Inscriptions are monuments also, and of the highest value, even when we cannot read them. Some of these will be hereafter, since those of Egypt so long deemed inexplicable, have at last found interpreters. So it will be at a future day, with those of America. Few have been made known as yet, but there are many all over the range of the monumental regions. Those sculptured in the temples and palaces of Otolum near Palenque, are not the only ones. Several in caves, or upon rocks, involve in rude painting, a symbolic meaning, to which we are obtaining a clue. Several nations of North America had a language of signs made or written; although known sometimes to but few, these signs or symbols prevailed from Origon to Chili—or else Quipos as in China, were used as records, in coloured strings or knots, wampums, belts, collars. All these however, appear to belong to the first attempt of mankind to perpetuate ideas, they seem to have preceded the alphabets of India, Persia and Europe, or the vocal signs of China, although some of these date of the earliest ages. Tula, Oaxaca, Otolum, &c., had glyphs or a kind of combined alphabet, where the letters or syllables were blended into words, as in our anagrams, and not in serial order. A few traces of Alphabets have, however, been found in South America on the R. Cauca and elsewhere, which have not yet obtained sufficient atteution: that of Cauca given by Humboldt, is nearly Pelagic or Etruscan; traces of Runic signs were found in Carolina—other signs have occasionally been met in North America, but neglected.
Painted symbols or hieroglyphies, or sometimes abridged outlines of them, were used chiefly in Anahuac, from Panuco to Panama; in North America, from Florida to New Mexico, also in Cuba, Hayti, Yucatan, Bogota, Peru, by the Panos, Muyzcas and other nations. Those without any means to convey ideas could even in America, as in Scythia and Africa, use emblems or objects to which a peculiar meaning was applied, and trace rude pictures of them on trees or rocks.
The monuments connected with pictures, emblems, hieroglyphics, scattered in caves, on rocks, on cliffs above human reach—are very curious, and ought to be collected, sought for, and explained; they will all impart historical events. The rock of Taunton and a few others, have alone exercised the ingenuity of antiquarians, and perhaps to little purpose at yet, since the inscription has been ascribed by turns to the Phenicians, the Jews, the Atlantes, Norwegians or even to our modern tribes. It may not be properly understood until all the graphic systems of America are studied and explained. The late successful attempt of the Cherokis to obtain a syllabic alphabet for their language, proves that the Americans were not devoid of graphic ingenuity.
But the contents of mounds, graves, caves, &c., are also very interesting, affording us a clue to their purpose, and the arts of times when raised or inhabited. Many kinds of implements, ornaments, tools, weapons, vases, &c., have been found every where, displaying skill and taste. Idols and sculptures have given us the features and religious ideas of some nations. Astronomical stones and calendars have been found, recovered, and lost again, revealing peculiar systems of astronomy and chronology. We possess the oomplex calendars of the Tulans, Mexicans, Chiapans, Muyzcas, Peruvians, &c., that of the Talegas of North America, a dodecagone with one hundred and forty-four parts and hieroglyphics, was found on the banks of the Ohio, and has since been lost or hidden.
Humboldt’s labors on American astronomy and his results coincide with those on antiquity to make the American systems quite different from the oriental, Hindu, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Celtic systems of days, months, zodiac, and cycles; while they are more like those of Thibet, China, Japan, Lybia, Etruria, &c. At any rate the American systems were anterior to the admission of the week of seven days, being the fourth of a lunation, each day dedicated to a planet, and the Sabatical observance of the Jews based thereon. The American weeks were of three, five, nine, and even thirteen days, as in some parts of Asia and Africa, in Java, Thibet, China, Guinea. The week of five days appears the most ancient of all and the most natural, including exactly seventy-three weeks in the solar year, and sixty-nine in the lunar year; that of the three days is only the decimal part of a month; in China the long week of fifteen days prevails as yet being half a lunation or month.
Accounts of monuments with dry descriptions and measures, are often uninteresting, unless with figures and explanations to illustrate their nature and designs. The writer having himself surveyed many American sites of ancient cities, may hereafter describe and explain some of them, with or without figures. He has also collected accounts of similar monuments all over the earth, and will be able to elucidate thereby our own monuments. Meantime whoever wishes to become acquainted with such as have been made known in the United States alone, must consult a host of writers who have described a few, such as Soto, Charlevoix, Barton, Belknap, Lewis, Crevecœur, Clinton, Atwater, Brekenridge, Nuttal, McCulloh, Bartram, Priest, Beck, Madison, James, Schoolcraft, Keating, &c.; and in the appendix to the Ancient History of Kentucky will be found my catalogue made in 1824. Such study in then a task, and requires the amending hand of a careful compiler at least, before we can even obtain the complete knowledge of what has been done with us already on this historical subject.
Philadelphia, September, 1838.
[8-*] Letter to Col. Winthrop, in 2d vol. Archeologia Americana.