Respecting the antiquities of Guanajuato Sr Bustamante states that the only ones in the state are some natural caves artificially improved, as in the Cerro de San Gregorio, on the hacienda of Tupátaro; and some earthen mounds in the plains of Bajio, proved to be burial mounds. Under the earth and a layer of ashes the skeleton lies with its head covered by a little brazier of baked clay, and accompanied by arrows, fragments of double-edged knives, obsidian fragments, bird-bone necklaces strung on twisted bird-gut, smooth stones, some small semi-spheres of baked clay with a hole in the centre of each, and a few grotesque idols.[X-20]
Castillo describes a small human head, brought from the mines of Guanajuato, the material of which was a "concretion of quartz and chalcedony for the most part, sprinkled with fine grains of gold, and a little pyrites, of a whitish color, but partly stained red by the oxide of iron." This head, it seems, was claimed by some to be a petrifaction, but the author is of a contrary opinion, although he believes there is nothing artificial about it except the mouth.[X-21] Finally Berlandier describes two pyramids near the pueblo of Santa Catarina, in the vicinity of the city of Guanajuato. They are square at the base, face the cardinal points, and are built of pieces of porphyry laid in clayey earth. The eastern pyramid is twenty-three feet high, thirty-seven feet square at the base, with a summit platform fifteen feet square. The corresponding dimensions of the western mound are eighteen, thirty-seven, and fifteen feet. They are only fifteen or twenty feet apart, and are joined by an embankment about five feet high.[X-22]
RUINS OF QUEMADA.
The most important and famous ruins of the whole northern region are those known to the world under the name of Quemada, in southern Zacatecas. The ruins are barely mentioned by the early writers as one of the probable stations of the migrating Aztecs; and the modern explorations which have resulted in published descriptions were made between 1826 and 1831, although Manuel Gutierrez, parish priest of the locality in 1805, wrote a slight account which has been recently published.[X-23] Capt. G. F. Lyon visited Quemada in 1826, and published a full description, illustrated with three small cuts, in his journal.[X-24] Gov. García of Zacatecas ordered Sr Esparza in 1830 to explore the ruins. The latter, however, by reason of other duties and a fear of snakes, was not able to make a personal visit, but obtained a report from Pedro Rivera who had made such a visit. The report was published in the same year.[X-25]
Mr Berghes, a German mining engineer, connected with the famous Veta Grande silver mines, made a survey of the ruins in 1831, for Gov. García, and from the survey prepared a detailed and presumably accurate plan of the works, which was afterwards published by Nebel, and which I shall copy in this chapter. Mr Burkart, another engineer, was the companion of Berghes, and also visited Quemada on several other occasions. His published account is accompanied by a plan agreeing very well with that of Berghes, but containing fewer details.[X-26] Nebel visited Quemada about the same time.[X-27] His plates are two in number, a general view of the ruins from the south-west, and an interior view of one of the structures, besides Berghes' plan. His views, so far as I know, are the only ones ever published.[X-28]
The location is about thirty miles southward of the capital city of Zacatecas, and six miles northward of Villanueva. The stream on which the ruins stand is spoken of by Burkart as Rio de Villanueva, and by Lyon as the Rio del Partido. The name Quemada, 'burnt,' is that of a neighboring hacienda, about a league distant towards the south-west. I do not know the origin of the name as applied to the hacienda, but there is no evidence that it has any connection with the ruins. The local name of the latter is Los Edificios. The only other name which I have found applied to the place is Tuitlan. Fr Tello, in an unpublished history of Nueva Galicia written about 1650, tells us that the Spaniards under Capt. Chirinos "found a great city in ruins and abandoned; but it was known to have had most sumptuous edifices, with grand streets and plazas well arranged, and within a distance of a quarter of a league four towers, with causeways of stone leading from one to another; and this city was the great Tuitlan, where the Mexican Indians remained many years when they were journeying from the north."[X-29] This ruined city was in the region of the modern town of Jerez, and without much doubt was identical with Quemada. Sr Gil applies the same name to the ruins. Others without any known authority attempt to identify Quemada with Chicomoztoc, 'the seven caves' whence the Aztecs set out on their migrations; or with Amaquemecan, the ancient Chichimec capital of the traditions. Gil rather extravagantly says, "these ruins are the grandest which exist among us after those of Palenque; and on examining them, it is seen that they were the fruit of a civilization more advanced than that which was found in Peru at the time of the Incas, or in Mexico at the time of Montezuma."[X-30]
LOS EDIFICIOS OF QUEMADA.
The Cerro de los Edificios is a long narrow isolated hill, the summit of which forms an irregular broken plateau over half a mile in length from north to south, and from one hundred to two hundred yards wide, except at the northern end, where it widens to about five hundred yards. The height of the hill is given by Lyon as from two to three hundred feet, but by Burkart at eight to nine hundred feet above the level of the plain. In the central part is a cliff rising about thirty feet above the rest of the plateau. From the brow the hill descends more or less precipitously on different sides for about a hundred and fifty feet, and then stretches in a gentler slope of from two to four hundred yards to the surrounding plain. On the slope and skirting the whole circumference of the hill, except on the north and north-east, are traces of ancient roads crossing each other at different angles, and connected by cross roads running up the slope with the works on the summit. Berghes' plan of Quemada is given on the following page, on which the roads spoken of are indicated by the dotted lines marked H, H, H, etc. This plan and Burkart's plan and description are the only authorities for the existence of the roads running round the hill, Lyon and other visitors speaking only of those that diverge from it; but it is probable that Berghes' survey was more careful and thorough than that of the others, and his plan should be accepted as good authority, especially as the other accounts agree with it so far as they go.[X-31]
