18 



ARCHEOLOGY. (MEXICO.) 



was pronounced absurd, and it was maintained 

 that the bones were marked by incrustations of 

 the hardness betokening antiquity, and that the 

 character of the surrounding deposits pointed in 

 the same direction. The author believed that the 

 discovery was genuine and the bones were those 

 of a Pleistocene man, and argued that they had 

 been covered at one time by an accumulation of 

 at least 35 feet of river loess. In a paper by Dr. 

 Ales Hrdlika, who had examined the skeleton, 

 the bones were described as quite hard and por- 

 ous, not sufficiently chalky to mark a black- 

 board, fully preserving their structure, and show- 

 ing no traces of fossilization. Considered an- 

 thropologically, all the parts of the skeleton, and 

 the skull in particular, approached closely in 

 every character of importance the average skele- 

 ton of the present Middle States Indian. 



Mexico. Early in the year a most important 

 and interesting discovery was made in the heart 

 of the Mi-xirun capital. It consisted of the un- 

 earthing of the remains of an Aztec temple and 

 many idols, only two squares from the great 

 central plaza, or what is called the Zocolo. The 

 temple proved to be the Aztec house of many 

 gods, located several years ago on a map pro- 

 jected by the Mexican archeologist Senor Batres, 

 representing the ancient city of Tenochtitlan, or 

 .Mexico, as it existed when first seen by the Span- 

 iards in 1519. This map shows the city as an 

 i-l,unl intersected with canals running nearly at 

 right angles, corresponding to the present streets 

 of the city. After great research Sefior Batres 

 succeeded in locating to his own satisfaction the 

 public buildings, palaces, and temples of the 

 Montezumas on this map, in each case giving his 

 authority for so doing. The great temple, or 

 teocdlli, on the top of the pyramid of which the 

 Mexicans sacrificed their thousands of victims 

 to the war-god, is shown nearly in the center of 

 the island city representing Tenochtitlan, the 

 site of which at the present day is occupied by 

 the great cathedral and plaza. Back of the great 

 temple Batres located a much smaller one, 

 which he said was called Coateocalli, meaning in 

 the language of the Aztecs " the house of many 

 gods." He gave as his authority for the exist- 

 ence of this temple J^ather Duran, who wrote that 

 the palace of the Acevedos was built upon its 

 site. No known record was left of the existence 

 of this palace; but Batres found, by searching 

 the municipal archives, a reference to an ordi- 

 nance regarding the supply of water, under date 

 of Oct. 27, 1710, in which reference was made to 

 the property owned by the Acevedos family on 

 the corner of Relox and Cordobanes Streets, and 

 consequently he there located his temple of the 

 many gods. As the corner was occupied by a 

 fine old building, it was not supposed that any 

 trace of the old temple could be found, even if 

 Batres were correct in his location of it. 



Last winter the work of renovating, or practi- 

 cally rebuilding, the edifice occupying the corner 

 was undertaken for the purpose of furnishing 

 suitable quarters for the offices of the Depart- 

 ment of Justice. Capt. Diaz, son of President 

 Diaz, had charge of the work, and it is due 

 chiefly to him that the discoveries were made. 

 While his workmen were leveling the patio, or 

 central courtyard of the edifice, preparatory to 

 putting down a new pavement, they came in 

 contact with some solid stone work, which 

 proved to be a flight of stone steps leading down 

 below the surface. Diaz, appearing just in time, 

 ordered the- men to open a trench parallel with 

 the steps, cautioning them to use their tools 

 carefully. The trench was opened the entire 



length of the patio, and at the farther end, 

 scarcely 2 feet below what had been the surface 

 of the patio, the men came upon what appeared 

 to be a round, smooth rock, which might have 

 been taken for an ordinary boulder. This rock 

 proved to be a sculptured monolith weighing sev- 

 eral tons, representing a tiger recumbent, or an 

 ocelotl ready to spring. Further excavating 

 brought to light another great rock sculptured 

 to represent a serpent's head, which correspond* 

 with two others previously discovered, and which 

 it is said formed the corner pieces of the wall 

 that surrounded the great teocalli, within which 

 dwelt 7,000 Aztec priests. 



After these two huge monoliths were removed 

 from the trench, the excavating was continued 

 till the base of the steps was reached, 13 feet 

 below the level of the present city, where they 

 rested on a solid foundation which, being the 

 base of the temple, is without question the level 

 of the former city. This proves that the present 

 city of Mexico is 13 feet above the city of the 

 Aztecs that was destroyed by the Spaniards. 



Near the foot of the temple many small objects, 

 were found, such as idols, remains of idols, in- 

 cense gum, spear-heads, and ornaments, as if 

 they had been thrown down from the temple and 

 left there by the Spanish iconoclasts. These 

 were all carefully cleaned and preserved for the 

 study of Seuor Batres, after which they will be 



THE OCEI.OTL, OR TIGER. 



placed in the National Museum of Mexico. The 

 stumps of two trees that evidently had grown 

 from crevices in the stones near the foot of the 

 temple show that the temple must have been 

 allowed to remain in ruins after its destruction 

 several years, otherwise the trees would not have 

 grown there. Then came the final covering up 

 of the temple with the trees, and the building of 

 the edifice above at its present level. 



The weight of the tiger that was found is 4 

 tons, and it measures 2 meters 30 centimeters 

 long, 1 meter 5 centimeters wide, and 94 centi- 

 meters in height. Its moiith is open, showing 

 huge teeth and a part of its tongue. Its great 

 round eyes add to its ferocious look. It is well 

 modeled, with its tail properly coiled round it 

 on one side, as the animal is often seen in nature. 

 On each side of the head and neck is a mane re- 

 sembling somewhat the pendant part of tho head- 

 dress on the Egyptian Sphinx. On its under side 

 are vestiges of paint, showing that the animal 

 was originally painted with red and yellow in 

 spots, to carry out the imitation of the American 

 tiger more perfectly. Cut in its back is a cylin- 

 drical cavity about 18 inches in diameter and 5 

 inches deep. The sides and bottom of this cavity 

 are sculptured with representations of Aztec 

 figures or warriors. 



The serpent's head represents the reptile with 

 its mouth open and its upper lip rolled up over 



