AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY
Long before the time of Columbus and the Spanish conquest there existed
on the table-land of Mexico two great races or nations, as has already
been shown, both highly civilized, and both akin in language, art, and
religion. Ethnologists and antiquaries are not agreed as to their origin
or the development of their civilization. Many recent critics have held
the theory that there had been a previous people from whom both races
inherited their extinct civilization, this previous race being the
"Toltecs," whom we have repeatedly mentioned in the preceding chapter.
To that previous race some attribute the colossal stonework around
Lake Titicaca, as well as other survivals of long-forgotten culture.
Some would even class them with the "mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley.
Other recent antiquaries, however, while fully admitting the
Aztec-Tescucan civilization to be real and historical, treat the Toltec
theory as partly or entirely mythical. One writer alleges, after the
manner of Max Mueller, that the Toltecs are "simply a personification of
the rays of light" radiating from the Aztec sun-god.
Leaving abstract theories, we shall devote this chapter to the principal
facts of American archeology--especially as regards the races and the
monuments of their long extinct civilizations. Throughout many parts of
both North and South America, and over large areas, the red-skinned
natives continued their generations as their ancestors had done through
untold centuries, scarcely rising above the state of rude, uncultured
sons of the soil living as hunters, trappers, fishers, as had been done
immemorially
When wild in woods the noble savage ran,
as Dryden puts it. But in Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America,
Colombia, and Peru there were men of the original redskin race who had
distinctly attained to civilization for unknown generations before the
time of Columbus. Not only so, but in many centers of wealth and
population the process of social improvement and advance had been
continuous for unrecorded ages; and in certain cases a long extinct
civilization had over-laid a previous civilization still more remotely
extinct. Some works constructed for supplying water, for example, could
only have been applied to that purpose when the climate or geological
conditions were quite different from what they have always been in
historical times!
Who is the red man? Compared in numbers with the yellow man, the white
man, or even the black, he is very unimportant, being only one-tenth as
great as the African race.[12] In American ethnology, however, the red
man is all-important. Primeval men of this race undoubtedly formed the
original stock whence during the centuries were derived all the numerous
tribes of "Indians" found in either North or South America. Throughout
Asia and Africa there is great diversity in type among the races that
are indigenous; but as to America, to quote Humboldt:
[Footnote 12: White or Caucasian 640,000,000, yellow or Mongolian
600,000,000, black or African 200,000,000, red or American 20,000,000.]
The Indians of New Spain [i. e., Mexico] bear a general resemblance
to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. We have the
same swarthy and copper color, straight and smooth hair, small
beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upward toward
the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and expression of
gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and
severe look.
Whence the original red men of America were derived it is impossible to
say. The date is too remote and the data too few. From fossil remains of
human bones, Agassiz estimated a period of at least ten thousand years;
and near New Orleans, beneath four buried forests, a skeleton was found
which was possibly fifty thousand years old. If, therefore, the redskins
branched off from the yellow man, it must have been at a period which
lies utterly beyond historic ken or calculation.
Some recent ethnologists have borrowed the "glacier theory" from the
science of geology, in order to trace the development of civilization
among certain races. In Switzerland and Greenland the signs of the
action of a glacier can be traced and recognized just as we trace the
proofs of the action of water in a dry channel. Visit the front of a
glacier in autumn after the summer heat has made it shrink back, you
will see (1) rounded rocks, as if planed on the top, with (2) a mixed
mass of stones and gravel like a rubbish-heap, scattered on (3) a mass
of clay and sand, containing boulders. The same three tests are
frequently found in countries where there have been no glaciers within
the memory of man.
Such traces, found not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in
northern Germany and Denmark, prove that the mountain mass of
Scandinavia was the nucleus of a huge ice-cap "radiating to a distance
of not less than 1,000 miles, and thick enough to block up with solid
ice the North Sea, the German Ocean, the Baltic, and even the Atlantic
up to the 100-fathom line." In North America the same thing is proved by
similar evidence. A gigantic ice-cap extending from Canada has glaciated
all the minor mountain ranges to the south, sweeping over the whole
continent. The drift and boulders still remain to prove the fact, as far
south as only 15 deg. north of the tropic. A warm oceanic current, like the
Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, would shorten a glacial period. Speaking of
Scotland, one authority states that "if the Gulf Stream were diverted
and the Highlands upheaved to the height of the New Zealand Alps, the
whole country would again be buried under glaciers pushing out into the
seas" on the west and east.
