The Story of Extinct Civilizations of the West Part 5

AMERICAN ARCHEOLOGY

Long before the time of Columbus and the Spanish conquest there existed on the table-land of Mexico two great races or nations, as has already been shown, both highly civilized, and both akin in language, art, and religion. Ethnologists and antiquaries are not agreed as to their origin or the development of their civilization. Many recent critics have held the theory that there had been a previous people from whom both races inherited their extinct civilization, this previous race being the "Toltecs," whom we have repeatedly mentioned in the preceding chapter.

To that previous race some attribute the colossal stonework around Lake t.i.ticaca, as well as other survivals of long-forgotten culture.

Some would even cla.s.s them with the "mound-builders" of the Ohio Valley.

Other recent antiquaries, however, while fully admitting the Aztec-Tescucan civilization to be real and historical, treat the Toltec theory as partly or entirely mythical. One writer alleges, after the manner of Max Muller, that the Toltecs are "simply a personification of the rays of light" radiating from the Aztec sun-G.o.d.

Leaving abstract theories, we shall devote this chapter to the princ.i.p.al facts of American archeology--especially as regards the races and the monuments of their long extinct civilizations. Throughout many parts of both North and South America, and over large areas, the red-skinned natives continued their generations as their ancestors had done through untold centuries, scarcely rising above the state of rude, uncultured sons of the soil living as hunters, trappers, fishers, as had been done immemorially

When wild in woods the n.o.ble savage ran,

as Dryden puts it. But in Mexico, Yucatan, and Central America, Colombia, and Peru there were men of the original redskin race who had distinctly attained to civilization for unknown generations before the time of Columbus. Not only so, but in many centers of wealth and population the process of social improvement and advance had been continuous for unrecorded ages; and in certain cases a long extinct civilization had over-laid a previous civilization still more remotely extinct. Some works constructed for supplying water, for example, could only have been applied to that purpose when the climate or geological conditions were quite different from what they have always been in historical times!

Who is the red man? Compared in numbers with the yellow man, the white man, or even the black, he is very unimportant, being only one-tenth as great as the African race.[12] In American ethnology, however, the red man is all-important. Primeval men of this race undoubtedly formed the original stock whence during the centuries were derived all the numerous tribes of "Indians" found in either North or South America. Throughout Asia and Africa there is great diversity in type among the races that are indigenous; but as to America, to quote Humboldt:

[Footnote 12: White or Caucasian 640,000,000, yellow or Mongolian 600,000,000, black or African 200,000,000, red or American 20,000,000.]

The Indians of New Spain [i. e., Mexico] bear a general resemblance to those who inhabit Canada, Florida, Peru, and Brazil. We have the same swarthy and copper color, straight and smooth hair, small beard, squat body, long eye, with the corner directed upward toward the temples, prominent cheek-bones, thick lips, and expression of gentleness in the mouth, strongly contrasted with a gloomy and severe look.

Whence the original red men of America were derived it is impossible to say. The date is too remote and the data too few. From fossil remains of human bones, Aga.s.siz estimated a period of at least ten thousand years; and near New Orleans, beneath four buried forests, a skeleton was found which was possibly fifty thousand years old. If, therefore, the redskins branched off from the yellow man, it must have been at a period which lies utterly beyond historic ken or calculation.

Some recent ethnologists have borrowed the "glacier theory" from the science of geology, in order to trace the development of civilization among certain races. In Switzerland and Greenland the signs of the action of a glacier can be traced and recognized just as we trace the proofs of the action of water in a dry channel. Visit the front of a glacier in autumn after the summer heat has made it shrink back, you will see (1) rounded rocks, as if planed on the top, with (2) a mixed ma.s.s of stones and gravel like a rubbish-heap, scattered on (3) a ma.s.s of clay and sand, containing boulders. The same three tests are frequently found in countries where there have been no glaciers within the memory of man.

Such traces, found not only in England, Scotland, and Ireland, but in northern Germany and Denmark, prove that the mountain ma.s.s of Scandinavia was the nucleus of a huge ice-cap "radiating to a distance of not less than 1,000 miles, and thick enough to block up with solid ice the North Sea, the German Ocean, the Baltic, and even the Atlantic up to the 100-fathom line." In North America the same thing is proved by similar evidence. A gigantic ice-cap extending from Canada has glaciated all the minor mountain ranges to the south, sweeping over the whole continent. The drift and boulders still remain to prove the fact, as far south as only 15 north of the tropic. A warm oceanic current, like the Gulf Stream of the Atlantic, would shorten a glacial period. Speaking of Scotland, one authority states that "if the Gulf Stream were diverted and the Highlands upheaved to the height of the New Zealand Alps, the whole country would again be buried under glaciers pushing out into the seas" on the west and east.

