that the wild Indians of the North came
originally from Asia, where the race to which they belong seems still
represented by the Koraks and Chookchees found in that part of Asia
which extends to Behring's Strait.
If, as there is reason to believe, the countries on the Mediterranean
had communication with America in very ancient times, they found here a
civilization already developed, and contributed nothing to change its
style of building and decorating cities. They may have influenced it in
other respects; for, if such communication was opened across the
Atlantic, it was probably continued for a long time, and its
interruption may or may not be due, as Brasseur de Bourbourg supposes,
to the cataclysm which ingulfed Atlantis. Religious symbols are found
in the American ruins which remind us of those of the Phoenicians,
such as figures of the serpent, which appear constantly, and the cross,
supposed by some to represent the mounting of the magnetic needle, which
was among the emblems peculiar to the goddess Astarte. A figure appears
occasionally in the sculptures, in which some have sought to recognize
Astarte, one at Palenque being described as follows: "It is a female
figure moulded in stucco, holding a child on her left arm and hand, just
as Astarte appears on the Sidonian medals." I find it impossible to see
that this figure has any resemblance whatever to the Phoenician
goddess. They are not alike either in dress, posture, or expression.
Dupaix describes it correctly in saying it represents a person
apparently "absorbed in devotion"--a worshiper, and not a goddess.
Moreover, Astarte usually appears on the medals standing on the forward
deck of a vessel, holding a cross with one hand, and pointing forward
with the other. And, finally, this figure seems to represent, not a
woman, but a priest. There was sun-worship in America, and the phallic
ceremonies existed in some places in the time of Cortez. In Asia these
ceremonies and figures of the serpent were usually associated with
sun-worship. Humboldt was sure that these symbols came to America from
the Old World. A more careful study of the subject might have led him to
modify this belief. But, whether we adopt his explanation or some other,
the traditions on both sides of the Atlantic are without meaning unless
it be admitted that there was communication between the two continents
in times of which we have no history.