18 



ARCHEOLOGY. 



their principal fame and their distinctive character 

 by the sculptured columns or tall monolithic monu- 

 ments to which the name of steltK has been applied. 

 Twenty-three of these are known. Their average 

 height from the ground is not more than 12 feet, 

 their average breadth 3 feet, and their thickness 

 slightly less. They are elaborately carved with deco- 

 rated human figures on one or two sides. Mono- 

 liths of another class, called altars or tables, are 

 square or oblong blocks of stone with flat tops, sel- 

 dom exceeding 2 feet in height, and usually carved 

 on the 4 sides, and sometimes on the top, with an 

 inscription or some other design. 



The Ruins of Quirigua. A short account of 

 the ruins of Quirigua, near Izabal, in Guatemala, 

 has been published in " Science " by Mr. John K. 

 Chandler. They are situated on the Motagua river, 

 with a dense forest all around. An artificial mound 

 built of small stones stands near a small lake called 

 the Lake of the Idols. Near this mound are 3 obe- 

 lisks from 16 to 18 feet high, each of which has a 

 human face sculptured on its south side in a pe- 

 culiar style, with hieroglyphics inclosed in squares 

 on the other sides. The largest of the 6 obelisks of 

 the ruins is 26 feet high, 5 feet wide, and 4 feet 

 thick, and is inclined 12 feet out of the perpen- 

 dicular. Its sculptured parts are finer than those 

 of the others and the features are more regular. 

 Not far away from this lies another obelisk which 

 is said to have been standing a few years ago, the 

 face on which is quite different from the faces on 

 the others. The sixth obelisk is in a more dilapi- 

 dated condition than these. The idols of Quirigua 

 have no altars like those of Copan, but 2 immense 

 stones situated among them probably served as 

 such. One of these, the back of which is covered 

 with a line of finely sculptured glyphs, is marked 

 by grooves which seem to indicate that it was used 

 as a sacrificial altar. The other is covered with fig- 

 ures in semirelief in a comparatively good state of 

 preservation. One of the figures represents a wom- 

 an without hands or legs, but with the arms ex- 

 tending to the floor and with narrow forehead. 

 Another represents a turtle with very large eyes. 

 Representations of fruits and flowers that now grow 

 in the surrounding mountains indicate that no 

 change of climate has occurred since the monu- 

 ments were built. Although the monuments of 

 Quirigua are larger than those of Copan, they are 

 inferior in sculpture, and their weathered and ruined 

 condition indicates that they are also older. 



A Dated Ruin. The ruins of the Temple of 

 Tepoztlan, Mexico, important for many reasons, 

 are especially so because they are the only American 

 ruins to which a definite date can be set. On one 

 of two slabs in one of the walls is engraved the sign 

 of Ahuizotl, the immediate predecessor of Monte- 

 zuma, and on the other the date " ten Toehtli," 

 which corresponds to 1502. 



Symbolical Inscriptions of the Mound 

 Builders. Prof. F. W. Putnam called attention 

 in the American Association of 1895 to the sym- 

 bolic carvings upon certain objects of the mound 

 builders, among which are the one known as the 

 Cincinnati tablet, objects from the Turner group, 

 near Cincinnati, and specimens from the Hopewell 

 group, Paint creek, Ohio. The strange figures on 

 the Cincinnati tablet were shown to be both con- 

 ventionalized and symbolic. The authenticity of 

 this work has been questioned, but seems now to be 

 fully proved. Several of the figures are of the con- 

 ventional serpent form, identical with that of others 

 found in Ohio, and agreeing essentially with the 

 representation f the serpent's head in the sculp- 

 tures of Central America. A human femur from 

 the Hopewe.ll group is carved with figures made up 

 of elaborate masks and combined headdresses. Nu- 



merous designs from that group including the 

 serpent and sun symbols are cut out of thin .sheets 

 of copper, made by hammering nuggets of native 

 copper. Another copper object represents the deer's 

 antler. A copper headdress on a skeleton was 

 marked by a pair of antlers. All these designs ap- 

 pear in the carvings on the femur. Similar carv- 

 ings were traced upon a human arm bone from the 

 altar of the great mound of the Turner group. 

 Conventional animal heads, interwoven and com- 

 bined in a curious manner, with symbolic designs, 

 circles and ovals, common to nearly all the carvings, 

 are represented over each head. " Here the lines 

 were cut with such skill and ingenuity that parts of 

 one head form portions of another above and be- 

 low; and on reversing this combination figure still 

 other heads are visible. The many combinations 

 here shown could only have been made by carefully 

 preparing the distinct figures and combining them 

 in the way here shown, which must have required a 

 vast amount of ingenuity as well as mechanical 

 execution." 



The Iron Age in Aboriginal Art. In his 

 studies of aboriginal American art, Prof. Otis T. 

 Mason has been led to attach great importance to 

 the influence of the iron age, and he has published 

 a paper on its history in the " American Anthro- 

 pologist.'' Although this history is post-Columbian, 

 the author finds it an important item in American 

 archaeological studies. The use of iron extended 

 rapidly after it gained a footing on the continent, 

 and often reached tribes long before the first white 

 men wandered to their abodes. The influence of 

 the new material was immediate, and was felt in 

 ways not always artistically advantageous. Prof. 

 Mason concludes that I. " The iron age that modi- 

 fied America was the conservative folk age, the 

 Middle Age as distinguished from the Kenaissance, 

 which modified the old in progressive Europe. It 

 is almost impossible, therefore, as one looks over a 

 collection of Americana, to decide positively whether 

 he is regarding the unadulterated western hemi- 

 sphere, or mediaeval Europe, or native Africa, or 

 some happy combination of these. II. In the New 

 World during four centuries, as in the Old World, 

 the activities, the whole life of the native people, 

 were (1) partly such as belong to a common hu- 

 manity ; (2) such as arise through a past worship 

 and co-operation between any group of human be- 

 ings and their environment ; and (3) such as came. 

 to them from foreign teachers living in the iron 

 age in Europe. This contact has been in certain 

 particulars universal, overpowering, and efficient. 

 . . . There is scarcely a tribe on this continent that 

 never heard of iron ; there are tribes of Americans 

 that preserve only a vestige of native life. Even 

 the archaeologist is often in doubt regarding buried 

 specimens. Shell heaps, mounds, caves, and ceme- 

 teries often hide iron-made products among the 

 goodly stuff, exciting a reasonable doubt concern- 

 ing the probable authorship of the works them- 

 selves. To-day it is regarded certain that a ceme- 

 tery is pre-Columbian, but to-morrow the mummy 

 pack reveals a page from a Spanish printed book. 

 ... I desire to insist with some emphasis upon the 

 statement that the study of these transitions is the 

 precious portion of American history, that the adul- 

 terated aboriginal product reveals to our gaze the 

 living processes by which men have always pro- 

 gressed to higher life." 



Evidences of Glacial Man in America. A new 

 evidence of the presence of man in the glacial epoch 

 in Ohio is cited by Prof. G. Frederick Wright in the 

 discovery of a chipped chert implement a knife 

 which was found by Mr. Sam Huston, county survey- 

 or of Jefferson County, Ohio, in a high-level river 

 terrace on the Ohio river, a mile and a half below 