The theory is that as the climate became warmer, the ice-fronts retreated northward by the shrinking of the glaciers, and therefore the animals, including man, were able to live farther north. The men of that very remote period were "Neolithic," and some of the stone monuments are attributed to them that were formerly called "Druidic." A recent writer asks; with reference to Stonehenge:

Did Neolithic men slowly coming northward, as the rigors of the last glacial period abated, domicile here, and build this huge gaunt temple before they pa.s.sed farther north, to degrade and dwindle down into Eskimos wandering the dismal coasts of arctic seas?

Another writer, with reference to the American ice-sheet, says:

During the second glacial epoch when the great boreal ice-sheet covered one-half of the North American continent, reaching as far south as the present cities of Philadelphia and St. Louis, and the glaciated portions were as unfit for human occupation as the snow-cap of Greenland is to-day, aggregations of population cl.u.s.tered around the equatorial zone, because the climatic conditions were congenial. And inasmuch as civilization, the world over, clings to the temperate climates and thrives there best, we are not surprised to learn that communities far advanced in arts and architecture built and occupied those great cities in Yucatan, Honduras, Guatemala, and other Central American states, whose populations once numbered hundreds of thousands.

An approximate date when this civilization was at the acme of its glory would be about ten thousand years ago. This is established by observations upon the recession of the existing glacier fronts, which are known to drop back twelve miles in one hundred years.

With the gradual withdrawal of the glacial ice-sheet the climate grew proportionately milder, and flora and fauna moved simultaneously northward. Some emigrants went to South America and settled there, carrying their customs, arts, ceremonial rites, hieroglyphs, architecture, etc.; and an immense exodus took place into Mexico, which ultimately extended westward up the Pacific coast.

In subsequent epochs when the ice-sheet had withdrawn from large areas, there were immense influxes of people from Asia via Bering Strait on the Pacific side, and from northwestern Europe via Greenland on the Atlantic side. The Korean immigration of the year 544 led to the founding of the Mexican Empire in 1325.

To trace then the gradations of ascent from the native American--called "Indians" by a blunder of the Great Admiral, as afterward they were nicknamed "redskins" by the English settlers--to the Mexicans, Peruvians, or Colombians is a task far beyond our strength. Leaving the question of race, therefore, we now turn to the antiquarian remains, especially the architectural.

The prehistoric civilization which was developed to the south of Mexico is generally known as "Mayan," although the Mayas were undoubtedly akin to the Aztecs or early Mexicans. The Maya tribes in Yucatan and Honduras, from abundant evidence, must have risen to a refinement in prehistoric times, which, in several respects, was superior to that of the Aztecs. In architecture they were in advance from the earliest ages not only of the Aztec peoples, but of all the American races.

In Yucatan the Mayas have left some wonderful remains at Mayapan, their prehistoric capital, and near it at a place called Uxmal which has become famous from its vast and elaborate structures,[13] evidencing a knowledge of art and science which had flourished in this region for centuries before the arrival of the Spanish. The chief building in Uxmal is in pyramidal form, the princ.i.p.al design in the ancient Aztec temples (as well as those of Chaldea, etc.), consisting of three terraces faced with hewn stone. The terraces are in length 575, 545, and 360 feet respectively; with the temple on the summit, 322 feet, and a great flight of stairs leading to it. The whole building is surrounded by a belt of richly sculptured figures, above a cornice. At Chichen, also in Yucatan, there is an area of two miles perimeter entirely covered with architectural ruins; many of the roofs having apparently consisted of stone arches, painted in various colors. One building, of peculiar construction, proves an enigma to all travelers: it is more than ninety yards long and consists of two parallel walls, each ten yards thick, the distance between them being also ten yards. It has been conjectured that the anomalous construction had reference to some public games by which the citizens amused themselves in that long-forgotten period. Among other memorials of Mayan architecture in this country is the city of Tuloom on the east coast, fortified with strong walls and square towers.

A more remarkable "find" in the dense forests of Chiapas, in the same country, is the city recorded by Stephens and other travelers. It is near the coast, at the place where Cortes and his Spanish soldiers were moving about for a considerable time, yet they do not appear to have ever seen the splendid ruins, or to have at all suspected their existence. Even if the natives knew, the Spaniards might have found the toil of forcing a pa.s.sage through such forests too laborious. The name of the city which had so long been buried under the tropical vegetation was quite unknown, nor was there any tradition of it; but when found it was called "Palenque," from the nearest inhabited village. There were substantial and handsome buildings with excellent masonry, and in many cases beautiful sculptures and hieroglyphical figures.

[Footnote 13: See Frontispiece.]

Merida, the capital of Yucatan, is on the site of a prehistoric city whose name had also become unknown. When building the present town, the Spaniards utilized the ancient buildings as quarries for good stones.

