PAPERS RELATING TO ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 ANTIQUITIES AT PANTALEON, GUATEMALA. 



By Lieiit. Charles E. Vreeland, U. S. N., 



and 



J. F. Bransford, Passed Assistant Surgeon, U. S. N. 



Some 28 miles from the Pacific, on the railroad from Sau Jose to the 

 city of Guatemala, the town of Escuintla is situated in a piedmont belt 

 of extremely fertile land. In the same belt, about 30 iniles from Es- 

 cuintla in a northwesterly direction, is the magnificent estate of Panta- 

 leon, within one league of Santa Lucia. 



This neighborhood was brought to the attention of archaeologists a 

 few years ago by the discovery of the very interesting antiquities at 

 Santa Lucia which were studied and drawn by Dr. Habel, who wrote 

 a paper for ijublication by the Smithsonian Institution. Several of the 

 finest of these specimens were removed to Berlin, where an account of 

 them was published by Professor Bastian. 



The result of the interest thus awakened was tbe further discovery 

 of great numbers of relics of the old inhabitants in that vicinity. 



In 1882 Dr. Bransford visited this locality in the interest of the Smith- 

 sonian Institution, and saw some most interesting figures at Pantaleon, 

 a slight account of which he furnished for the Smithsonian Report of 

 1882. 



At the request of Professor Baird, the United States steamer Hart- 

 ford stopped at San Jose, July 31, 1884, and we were allowed to visit 

 Pantaleon for the purpose of photographing the antiquities. The super- 

 intendent of tbe estate, Don Miguel Garcia Salas, informed us that 

 the objects had never been photographed, but drawings had been made 

 and photographs taken from them at Guatemala. 



The objects were all of black basalt or hard lava. Nos. II, III, IV, 

 and V, the small heads in Fig. 1, were mounted on a low wall around 

 the fountain in the court-yard. Just to the rear and center of these 



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