40 



SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 61 



sarily nor even probably derivative." Other writers before and since 

 him have recognized that truth, but no one had previously followed 

 the resemblance of New and Old World megalithic structures. 



Only a few of the more advanced people of x\merica show evidences 

 of the megalithic phase of culture, but the races dwelling on the 

 Cordilleras of South America and those inhabiting: the lowlands of 



Fig. 28. — Stela F, Quirigua, Honduras, from Maudsley. 



Central America were in this stage of cultural development before 

 the discovery of America by Europeans. The best examples of mega- 

 liths occur in Peru, Colombia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, and 

 Yucatan, in all of which countries there are fine examples of both 

 monoliths and colossi. They often bear glyphs or calendar symbols, 

 which are characteristic of the New World as the Egyptian hiero- 

 glyphs are of the country bordering the Nile. No satisfactory 

 evidence has yet been brought forward that phonetic writing arose 

 independently on the American continent. The Indians of the terri- 





