48 COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT MADRID. 



way to the smelting pot of the goldsmith, a sufficient number were 

 preserved by collectors to make the character of the Chiriqui gold work 

 quite familiar to all interested in such studies. The same tribes were 

 also skillful in the manufacture of clay into utensils and objects of 

 adornment. In the Madrid collection the Republic of Colombia dis 

 played about 200 pieces of pottery from the region in question, loaned 

 by Bishop Peralta, of Panama, and 28 more from Mr. Bestrepo s col 

 lection. The peculiarity about these pieces of pottery, and that which 

 distinguished them from the similar products from the tribes of the 

 south, was the method of ornamentation they adopted, choosing usually 

 figures of animals, and also their selection of bright colors. The hands 

 and feet of some of the vases are ingeniously arranged to be rattles, 

 being hollow, and containing a loose ball of burnt clay which makes a 

 light noise on moving the plate or jar. 



Another class of objects represented in this collection is one which 

 affords peculiar interest to the student of the aboriginal methods of 

 recording ideas. These are the inscriptions or writings upon stones or 

 rocks dating from precolumbian times, which occur at various places 

 within the Eepublic of Colombia. Some of these had previously 

 attracted the attention of travelers, and in 1890 Mr. A. L. Pinart pub 

 lished in Paris a photographic album containing 10 plates of such inscrip 

 tions existing near the Isthmus of Panama. 1 It has been ascertained 

 that such inscriptions, examples of which may be found in various parts 

 of the American continent, present a series of similarities limited to 

 certain districts, indicating that at some remote time a uniform method 

 of rock writing prevailed over a considerable area, and was limited to 

 that area. 



The examples of the inscriptions and engravings on stone shown by 

 the delegation from the Bepublie of Colombia are contained upon 

 twenty-eight sheets. They represent monuments of this character 

 from a great many sites in different parts of the country, and differing 

 much in the elaborateness of the designs and the skill with which they 

 were executed. An inspection and comparison of them does not per 

 mit a classification into well-marked varieties. Still less can they be 

 attributed to any one system of inscriptions. It is probable that sev 

 eral of them reveal the influences of the civilized Peruvian tribes who 

 dwelt to the south. 



A small portion of the collection includes ethnographic objects 

 obtained from the existing tribes of the Cunas and Goahibas, such as 

 arrows, bows, lances, flutes, whistles, scepters, collars, combs, etc. 



A few skulls are shown indicating that the habit of compression of 

 the frontal region was common among various of the ancient tribes. 



Those who have studied the description of the Chibcha numeral sys 

 tem, astronomic calendar, and mythology, as described by Alexander 



1 Limite des Civilisations dans Tlsthme Amdricain, P6troglyphes, etc., par A.-L.. 

 Pinart. Paris, 1890. 



