304 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 88. 



CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY. 

 THE QUESTION OF THE TOLTECS. 



In a recent note (Science, July 24) I re- 

 ferred to Dr. Valentini's opinion that the 

 ancient Toltecs belonged to the Mayan 

 stock. This view is advocated also by Mr. 

 E. P. Dieseldorf in an article entitled 

 "Who Were the Toltecs ?" in the Bastian- 

 Festschrift, and by Dr. Forstemann in 

 Globus, Vol. 70, No. 3. 



The theory of the latter is that at a re- 

 mote period the Mayan stock occupied 

 North America to about N. Lat. 23°, and 

 extended perhaps to the island of Cuba. 

 They had developed a moderate degree of 

 culture when the Aztecan tribes invaded 

 their domain from the north and west. 

 Tula and Cholula were Mayan settlements, 

 and when they succumbed to Aztecan in- 

 roads they dowered their conquerors with 

 a part of their superior culture, notably 

 their mythology. In later times the May- 

 ans were driven southward, the only frag- 

 ment who managed to remain being the 

 Huastecas of the Eio Panuco. This hy- 

 pothesis, it is claimed, explains the mar- 

 velous legends of the Toltec empire, 

 and also the similarities of culture between 

 the two stocks. Mr. Dieseldorf is so con- 

 vinced of this that he is sure if we drove a 

 tunnel through the pyramid of Cholula we 

 should reach the primitive Mayan temple 

 which is buried beneath it. 



CLASSIFICATION OF PRIMITIVE IMPLEMENTS. 



General culture development is meas- 

 ured by progress in the arts, and for that 

 reason archaeologists devote such close at- 

 tention to the historic development of these. 

 Prehistoric archaeology is divided into 

 periods marked by the introduction or dis- 

 covery of improved methods and materials. 

 Mr. Joseph D. McGuire in the American 

 Anthropologist for July proposes a scheme, 

 in some respects novel, for the classifica- 

 tion and development of primitive imple- 



ments. It is five- fold in scope, considering 

 the natural material, the most obvious use 

 to which it would be put, the primitive 

 tool which this would suggest, and then 

 the special and complex tools which would 

 result. 



The scheme thus presented is ingenious,, 

 well stated and, from our view point, satis- 

 factory. If natural man did not follow it 

 he must have been a fool. Unfortunately ^ 

 it is almost sure that he was a fool, and 

 that he repeatedly overlooked the most 

 obvious improvements to his condition 

 which were directly under his nose. Per- 

 haps some later dwellers upon earth do the 

 same. Indeed, the tendency is so radical 

 in the race that it is safer to take the fact& 

 alone for our guides, and to hold, at least 

 at present, that if there are no polished 

 stones in palseolithic sites early men were 

 stupid enough not to ' catch on ' to polish- 

 ing. 



THE RUINS OF COPAN. 



It is generally known that for several 

 years past the Peabody Museum of Harvard 

 has been prosecuting excavations in the 

 extensive ruins at Copan, Honduras. A 

 preliminary report has just been published 

 by the Museum which gives an outline of 

 the work accomplished, and that in view. 

 It is a handsome, large quarto, with numer- 

 ous illustrations, a map and plans. Fur- 

 ther special reports will follow on particular 

 localities. 



No one can examine the fifty pages of 

 this publication without being profoundly 

 impressed with the size, bold planning and 

 artistic finishing, which these ancient and 

 unknown architects gave to their construc- 

 tions. The ornamentation was recklessly 

 profuse, and the cubic mass of materials 

 moved something surprising. The art 

 motives at times are much beyond what we 

 are accustomed to see in native American 

 work, as, for example, the head of the ' sing- 

 ing girl ' represented on plate IX. 



