ANTIQUITIES OF GUATEMALA 



By Eduakd Seler 



In the admirably written book, Guatemala, in which Doctor Stoll 

 describes the impressions and experiences of a live years' sojoui-n in 

 the region of this most important of the Central American Repul)lics, 

 the author in several places mentions the Indian burial mounds, wliicii 

 are scattered over the country from the plains in the neighborhood of 

 the present capital up to the tierra f ria of Tecpam and the highlands 

 and down again into the tierra caliente of Retal huleu and Soconusco. 

 In this connection he adds the remark that a s} stematic search of these 

 mounds in various geographically separated localities would contribute 

 much to increase our knowledge of the primitive people of (luateniala. 



There were, to be sure, even then collections of antiquities in 

 Guatemala, of which the most important was that of the Sociedad 

 Economica in the capital. At the American Historical Exhibition in 

 Madrid in 1892 Guatemala was represented by a series of bc^autiful 

 vessels, among which were especially conspicuous the toothed vessels 

 of Amatitlan, the sacrificial vessels of the Usumacinta, to l)e further 

 discussed below, and beautiful vessels of the Maya type, with ligures 

 and hieroglyphs partly painted and partly wrought in relief. All 

 these objects, however, were obtained through occasional finds, and 

 accurate information was lacking in regard to the origin of many of 

 them. There was even exhibited in their midst the Egyptian scara- 

 banis which Stoll mentions in the collection of the Sociedad Economica, 

 said to have been found in the lake of Amatitlan. 



Consul-General F. C. Sarg^ who formerly lived in Coban, but who 

 now resides in the capital, has likewise made quite extensive collections 

 of antiquities, and some years ago a number of smaller anti(iuities from 

 the Vera Paz region came, through him, into the possession of the 

 Royal Museum. 



Recently, however, that for which Stoll (in 1886) expressed a vague 

 hope has been actually begun. Excavations have been unch'rtakcn 

 systematically in at least two regions— in the neighljorhoo d of Copan 



aVeroffentlichungeii ausdom KoiiiglicheMi Mll^e•^lm fiir Volkcrkmidc, Bi-rliii. IHSfi. 



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