NO. 6 GREAT STONE MONUMENTS FEWKES 45 



Nc colossi have been reported from the Gulf coast north of Tau- 

 malipas, but the pillar stones in rude human form, like those of the 

 Huastecs, 1 occur from Cuba to St. Vincent, West Indies, showing the 

 presence of the monolithic feeling' among the former people of the 

 Antilles, as well as the Spanish Main. 



Our studies of megaliths in America would be incomplete were 

 we to neglect the cyclopean buildings of Peru, with monoliths so 

 remarkable that they have excited the imagination of all travellers. 

 Considerable literature ' exists regarding these structures ; the 

 impression after reading descriptions of them is of great wonder at 

 the magnitude of these buildings. 



Mr. E. G. Squier 3 has figured and described one of these monu- 

 ments which he aptly designates the " American Stonehenge " : 



The temple seems to me to be the most ancient of all the distinctive monu- 

 ments of Tiahuanaco. The stones defining it are rough and frayed by time. 

 The walls between its rude pilasters were of uncut stones ; and although it 

 contains the most elaborate single monument among the ruins, and notwith- 

 standing the erect stones constituting its portal are the most striking of their 

 kind, it nevertheless has palpable signs of age, and an air of antiquity which 

 we discover in none of its kindred monuments. Of course, its broad area was 

 never roofed in, whatever may have been the case with smaller, interior build- 

 ings no longer traceable. We must rank it, therefore, with those vast open 

 temples (for of its sacred purpose we can scarcely have a doubt) of which 

 Stonehenge and Avebury, in England, are examples, and which we find in 

 Brittany, in Denmark, in Assyria and on the steppes of Tartary. 



1 Ed. Seler. Die Alten Ansiedelungen im Gebiete der Huaxteca. Berliner 

 Anth. Gesells., 1888. 



The " Stein figur en" figured by Dr. Seler and the rectangular enclosures, 

 tlachco, of the Cerro el Cangrejo near Chila, in the neighborhood of Tampico, 

 remind me of the Porto Rican " batey " and rude pillar stones of the West 

 Indies. Mr. Joyce has figured a pillar stone in the British Museum said to have 

 come from Nevis in the West Indies, which is a statue comparable with the 

 Huastec, but shows marked old world influences. Mr. Connell of St. Kitts has 

 a similar pillar stone also from Nevis. 



2 Several writers refer these megalithic monuments to a pre-Incan civili- 

 zation. Good authorities might be mentioned in support of the belief that the 

 megalithic monuments of Peru belong to different cultures. 



3 Op. cit. Later authorities, Striibel and Uhle, and Sir Clements Mark- 

 ham, especially the last, have greatly enlarged our knowledge of Tncan and 

 pre-Incan megaliths. Some very large rocks at Cuzco are still rough, while the 

 stones at Ollantaytambo are smooth. The monoliths of Abancay and the 

 Cuzco stones are instructive megaliths. 