The theory is that as the climate became warmer, the ice-fronts
retreated northward by the shrinking of the glaciers, and therefore the
animals, including man, were able to live farther north. The men of that
very remote period were "Neolithic," and some of the stone monuments are
attributed to them that were formerly called "Druidic." A recent writer
asks; with reference to Stonehenge:
Did Neolithic men slowly coming northward, as the rigors of the
last glacial period abated, domicile here, and build this huge
gaunt temple before they passed farther north, to degrade and
dwindle down into Eskimos wandering the dismal coasts of arctic
seas?
Another writer, with reference to the American ice-sheet, says:
During the second glacial epoch when the great boreal ice-sheet
covered one-half of the North American continent, reaching as far
south as the present cities of Philadelphia and St. Louis, and the
glaciated portions were as unfit for human occupation as the
snow-cap of Greenland is to-day, aggregations of population
clustered around the equatorial zone, because the climatic
conditions were congenial. And inasmuch as civilization, the world
over, clings to the temperate climates and thrives there best, we
are not surprised to learn that communities far advanced in arts
and architecture built and occupied those great cities in Yucatan,
Honduras, Guatemala, and other Central American states, whose
populations once numbered hundreds of thousands.
An approximate date when this civilization was at the acme of its
glory would be about ten thousand years ago. This is established by
observations upon the recession of the existing glacier fronts,
which are known to drop back twelve miles in one hundred years.
With the gradual withdrawal of the glacial ice-sheet the climate
grew proportionately milder, and flora and fauna moved
simultaneously northward. Some emigrants went to South America and
settled there, carrying their customs, arts, ceremonial rites,
hieroglyphs, architecture, etc.; and an immense exodus took place
into Mexico, which ultimately extended westward up the Pacific
coast.
In subsequent epochs when the ice-sheet had withdrawn from large
areas, there were immense influxes of people from Asia via Bering
Strait on the Pacific side, and from northwestern Europe via
Greenland on the Atlantic side. The Korean immigration of the year
544 led to the founding of the Mexican Empire in 1325.
To trace then the gradations of ascent from the native American--called
"Indians" by a blunder of the Great Admiral, as afterward they were
nicknamed "redskins" by the English settlers--to the Mexicans,
Peruvians, or Colombians is a task far beyond our strength. Leaving the
question of race, therefore, we now turn to the antiquarian remains,
especially the architectural.
The prehistoric civilization which was developed to the south of Mexico
is generally known as "Mayan," although the Mayas were undoubtedly akin
to the Aztecs or early Mexicans. The Maya tribes in Yucatan and
Honduras, from abundant evidence, must have risen to a refinement in
prehistoric times, which, in several respects, was superior to that of
the Aztecs. In architecture they were in advance from the earliest ages
not only of the Aztec peoples, but of all the American races.
In Yucatan the Mayas have left some wonderful remains at Mayapan, their
prehistoric capital, and near it at a place called Uxmal which has
become famous from its vast and elaborate structures,[13] evidencing a
knowledge of art and science which had flourished in this region for
centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The chief building in Uxmal
is in pyramidal form, the principal design in the ancient Aztec temples
(as well as those of Chaldea, etc.), consisting of three terraces faced
with hewn stone. The terraces are in length 575, 545, and 360 feet
respectively; with the temple on the summit, 322 feet, and a great
flight of stairs leading to it. The whole building is surrounded by a
belt of richly sculptured figures, above a cornice. At Chichen, also in
Yucatan, there is an area of two miles perimeter entirely covered with
architectural ruins; many of the roofs having apparently consisted of
stone arches, painted in various colors. One building, of peculiar
construction, proves an enigma to all travelers: it is more than ninety
yards long and consists of two parallel walls, each ten yards thick, the
distance between them being also ten yards. It has been conjectured that
the anomalous construction had reference to some public games by which
the citizens amused themselves in that long-forgotten period. Among
other memorials of Mayan architecture in this country is the city of
Tuloom on the east coast, fortified with strong walls and square towers.
A more remarkable "find" in the dense forests of Chiapas, in the same
country, is the city recorded by Stephens and other travelers. It is
near the coast, at the place where Cortes and his Spanish soldiers were
moving about for a considerable time, yet they do not appear to have
ever seen the splendid ruins, or to have at all suspected their
existence. Even if the natives knew, the Spaniards might have found the
toil of forcing a passage through such forests too laborious. The name
of the city which had so long been buried under the tropical vegetation
was quite unknown, nor was there any tradition of it; but when found it
was called "Palenque," from the nearest inhabited village. There were
substantial and handsome buildings with excellent masonry, and in many
cases beautiful sculptures and hieroglyphical figures.
[Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.]
Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is on the site of a prehistoric city
whose name had also become unknown. When building the present town, the
Spaniards utilized the ancient buildings as quarries for good stones.
