82 ARCHAEOLOGICAL RESEARCHES IN NICARAGUA. 



In fact, it was the rudest found on the island, and probably belongs to a remote 

 antiquity. 



The large stone images were usually found in pairs, male and female. This 

 was the case in New Granada and Mexico. The masks of animals' heads show 

 a resemblance to Mexican styles ; but there is a grim simplicity and massive- 

 ness in their appearance, very different from the elaborately and curiously orna- 

 mented idols of the Aztecs. Dr. Berendt told me he had never seen similar 

 statues north of Nicaragua. Mr. Squier saw two images at Tiahuanuco* which 

 reminded him strongly of those which he had carefully studied in Central 

 America, and described in his work on Nicaragua. The only figure of an image 

 of the Muyscas that I have seen had much more regular features than those of 

 Ometepec.f 



The rock inscriptipns of Madera are rude pictographs, in which the human 

 face frequently occurs. Dr. Berendt considered the basalt blocks as somewhat after 

 the order of tombstones, where the faces of the deceased were supposed to be rep- 

 resented. The wear on the hard rock, which seems to have been only the result ol 

 time and weather, is enough to impress the beholder with an idea of great antiquity, 

 I think they long antedate the rock inscriptions and paintings near Managua. 

 described by Squier, and those so common on the rocks of northern Mexico and 

 some of the Territories of the United States. Schomburgk, quoted by Sivers, 

 mentions inscriptions on the island of Saint Thomas, West Indies, of somewhat 

 similar character to those of Nicaragua.^ The inscriptions which were figured 

 above resemble those in the State of Panama described by Secmaiin, and compared 

 by him to some in Northumberland, England. Humboldt gave accounts of 

 numerous inscriptions on the Essiquibo and the Orinoco, and some similar to 

 those of Madera were noticed on the Amazon by Hartt.|| It will be observed that 

 a great portion of the region in which this class of inscriptions has been dis- 

 covered coincides pretty well with territory, at one time or another, occupied by 

 the Caribs. There is nothing in their character to show identity of origin with 

 either of the classes of pottery described. 



To the student of American archaeology there can be no more interesting 

 field for research than Nicaragua. Here was the debatable land between North 

 and South America, between Mayas and Aztecs on one side and Muyscas or 

 Chibchas on the other, and, as a third grim factor, the savage of the Atlantic 

 coast occasionally stepped in to dispute supremacy with his more civilized but 



*Squiur. Peru. Page 297. 



f Ilumboldt. Vucs des Cordillercs. Planche 44. 



J Sivers' Ueber Madeira und die Antillen niich Mittelainerika, page 133. 

 f! Pi m & Sccmann's Dottings, page 28. 

 || American Naturalist. May, 1871. Pago 146 ct scij. 

 The Madeira and the Amazon. Franz Keller. 



