CHAPTER I 
THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 
N 1910 an actual stratification of human products 
was found in the environs of Mexico City in which 
three principal culture horizons could readily be dis- 
cerned. A collection made at this time is on exhibition 
in the American Museum of Natural History. In part 
this stratification verified theories of culture succession 
already held by students working in this field. Since 
that time careful research in several localities has been 
earried on under the International School of Arche- 
ology and many authenticated specimens from the three 
layers have been brought together. The lowest layer, 
characterized by crude figurines of a peculiar style, was 
soon found to correspond to an art long known as 
Tarascan. ‘This art had been referred to the Tarascan 
Indians of the state of Michoacan, notwithstanding the 
fact that the most noteworthy specimens came from 
outside the Tarascan area. 
It now seems likely that the archaic art was the com- 
mon product of all the tribes then living on the Mexican 
highlands but that the Nahuan tribes led in its develop- 
ment and dissemination. It is most common in regions 
inhabited by the Nahuan tribes and seems to have been 
carried southward by certain of these tribes who mi- 
grated to Guatemala, Salvador, and Nicaragua. In 
these southern Nahuan areas the archaic art, at least so 
far as the human figurines are concerned, is often in- 
distinguishable from that of the north. Beyond Nica- 
ragua it is possible to follow the stream of this ancient 
art well into South America, but these southernmost 
occurrences are accompanied by changes in form and 
technique. 
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