XXVII. QUAREIES OF BUILDING STONE 



NOIiTIT of ISIexico stone was used in buikling and for sculpture 

 in numerous centers of culture advancement. The INIound 

 Builders of the ^Mississippi Valley employed stone in build- 

 iii<^- walls, defensive works, and tombs, and for the carving- of images 

 and utensils, and the Pueblo tribes were very skillful 

 Work of the masons, their pueblos and cliff dwellings displaying 



JI o u n d Builders i i -n • • t ^- i 



and Cliff Dwellers uiuch skui in stone construction. In ncitlier region, 

 however, did the quarrying of stone acquire an}'' con- 

 siderable importance as an industry. (Jenerally the supi)ly of br(iken 

 stone along outcropping ledges and the faces of cliffs sufficed for all 

 l)urposes, and there api)ears to be no record of the systematic quarry- 

 ing of stone from massive rock bodies with hammers and picks of 

 stone, the only i)rocess available to these people, although, as amply 

 shown by the remarkal)le work done in the flint (jiiarries, there was 

 no lack of energy and skill in kindred work. 



In the great centers of nati\e culture, however, the building of 

 cities and the attt'iidant construction of pyramids, 

 tjuarriusofMitiu teiiiples, f ortilicatious, acpieducts, bridges, and the 

 like, made extensive (|uarrying from subterranean 

 strata a necessity. Few (juarries, however, ha\e had the attention 

 they deserve, and, owing to the long period that has elapsed since 

 they were abandoned they are difliciilt to locate, being Idled with 

 accumulations of soil and overgrown with vegetation, (iood ex- 

 amples liave been observed at INIitla, in southern ]\Iexico, and the 

 Avork carried on there is described in a subse(iuent section, which 

 deals with the pecking-crumbling jirocesses. The native (juarrymen 

 did not depend entirely on random blocks or detached masses, but 

 attacked the face of an outcrop or clitf. In some cases the portions 

 to be removed were undermined as far as possible, the upi)er surface 

 was channeled (fig. 141), and holes were drilled into which wooden 

 Avedges Avere driven. The wedges Avere then moistened and the swell- 

 ing of tlie Avood served to fracture the stone. 



Stephens refers to a lu'ief visit to the ancient (piarries at Copan, 

 Honduras, as folloAvs: 



Tlic (lay after our survey was finished, as a roliof wo sot out for a waUc to 



llio old stone quarries of Co])an. Vory soon we abandoned 



IQuari-ios of Copau] tlio path aloiiLT the rivor, and turniMl ofl' to llio loft. The 



.urouiid w.is hrokon, the forest thick, and all the way w(! had 



:iii Indi.iii hei'dre ns with his machete, cutting down branches and saplings. The 



274 



