The Native Races [of the Pacific states], Volume 4, Antiquities / The Works of Hubert Howe Bancroft, Volume 4

by Hubert Howe Bancroft

Interior of Los Edificios.

The opening through the western wall leads to the entrance to a cave, reported to be of great extent, but not explored by any visitor on account of the ruined condition of the passage leading to it—or, as Gutierrez says, because the wind issues constantly from the entrance with such force that no one can enter with lights. The mouth of the subterranean passage is on the brink of the western precipice; the walls were plastered, and the top supported by cedar beams. Strangely enough the structure at A iii, so clearly defined on the plan, is not described at all. It seems to be very similar to the enclosures described.

The ruins on the northern part of the plateau are similar in character to those in the south, but fewer in number. Among them are square terraced enclosures like those already mentioned; a pyramid with sloping sides, and eighteen feet square at the summit; a square building sixteen feet square at the base and sixteen feet high; and two parallel stone mounds thirty feet long.

On the lower southern slopes the foundation-stones of numerous buildings are found, and many parts of the adjoining plain are strewn with stones similar to those employed in the construction of the edifices above. There is now no water on the hill, but there are several tolerably perfect tanks, with a well, and what seem to be the remains of aqueducts.

The material of which all the works described are built is the gray porphyry of this and the neighboring hills, and Burkart states that the building-stone of Los Edificios was not quarried in the hill on which they stand, but brought from another across the valley. The nature of the stone permits it to be very easily fractured into slabs, and those employed in the buildings are of different sizes, but rarely exceeding two or three inches in thickness and not hewn. They are laid in a mortar of reddish clay mixed with straw, in which one visitor found a corn-husk. The mortar, according to Burkart, is of an inferior quality,—although others represent it as very good—and on the outer walls and in all exposed situations is almost entirely washed out. Except this washing-out of the mortar, time and the elements have committed but slight ravages at Quemada, the dilapidation of the buildings being due for the most part to man's agency, since most of the buildings of the neighboring hacienda have been constructed of blocks taken from Los Edificios. Lyon found some evidence that the walls were originally plastered and whitened.

A large circular stone from ten to thirteen feet in diameter and from one to three in thickness, according to different observers, on the surface of which were sculptured representations of a hand and foot, was found at the western base of the hill, or as Burkart says, at the eastern base. The editor of the Museo Mexicano also speaks of a sculptured turtle bearing the figure of a reed, the Aztec acatl. No other miscellaneous relics whatever have been found. Nothing resembling inscriptions, hieroglyphics, or even architectural decorations, is found in any part of the ruins. Obsidian fragments, arrow and spear heads, knives, ornaments, heads and idols of terra cotta and stone, pottery whole or in fragments, human remains and burial deposits, some or all of which are strewn in so great abundance in the vicinity of most other American ruins, are here utterly wanting; or at least the only exceptions are a few bits of porphyry somewhat resembling arrow-heads, and some small bits of pottery found by Lyon in the circular pit on the summit.

The works which have been described naturally imply the existence in this spot at some time in the past of a great city of the plain, of which the Cerro de los Edificios was at once the fortified citadel and temple. The paved causeways may be regarded as the principal streets of the ancient city, on which the habitations of the people were built of perishable material, or as constructed for some purely religious purpose not now understood. Mr Burkart suggests that the land in the vicinity was once swampy, and the causeways were raised to ensure a dry road. An examination of their foundation should settle that point, as a simple pavement of flat stones on the surface of a marsh would not remain permanently in place. As simple roads, such structures were hardly needed by barefooted or sandaled natives, having no carriages or beasts of burden; and it seems most reasonable to believe that they had a connection with religious rites and processions, serving at the same time as main streets of a city.

The ruins of Quemada show but few analogies to any of the southern remains, and none whatever to any that we shall find further north. As a strongly fortified hill, bearing also temples, Quemada bears considerable resemblance to Quiotepec in Oajaca; and possibly the likeness would be still stronger if a plan of the Quiotepec fortifications were extant. The massive character, number, and extent of the monuments show the builders to have been a powerful and in some respects an advanced people, hardly less so, it would seem at first thought, than the peoples of Central America; but the absence of narrow buildings covered by arches of overlapping stones, and of all decorative sculpture and painting, make the contrast very striking. The pyramids, so far as they are described, do not differ very materially from some in other parts of the country, but the location of the pyramids shown in the drawing and plan within the enclosed and terraced squares seems unique. The pillars recall the roof structures of Mitla, but it is quite possible that the pillars at Quemada supported balconies instead of roofs; indeed, it seems improbable that these large squares were ever entirely covered. The walls of Los Edificios are higher as a rule than those of other American ruins, and the absence of windows and regular doorways is noticeable. The total want of idols in structures so evidently built, at least partially, for religious purposes, is also a remarkable feature, as is the absence of the usual pottery, implements, and weapons. The peculiar structure, several times repeated, of two adjoining quadrangular spaces enclosed, or partially so, by high walls, and one of them formed by a low terrace into a kind of square basin, containing something like an altar in its centre, is a feature not elsewhere noted. There can hardly be any doubt that these and other portions of the Edificios were devoted to religious rites.