THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 49 
If this theory is true we must admit that below the 
Archaic Horizon we should find traces of a horizon of 
non-agricultural peoples. Unfortunately, such peoples 
make fewer objects and scatter them more widely than 
do sedentary agriculturists. 
No one on the basis of present knowledge can offer 
more than an opinion concerning the date of the inven- 
tion of agriculture in the New World and the subse- 
quent beginning of the pottery art that will now claim 
our attention. ‘The thick deposits argue great age and 
a thousand years or even more might have elapsed be- 
fore this archaic art ran its natural course and was suc- 
ceeded by higher arts at about the time of Christ. 
Archaic Figurines. Archaic art is characterized 
by figures of men and women modeled in clay and some- 
times painted. The forms are peculiar and the tech- 
_ Fig. 18. Figurines from the Earliest Culture Horizon in Mex- 
ico: a-c, Atzcapotzaleo; @, San Juan Teotihuacan; e, Tuxpan; 
f, Zapotlan; g, Cuernavaca. 