The larger prehistoric structures are frequently on artificial mounds,
being probably intended for religious or ceremonial purposes. The walls
both within and without are elaborately decorated, sometimes with
symbolic figures. Sometimes officials in ceremonial costumes are seen
apparently performing religious rites. These are often accompanied by
inscriptions in low relief, with the peculiar Mayan characters which
some archeologists call "calculiform hieroglyphs" (_v._ p. 82).
On one of the altar-slabs near Palenque there occurs a sculptured group
of several figures in the act of making offerings to a central
object shaped like the Latin cross. "The Latin, the Greek, and the
Egyptian cross or _tau_ (T) were evidently sacred symbols to this
ancient people, bearing some religious meanings derived from their
own cult."[14]
[Footnote 14: D. G. Brinton.]
The cross occurs frequently, not only in the Mayan sculptures, but also
in the ceremonial of the Aztecs. The Spanish followers of Cortes were
astonished to see this symbol used by these "barbarians," as they called
them. Winsor (i, 195) says that the Mayan cross has been explained to
mean "the four cardinal points, the rain-bringers, the symbol of life
and health"; and again, "the emblem of fire, indeed an ornamental
fire-drill."
Students of architecture find a rudimentary form of the arch occurring
in some of the ruins, notably at Palenque. Two walls are built parallel
to each other, at some distance apart, then at the beginning of the arch
the layers on both sides have the inner stones slightly projecting, each
layer projecting a little more than the previous one, till at a certain
height the stones of one wall are almost touching those of the wall
opposite. Finally, a single flat stone closes in the space between and
completes the arch.
In Honduras, on the banks of the Copan, the Spaniards found a
prehistoric capital in ruins, on an elevated area, surrounded by
substantial walls built of dressed stones, and enclosing large groups of
buildings. One structure is mainly composed of huge blocks of polished
stone. In several houses the whole of the external surface is covered
with elaborate carved designs:
The adjacent soil is covered with sculptured obelisks, pillars, and
idols, with finely dressed stones, and with blocks ornamented with
skilfully carved figures of the characteristic Maya hieroglyphs,
which, could they be deciphered, would doubtless reveal the story
of this strange and solitary city.
In western Guatemala, at Utatla, the ancient capital of the Quiches, a
tribe allied to the Mayas, several pyramids still remain. One is 120
feet high, surmounted by a stone wall, and another is ascended by a
staircase of nineteen steps, each nineteen inches in height.
The literary remains (such as Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, Manuscripts, etc.)
of the Maya and Aztec races are in some respects as vivid a proof of the
extinct civilizations as any of the architectural monuments already
discussed. Both Aztecs and Mayans of Yucatan and Central America used
picture-writing, and sometimes an imperfect form of hieroglyphics. The
most elementary kind was simply a rough sketch of a scene or historical
group which they wished to record. When, for example, Cortes had his
first interview with some messengers sent by Montezuma, one of the
Aztecs was observed sketching the dress and appearance of the Spaniards,
and then completing his picture by using colors. Even in recent times
Indians have recorded facts by pictographs: in Harper's Magazine
(August, 1902) we read that "pictographs and painted rocks to the number
of over 3,000 are scattered all over the United States, from the Dighton
Rock, Massachusetts (_v_. pp. 27, 28), to the Kern River Canyon in
California, and from the Florida Cape to the Mouse River in Manitoba.
The identity of the Indians with their ancient progenitors is further
proved by relics, mortuary customs, linguistic similarities, plants and
vegetables, and primitive industrial and mechanical arts, which have
remained constant throughout the ages." The pictographs of the Kern
River Canyon, according to the same writer, were inscribed on the rocks
there "about five thousand years ago."
A more advanced form of picture-writing is frequently found in the Mayan
and other inscriptions and manuscripts. Two objects are represented,
whose names, when pronounced together, give a sound which suggests the
name to be recorded or remembered. Thus, the name Gladstone may be
expressed in this manner by two pictures, one a laughing face (i. e.,
"happy" or "glad"), the other a rock (i. e., "stone"). It is exactly the
same contrivance that is used to construct the puzzle called a "rebus."
A third form of hieroglyphic was by devising some conventional mark or
symbol to suggest the initial sound of the name to be recorded. Such a
mark or character would be a "letter," in fact; and thus the prehistoric
alphabets were arrived at, not only among the early Mayans of Yucatan,
etc., but among the prehistoric peoples of Asia, as the Chinese, the
Hittites, etc., as well as the primeval Egyptians. Many of the
sculptures in Copan and Palenque to which we have referred contain
pictographs and hieroglyphs. A Spanish Bishop of Yucatan drew up a Mayan
alphabet in order to express the hieroglyphs on monuments and
manuscripts in Roman letters; but much more data are needed before
scholars will read the ancient Mayan-Aztec tongues as they have been
enabled to understand the Egyptian inscriptions or the cuneiform records
of Babylonia. For the American hieroglyphs we still lack a second Young
or Champollion.
