FOURTH FLOOR 17 



The collections have been airanged so as to illustrate the 

 several "cultures" of the region. The word "culture" is used 

 to comprise all the items which go to make up the gen- Mexican 

 eral life of a people or a race. Filling the eastern por- and Central 

 tion of the hall are casts and collections, partly from American 

 Copan, showing many feat-ures of the life of the ancient 

 Mayas, while the west central portion of the room is occupied 

 by the collections from the neighborhood of the City of Mexico 

 which show the culture of the ancient Aztec or Nahua race. The 

 casts of the so-called Calendar or Sacrificial stones are of popu- 

 lar interest, and the ancient codices, or pre-Columbian charts 

 or books, are worthy of special study. Cases illustrating the 

 old Tarascan, Mixtecan-Zapotecan and Costa Rican cultures are 

 in the northwest, southwest and southeast comers of the room 

 respectively. One of the most remarkable single specimens 

 in the room is a life-size terra cotta human figure which was 

 found in a cave near the city of Texcoco, Mexico, and which 

 seems to be the portrait statue of some great war chief of the 

 prehistoric Alcolhuan tribe. The specimen indicates that this 

 ancient people had carried the art of working in clay to a high 

 degree of perfection. The collection is particularly rich in ob- 

 jects made from jadeite, gold and copper, and in ceramics. 

 The major portion of the exhibits in this room consists of casts of 

 the carved stelae and other stone monuments found throughout 

 the region. Among the most celebrated of these is the huge 

 Turtle Stone. The meaning of the emblems and inscriptions 

 carved upon this and other stones has been but partly determined. 



Casts of two stelae from the ruins of Quirigua, Guatemala, 

 are in Hall No. 202 (second floor), on accoimt of their height. 



Hall No. 401 not yet being open to the public the visitor 

 should retrace his steps, pass to the middle of Morgan Hall and 

 then enter the Hall of Geology (No. 408). 



The rocks and fossils displayed in this room illustrate in 

 general the geology of North America and Europe and in par- 

 ticular the geology of New York State. The oldest rocks will 

 be foxmd in' the northeast comer and the succession of rocks 



