APPENDIX I : THE ARCHAIC TYPE. 



Dr. Herbert J. Spinden kindly wrote at the writer's request 

 this summary of his views as to the significance of the "archaic 

 type." 



"An archaic culture allied to that of Mexico and Central 

 America seems once to have spread across Colombia and Ecuador 

 to the coast of Peru. In Peru the culture has not been isolated 

 in pure form — if we may use this chemical phrase in archae- 

 ology — unless it should prove to be that which Uhle briefly 

 describes from the earliest shell-heap remains at Ancon. He 

 figures several heads that resemble very closely those of the 

 lowermost horizon in Mexico and he finds associated with them 

 pottery characterized by incised and plastic decoration.^ It need 

 hardly be pointed out that the pottery of the Archaic horizon 

 in the north is also characterized by plastic decoration and that 

 when incised or painted decorations occur the designs are 

 exceedingly simple. Highly "conventional" designs based upon 

 an animal motive are not found in the truly archaic, but are 

 characteristic of the second crop of cultures after religion and 

 ceremony had developed to the point that it could react strongly 

 upon art. 



"But in the absence of other data we may be permitted to rest 

 our theory upon the presence in the coastal region of Peru of 

 figurines presumably related to those of the Archaic horizon 

 although found among the products of a later time. At Ancon, 

 and at other sites as well, are found nude female figurines with 

 the short stubby arms that are so characteristic of the products 

 of the Archaic horizon from Mexico to Colombia. These 

 figurines are usually moulded rather than modeled and it seems 

 unlikely that moulds came into use until the upper archaic or 

 even later. The standing pose is more common than the sitting 

 one. In the American Museum collections there are perhaps 

 twenty-five examples of these figurines, and others are reproduced 

 by Putnam.- 



^ Uhle, 1912, pp. 22-45. 



' Putnam, 1914, Plate XIX. 



