THE ARCHAIC HORIZON 59 



Extensions of the Archaic Horizon. The curi- 

 ous objects of ceramic art that we have found deeply 

 buried under the debris of higher civilizations in the 

 Valley of Mexico can be traced practically without 

 change in form to Nicaragua. They are encountered 

 for the most part in arid and open country, and since 

 we have every reason to believe that the earliest agri- 

 culture was developed under irrigation, it is but natural 

 to find the use of agriculture spreading first into other 

 arid regions. 



In the Isthmian region (Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and 

 Panama) many figurines of archaic type are found, and 

 besides there are fine series of figurines that are obvi- 

 ously developed from the archaic. Still further south 

 and east in Colombia and Venezuela the typical art of 

 the archaic horizon again appears in almost pure form, 

 although local developments are also to be noted. 

 Everywhere the remains are most plentiful in arid 



a us. It now seems that the trail of this ancient 

 pottery art, marking the first dissemination of agricul- 

 ture, can be traced across the northern part of South 

 America to the mouth of the Amazon and southward 

 along the Andes to the coastal regions of Peru. It is 

 surely significant that figurines from the Island of 

 Marajo near Para, Brazil, have fundamental similarities 

 to those from Venezuela and Central America and that a 

 stratification of human remains at Ancon, Peru, as 

 explained by Dr. Max Uhle, shows plastic art in clay 

 similar to that of ('(Mitral America in the lowermost 

 level. The problem of local developments deserves 

 careful study because if the theory that this pottery art 

 spread hand in hand with agriculture be true then the 

 greatest similarities should be seen in tin 4 oldest objects. 

 Once the primary dissemination of agriculture and 

 ceramics had taken place there would be few inventions 



