In 1790 there was found in the Square of Mexico a famous relic, the Mexican Calendar Stone, "one of the most striking monuments of American antiquity." It was long supposed to have been intended for chronological purposes; but later authorities call it a votive tablet or sacrificial altar.[15] Similar circular stones have been dug up in other parts of Mexico and in Yucatan.
Both the Mayas and the Aztecs excelled in the ordinary arts of civilized life. Paper-making has already been spoken of. Cotton being an important produce of their soil, they understood its spinning, dyeing, and weaving so well that the Spaniards mistook some of the finer Aztec fabrics for silk. They cultivated maize, potatoes, plantains, and other vegetables. Both in Mexico and Yucatan they produced beautiful work in feathers; metal working was not so important as in some countries, being chiefly for ornamental purposes. In fact, it was the comparative plenty of gold and silver around Mexico that delayed the invasion of the Mayan country for more than twenty years. The Mayas had developed trade to a considerable extent before the Spanish invasion, and interchanged commodities with the island of Cuba. It was there, accordingly, that Columbus first saw this people, and first heard of Yucatan.
Of the Mexican remains on the central plateau, the most conspicuous is the mound or pyramid of Cholula, although it retains few traces of prehistoric art. A modern church with a dome and two towers now occupies the summit, with a paved road leading up to it. It is chiefly noted, first, by antiquaries, as having originally been a great temple of Quetzalcoatl, the beneficent deity, famous in story; and, secondly, for the fierce struggle around the mound and on the slopes between the Mexicans and Spanish. (V. pp. 130-133.)
Another mound in this district, Yochicalco, lies seventy-five miles southwest of the capital. It is considered one of the best memorials of the extinct civilization, consisting of five terraces supported by stone walls, and formerly surmounted by a pyramid.
Passing from the traces of Aztec and Mayan civilization, we may now glance at the antiquities of the Colombian states. There are no temples or large structures, because the natives, before the Spanish conquest, used timber for building, but owing to the abundance of gold in their brooks and rivers, they developed skill in gold-working, and produced fine ornaments of wonderful beauty. Many hollow figures have been found, evidently cast from molds, representing men, beasts, and birds, etc. Stone-cutting was also an art of this ancient race, sometimes applied to making idols bearing hieroglyphs.
When the Spaniards invaded them to take their gold and precious stones, the "Chibchas," who then held the Colombian table-land and valleys, threw large quantities of those valuables into a lake near Bogota, the capital. It was afterward attempted to recover those treasures by draining off the water, but only a small portion was found; and in the present year (1903) a new engineering attempt has been made. A Spanish writer, in 1858, asserted that evidence was found in the caves and mines that in ancient times the Colombians produced an alloy of gold, copper, and iron having the temper and hardness of steel. On a tributary of the River Magdalena there are many curious stone images, sometimes with grotesquely carved faces.
Turning next to the mound-builders, in the Ohio and upper Mississippi Valley, we find traces of an extinct civilization in high mounds, evidently artificial, extensive embankments, broad deep ditches, terraced pyramids, and an interesting variety of stone implements and pottery. Some mounds were for burial-places, others for sacrificial purposes, others again as a site for building, like those we have seen in Mexico and Maya. Many enclosures contain more than fifty acres of land; and one embankment is fifty miles long. Among the relics associated with those works are articles of pottery, knives, and copper ornaments, hammered silver, mica, obsidian, pearls, beautifully sculptured pipes, shells, and stone implements. The mounds found in some of the Gulf States seem to confirm a theory that the mound-builders were the ancestors of the Choctaw Indians and their allies, and had been driven southward.
In the lower Mississippi Valley, eastward to the seacoast, there are many large earthworks, including round and quadrilateral mounds, embankments, canals, and artificial lakes. Similar works can be traced to the southern extremity of Florida. Some were constructed as sites for large buildings. The tribes to whom they are due are now known to have been agricultural—growing maize, beans, and pumpkins; with these products and those of the chase they supported a considerable population.
Among other antiquarian remains in America are the cliff-houses and "pueblos." The former peculiarity is explained by the deep cañons of the dry table-land of Colorado. Imagine a narrow deep cutting or narrow trench worn by water-courses out of solid rock, deep enough to afford a channel to the stream from 500 to 1,500 feet below the plateau above. Next imagine one of the caves which the water many ages ago had worn out of the perpendicular sides of the cañon; and in that cave a substantial, well-built structure of cut stones bedded in firm mortar. Such are the "cliff—houses," sometimes of two stories. Occasionally there is a watch-tower perched on a conspicuous point of rock near a cliff-dwelling, with small windows looking to the east and north. These curious buildings, though now prehistoric, in a sense, are believed by archeologists to be later than the Spanish conquest. Peru is very important archeologically, but some interesting points will properly fall under our general account of that country and its conquest by Spain.
