FEWKES] MOUNDS NEAR TAMPICO 271 



MOUNDS NEAR TAMPICO 



General Remarks 



Among the many forms of earth mounds in the United States ascribed 

 to the aborigines there are two types that are radically diflFerent in 

 their mode of origin. One of these is formed b}' destruction of 

 former houses, the upper walls of which have fallen into the rooms, 

 filling them with debris. When an archeologist makes excavations in 

 a mound of this type, he lays bare the walls of former rooms and their 

 foundations, finding an accumulation of fallen roofs, overturned walls, 

 and chambers filled with debris of buildings and with drifted sand. 

 Mounds of this type have resulted from destruction and were not con- 

 structed in their present form by human hands. The structure of the 

 second type shows no indications of house walls in their interior. 

 Mounds of this type were originally constructed solid throughout; 

 they were built for foundations, and upon them once stood buildings, 

 or superstructures, that have now disappeared, leaving their remains 

 strewn over the surface of a mound-shaped foundation. 



These two sharply defined types of mounds in the United States 

 occur also in Mexico, where their distribution is instructive. The 

 Mexican Republic is preeminently the home of the second of the above- 

 mentioned types, although in certain regions the first is very abundant. 

 While there are many well-known mounds in Mexico constructed 

 wholly of earth, without cut stone and with a superstructure of per- 

 ishable material, many others are faced with cement or have their sur- 

 faces formed of carved stones laid in courses, some of which, as the 

 pyramid P^l Taj in near PapantUi, are most imposing and show archi- 

 tectural development. In these cases the superstructures likewise were 

 built of stone, so that the walls remain in place, affording a good idea 

 of the relationship of the mound to the building upon it. 



There is scanty evidence that sacred buildings or domiciles were ever 

 erected in the northern pueblo region of the United States, on artificial 

 mounds, although there are many instances of the use of natural eleva- 

 tions for that purpose. The mounds in this region are all of the first 

 type; on the other hand, no mounds are known in the Mississippi 

 valley which belong to this type. It is therefore evident that this 

 feature presents a fundamental difference between the mounds of the 

 Rocky Mountain region and those of the central plains of North 

 America. As we go south in the pueblo area the evidences of the 

 existence of the second type are practically very few and not so 

 decisive in character. Bandelier claims that he has found "artificial 

 mounds resting on artificial terraces " at Tempe and Casa Grande and 