There are three famous manuscripts in the Mayan character:
1. The Dresden Codex, preserved in the Royal Library of that city.
It is called a "religious and astrological ritual" by Abbe
Brasseur.
2. Codex Troano, in Madrid, described in two folios by Abbe
Brasseur.
3. Codex Peresianus, named from the wrapper in which it was found,
1859, which had the name "Perez." It is also known as Codex
Mexicanus.
In Lord Kingsborough's great work on Mexican Antiquities there are
several of the Mayan manuscripts printed in facsimile, and others in a
book by M. Aubin, of Paris.
Each group of letters in a Mayan inscription is enclosed in an irregular
oval, supposed to resemble the cross-section of a pebble; hence the term
_calculiform_ (i. e., "pebble-shaped") is applied to their hieroglyphs,
as _cuneiform_ (i. e., "wedge-shaped") is applied to the Babylonian and
Assyrian letters.
The paper which the prehistoric Mexicans (Mayas, Aztecs, or Tescucans,
etc.) used for writing and drawing upon was of vegetable origin, like
the Egyptian papyrus. It was made by macerating the leaves of the
_maguey_, a plant of the greatest importance (_v._ p. 94). When the
surface of the paper was glazed, the letters were painted on in
brilliant colors, proceeding from left to right, as we do. Each book was
a strip of paper, several yards long and about ten inches wide, not
rolled round a stick, as the volumes of ancient Rome were, but folded
zigzag, like a screen. The protecting boards which held the book were
often artistically carved and painted.
The topics of the ordinary books, so far as we yet know, were religious
ritual, dreams, and prophecies, the calendar, chronological notes,
medical superstitions, portents of marriage and birth. The written
language was in common and extensive use for the legal conveyance and
sale of property.
One of the most remarkable facts connected with this extinct
civilization was the accuracy of their calendar and chronological
system. Their calendar was actually superior to that then existing in
Europe. They had two years: one for civil purposes, of three hundred and
sixty-five days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days, besides
five supplementary days; the other, a ritual or ecclesiastical year, to
regulate the public festivals. The civil year required thirteen days to
be added at the end of every fifty-two years, so as to harmonize with
the ritual year. Each month contained four weeks of five days, but as
each of the twenty days (forming a month) had a distinct name, Humboldt
concluded that the names were borrowed from a prehistoric calendar, used
in India and Tartary.
Wilson (Prehistoric Man, i, 133) remarks:
By the unaided results of native science the dwellers on the
Mexican plateau had effected an adjustment of civil to solar time
so nearly correct that when the Spaniards landed on their coast,
their own reckoning according to the unreformed Julian calendar,
was really eleven days in error, compared with that of the
barbarian nation whose civilization they so speedily effaced.
In 1790 there was found in the Square of Mexico a famous relic, the
Mexican Calendar Stone, "one of the most striking monuments of American
antiquity." It was long supposed to have been intended for chronological
purposes; but later authorities call it a votive tablet or sacrificial
altar.[15] Similar circular stones have been dug up in other parts of
Mexico and in Yucatan.
[Footnote 15: Pp. 68-70, _v._ p. 95.]
Both the Mayas and the Aztecs excelled in the ordinary arts of civilized
life. Paper-making has already been spoken of. Cotton being an important
produce of their soil, they understood its spinning, dyeing, and weaving
so well that the Spaniards mistook some of the finer Aztec fabrics for
silk. They cultivated maize, potatoes, plantains, and other vegetables.
Both in Mexico and Yucatan they produced beautiful work in feathers;
metal working was not so important as in some countries, being chiefly
for ornamental purposes. In fact, it was the comparative plenty of gold
and silver around Mexico that delayed the invasion of the Mayan country
for more than twenty years. The Mayas had developed trade to a
considerable extent before the Spanish invasion, and interchanged
commodities with the island of Cuba. It was there, accordingly, that
Columbus first saw this people, and first heard of Yucatan.
Of the Mexican remains on the central plateau, the most conspicuous is
the mound or pyramid of Cholula, although it retains few traces of
prehistoric art. A modern church with a dome and two towers now occupies
the summit, with a paved road leading up to it. It is chiefly noted,
first, by antiquaries, as having originally been a great temple of
Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent deity, famous in story; and, secondly, for
the fierce struggle around the mound and on the slopes between the
Mexicans and Spanish. (_V._ pp. 130-133.)
