

ARCHAEOLOGY. 



23 





clawed foot of a carnivorous animal. In one 

 mound was a statuette of a man with a tiger's 

 head. In another mound, where a cemented wall 

 was discovered running along at a considerable 

 depth under the ground, the workmen came upon 

 a series of earthenware pipes, 36 feet in length, 

 the smaller end of each section being cemented 

 into the larger end of the preceding section, run- 

 ning apparently from the entrance of the tombs 

 down toward the valley. As the situation affords 

 little need for drainage, the possibility of finding 

 some other motive for this construction perhaps 

 a mythological one has been suggested. A more 

 thorough examination of this work will be one of 

 the objects of the present exploration. Pieces of 

 similar pipes have been observed on Mount Alban 

 and at two or three other points in Mexico, but 

 nowhere before in place. Curiously shaped fu- 



78 chapels which, according to Sahagun, sur- 

 rounded the main temple have been discovered. 



As much of the anthropological department of 

 the American Museum of Natural History in New 

 York as has been put in order was opened Oct. 29. 

 It comprises at present five collections: the north 

 Pacific collection, containing costumes, household 

 implements, and ceremonial masks of the tribes of 

 that region, the fruits of the Jesup expedition of 

 1897-1900; the Mexican collection, consisting of 

 casts and specimens from the ruined cities and 

 temples of Mexico and Central America ; the South 

 American gallery; the Indian gallery, in which is 

 a very complete collection of the clothing and 

 utensils of the Eskimos of the Arctic coast on 

 both sides of the Pacific; and the collections made 

 by missionaries in Japan and other. Asiatic coun- 

 tries, which were shown at the (Ecumenical Con- 



STATUETTES IN TEERA COTTA, BEFORE A ZAPOTEC TOMB. 



nereal urns were found in different situations. 

 Of one group of five such urns, the central figure 

 embodied a portrait of a man, while those to the 

 right and left of it wore grotesque masks. Other 

 tombs contained human relics and fragments of 

 domestic pottery. Among the objects that have 

 been found in different tombs are censei'S, like 

 some that have been discovered at Oajaca, and a 

 terra-cotta statue measuring about 6 feet in 

 length, which has been placed in the National 

 Museum of Mexico. Additional value is given to 

 the Zapotecan collection of the American Museum 

 by the fact that the history of every article in it 

 is known, the place where it was found, the name 

 of the finder, and the circumstances of the dis- 

 covery being all recorded. 



In the course of excavations for public works 

 in the city of Mexico numerous Aztec relics, im- 

 ages, censers, implements, and other objects, have 

 been recovered from the site of the ancient temple 

 of Huitzilopotchli, the god of war. Two of the 



ference of Missions in 1899 and afterward pre- 

 sented to the museum. The museum has several 

 exploring parties at work, which are maintained 

 by private contributions. Their fields during the 

 last year were Peru, the western Indians, the 

 Eskimos, and the whole region of the north Pacific. 

 Explorations have been begun and are to be con- 

 tinued in the neighborhood of New York city, 

 where some sites of former Indian villages are 

 supposed to exist. 



Recent explorations among the ruins of the cliff 

 dwellers by Dr. George I. Cole, of the University 

 of Southern California, included an examination of 

 the structure called the castle of Montezuma on 

 Beaver creek, Arizona, which, although a very 

 large ruin, yielded few antiquities: and the region 

 of Mesa Verde, a mountain district of considerable 

 extent. The numerous side cafions along the Mari- 

 cos river, in which very ancient ruins were found, 

 were fortified at their openings by large watch 

 towers. The cities were built on the sides of sheer 



