522 ARCHEOLOGY 



great cycle of 1040 years, according to the Borgian Codex. By this 

 simple method stated by Fdbrega and Baron Humboldt, and cal- 

 culated by Orozco y Berra, a period of 23,000 years would have to 

 elapse before there were an error of a single day. Our archeological 

 calendar may yet bestow great services on modern chronology. 



What causes us most wonder is how the priests could, in a book 

 of seventy-six pages, store up all the treasures of their astronomical 

 science, expressing their ideas by means of strange figures; as they 

 have done in the case of the Borgian Codex, few fragments of which 

 have we been able to decipher: but should the day ever come 

 when all is deciphered, what portentous secrets will it then disclose 

 to us! 



Man does not live alone on the earth; by a law of nature he is 

 ever in the company of his fellow men: and that science, therefore, 

 which treats of the constitution, phenomena, and growth of the 

 human society is indeed an important one. On this subject arche- 

 ology has extended effective help to the researches of scholars. 

 It is not my purpose to present to the Congress what might be 

 termed archeological sociology; nor shall I speak of the organiza- 

 tion of the ancient Indian peoples, nor of their civil and penal laws, 

 nor of their conception of international law, nor of their pochtecas, 

 both merchants and ambassadors at once, the institution of which 

 created a special mercantile right; nor shall I treat of the ideas of 

 the Mexicans with regard to the family, property in general, and 

 their laws of succession; nor of the division of work, nor yet of the 

 professions; I shall not speak at length on their views with reference 

 to authority, nor how this was exercised in the various public 

 services, nor how the taxes were levied and collected, and how 

 they have set this forth in hieroglyphical codices: the limits to my 

 address would not permit of so much. I shall therefore direct my 

 attention solely to demonstrating the relation existing between the 

 two sciences, archeology and sociology, as viewed in two different 

 cases. 



The philosopher Herbert Spencer stated that the Mexicans al- 

 ways shared their rural property in common, and consequently 

 had never conceived the possession of private land properties. 

 A codex which I have already published, the parallel of which 

 exists in the National Library of Paris, graphically shows us the 

 different lands of varying extent, granted to the conquerors of 

 Azcapotzalco by the kings of Mexico, Itzcoatl, and Moteczuma. 

 Each plot of land has both its name and that of the owner inscribed 

 on it in hieroglyphical characters. Thus has archeology been able 

 to correct an error of the great Spencer. 



The other fact is more transcendental. A school has been formed, 

 which condemns the conquest of America by the Europeans as an 



