234 CERTAIN ANTIQUITIES OF EASTERN MEXICO [eth. Axs. 23 



Cruz ruins there is not the same certainty. fSome are Naluiatl, niai^y 

 are Totonac, and still others were once inhabited 1)V people of unknown 

 stoclv. 



Although lost and forgotten by the outside world, the name of the 

 Totonac metropolis clung to a geographical locality near the left bank 

 of the Actopan river, where certain mounds and ruined pyramids are 

 still Ivnown to the people of the neighborhood as the remains of ancient 

 Cempoalan. In modern times the attention of archeologists was first 

 called to this site by Sra Estefania Salas, a lady of Totonac extrac 

 tion still living in Jalapa, who was then a zealous collector of land 

 shells. In 1SS3 Dr H. Strebel, led by information furnished b}' Sra 

 Estebania and others, published an illustrated account of six of the 

 temples of Cempoalan" that represented for several years all that was 

 known of the ruins.'' 



Descriptions of objects from Cempoalan appeared also shortly after 

 in Strebel's work, Alt-Mexico,' which has long been the authority on 

 the antiquities of Vera Cruz. Strebel apparently had not visited 

 Cempoalan when his articles were written, and he makes no attempt 

 to locate the geographical or relative positions of the buildings he 

 describes. In 1891, eight years after the publication of Strebel's 

 work, in commemoration of the fourth centenary of the discovery of 

 America by^ Columbus the Mexican Grovernment made a survey of 

 Cempoalan and neighboring ruins, under direction of the well-known 

 Mexicanist, Sr Paso y Troncoso. At that time the dense, almost impen- 

 etrable jungle covering the mounds was thoroughly cleared away and 

 the walls of several large buildings, including those described by 

 Strebel, were laid open to view. The whole ruin was then surveyed 

 by an engineer, Pedro Pablo Romero, and a model prepared of the 

 central buildings adjoining a court identified as the Plaza Mayor. In 

 the course of the work here and in the adjoining Totonac region more 

 than two hundred photographs were taken and much valuable material 

 was collected. The models and plans were exhibited in the Columbian 

 Exposition at Madrid in 1S92, where they attracted considerable atten- 

 tion, and an account of the material as well as of the different temples 

 was published in a catalogue '' of the exhibits that appeared at that 

 time. The al)Ove-mentioned model and plans, with crayon copies of 

 some of the photographs enlarged by Sr Jose M. Velasco, are now on 

 exhibition in the Museo Nacional in Mexico cit}^ and the collection 

 of photographs preserved in the library of the same institution is open 

 to inspection. With the exception of a visit of Senor Batres, official 



a As so often happens in Mexico, the same name is applied to several places. The Cempoalan near 

 Paso del Ovejns from its position can not be the historic city conspicuous in the conquest of Mexico. 



("Die Ruinen von Cempoallan in Staate Vera Cruz (Mexico) and Mitteilnngen iiber die Toto- 

 naken der Jetzeits. Ab/iamllunr/en drs Nalnnvisscjifcliafl Virchis zu Hamburg, vii, Teil 7, 1883. 



c Alt-Mexico. Archcolngischer Beitrage zur Kulturgescliichte seiner Bewoliner, riiimburg, 1>8S. 



dCatalogode la Seccion de Mexico en la Exposici6n Hist6rico-Americano de Madrid. 1892, tomos, 

 I-II, 1892-3. 