Another mound in this district, Yochicalco, lies seventy-five miles
southwest of the capital. It is considered one of the best memorials of
the extinct civilization, consisting of five terraces supported by stone
walls, and formerly surmounted by a pyramid.
Passing from the traces of Aztec and Mayan civilization, we may now
glance at the antiquities of the Colombian states. There are no temples
or large structures, because the natives, before the Spanish conquest,
used timber for building, but owing to the abundance of gold in their
brooks and rivers, they developed skill in gold-working, and produced
fine ornaments of wonderful beauty. Many hollow figures have been found,
evidently cast from molds, representing men, beasts, and birds, etc.
Stone-cutting was also an art of this ancient race, sometimes applied to
making idols bearing hieroglyphs.
When the Spaniards invaded them to take their gold and precious stones,
the "Chibchas," who then held the Colombian table-land and valleys,
threw large quantities of those valuables into a lake near Bogota, the
capital. It was afterward attempted to recover those treasures by
draining off the water, but only a small portion was found; and in the
present year (1903) a new engineering attempt has been made. A Spanish
writer, in 1858, asserted that evidence was found in the caves and mines
that in ancient times the Colombians produced an alloy of gold, copper,
and iron having the temper and hardness of steel. On a tributary of the
River Magdalena there are many curious stone images, sometimes with
grotesquely carved faces.
Turning next to the mound-builders, in the Ohio and upper Mississippi
Valley, we find traces of an extinct civilization in high mounds,
evidently artificial, extensive embankments, broad deep ditches,
terraced pyramids, and an interesting variety of stone implements and
pottery. Some mounds were for burial-places, others for sacrificial
purposes, others again as a site for building, like those we have seen
in Mexico and Maya. Many enclosures contain more than fifty acres of
land; and one embankment is fifty miles long. Among the relics
associated with those works are articles of pottery, knives, and copper
ornaments, hammered silver, mica, obsidian, pearls, beautifully
sculptured pipes, shells, and stone implements. The mounds found in some
of the Gulf States seem to confirm a theory that the mound-builders were
the ancestors of the Choctaw Indians and their allies, and had been
driven southward.
In the lower Mississippi Valley, eastward to the seacoast, there are
many large earthworks, including round and quadrilateral mounds,
embankments, canals, and artificial lakes. Similar works can be traced
to the southern extremity of Florida. Some were constructed as sites for
large buildings. The tribes to whom they are due are now known to have
been agricultural--growing maize, beans, and pumpkins; with these
products and those of the chase they supported a considerable
population.
Among other antiquarian remains in America are the cliff-houses and
"pueblos." The former peculiarity is explained by the deep canyons of
the dry table-land of Colorado. Imagine a narrow deep cutting or narrow
trench worn by water-courses out of solid rock, deep enough to afford a
channel to the stream from 500 to 1,500 feet below the plateau above.
Next imagine one of the caves which the water many ages ago had worn out
of the perpendicular sides of the canyon; and in that cave a substantial,
well-built structure of cut stones bedded in firm mortar. Such are the
"cliff--houses," sometimes of two stories. Occasionally there is a
watch-tower perched on a conspicuous point of rock near a
cliff-dwelling, with small windows looking to the east and north. These
curious buildings, though now prehistoric, in a sense, are believed by
archeologists to be later than the Spanish conquest. Peru is very
important archeologically, but some interesting points will properly
fall under our general account of that country and its conquest by
Spain.
[Illustration: Chulpa or Stone Tomb of the Peruvians.]
In Peruvian architecture, we find "Cyclopean walls," with polygonal
stones of five or six feet diameter, so well polished and adjusted that
no mortar was necessary; sometimes with a projecting part of the stone
fitting exactly into a corresponding cavity of the stone immediately
above or below it. Such huge stones are of hard granite or basalt, etc.
The walls are often very massive and substantial, sometimes from thirty
to forty feet in thickness. The only approach to the modern "arch" in
the Peruvian structures is a device similar to that which was described
under the Mayan architecture.
Some important buildings were surrounded with large upright stones,
similar to the famous "Druidic" temple at Stonehenge. All of the chief
structures were accurately placed with reference to the cardinal points,
and the main entrance always faced the east. The Peruvian tombs were
very elaborate, one kind being made by cutting caverns in the steep
precipices of the cordillera and then carefully walling in the entrance.
Another variety (the _chulpa_) was really a stone tower erected above
ground, twelve to thirty feet high. The chulpas were sometimes built in
groups.