The larger prehistoric structures are frequently on artificial mounds, being probably intended for religious or ceremonial purposes. The walls both within and without are elaborately decorated, sometimes with symbolic figures. Sometimes officials in ceremonial costumes are seen apparently performing religious rites. These are often accompanied by inscriptions in low relief, with the peculiar Mayan characters which some archeologists call "calculiform hieroglyphs" (_v._ p. 82).

On one of the altar-slabs near Palenque there occurs a sculptured group

of several figures in the act of making offerings to a central object shaped like the Latin cross. "The Latin, the Greek, and the Egyptian cross or _tau_ (T) were evidently sacred symbols to this ancient people, bearing some religious meanings derived from their own cult."[14]

[Footnote 14: D. G. Brinton.]

The cross occurs frequently, not only in the Mayan sculptures, but also in the ceremonial of the Aztecs. The Spanish followers of Cortes were astonished to see this symbol used by these "barbarians," as they called them. Winsor (i, 195) says that the Mayan cross has been explained to mean "the four cardinal points, the rain-bringers, the symbol of life and health"; and again, "the emblem of fire, indeed an ornamental fire-drill."

Students of architecture find a rudimentary form of the arch occurring in some of the ruins, notably at Palenque. Two walls are built parallel to each other, at some distance apart, then at the beginning of the arch the layers on both sides have the inner stones slightly projecting, each layer projecting a little more than the previous one, till at a certain height the stones of one wall are almost touching those of the wall opposite. Finally, a single flat stone closes in the s.p.a.ce between and completes the arch.

In Honduras, on the banks of the Copan, the Spaniards found a prehistoric capital in ruins, on an elevated area, surrounded by substantial walls built of dressed stones, and enclosing large groups of buildings. One structure is mainly composed of huge blocks of polished stone. In several houses the whole of the external surface is covered with elaborate carved designs:

The adjacent soil is covered with sculptured obelisks, pillars, and idols, with finely dressed stones, and with blocks ornamented with skilfully carved figures of the characteristic Maya hieroglyphs, which, could they be deciphered, would doubtless reveal the story of this strange and solitary city.

In western Guatemala, at Utatla, the ancient capital of the Quiches, a tribe allied to the Mayas, several pyramids still remain. One is 120 feet high, surmounted by a stone wall, and another is ascended by a staircase of nineteen steps, each nineteen inches in height.

The literary remains (such as Alphabets, Hieroglyphs, Ma.n.u.scripts, etc.) of the Maya and Aztec races are in some respects as vivid a proof of the extinct civilizations as any of the architectural monuments already discussed. Both Aztecs and Mayans of Yucatan and Central America used picture-writing, and sometimes an imperfect form of hieroglyphics. The most elementary kind was simply a rough sketch of a scene or historical group which they wished to record. When, for example, Cortes had his first interview with some messengers sent by Montezuma, one of the Aztecs was observed sketching the dress and appearance of the Spaniards, and then completing his picture by using colors. Even in recent times Indians have recorded facts by pictographs: in Harper's Magazine (August, 1902) we read that "pictographs and painted rocks to the number of over 3,000 are scattered all over the United States, from the Dighton Rock, Ma.s.sachusetts (_v_. pp. 27, 28), to the Kern River Canon in California, and from the Florida Cape to the Mouse River in Manitoba.

The ident.i.ty of the Indians with their ancient progenitors is further proved by relics, mortuary customs, linguistic similarities, plants and vegetables, and primitive industrial and mechanical arts, which have remained constant throughout the ages." The pictographs of the Kern River Canon, according to the same writer, were inscribed on the rocks there "about five thousand years ago."

A more advanced form of picture-writing is frequently found in the Mayan and other inscriptions and ma.n.u.scripts. Two objects are represented, whose names, when p.r.o.nounced together, give a sound which suggests the name to be recorded or remembered. Thus, the name Gladstone may be expressed in this manner by two pictures, one a laughing face (i. e., "happy" or "glad"), the other a rock (i. e., "stone"). It is exactly the same contrivance that is used to construct the puzzle called a "rebus."

A third form of hieroglyphic was by devising some conventional mark or symbol to suggest the initial sound of the name to be recorded. Such a mark or character would be a "letter," in fact; and thus the prehistoric alphabets were arrived at, not only among the early Mayans of Yucatan, etc., but among the prehistoric peoples of Asia, as the Chinese, the Hitt.i.tes, etc., as well as the primeval Egyptians. Many of the sculptures in Copan and Palenque to which we have referred contain pictographs and hieroglyphs. A Spanish Bishop of Yucatan drew up a Mayan alphabet in order to express the hieroglyphs on monuments and ma.n.u.scripts in Roman letters; but much more data are needed before scholars will read the ancient Mayan-Aztec tongues as they have been enabled to understand the Egyptian inscriptions or the cuneiform records of Babylonia. For the American hieroglyphs we still lack a second Young or Champollion.

There are three famous ma.n.u.scripts in the Mayan character:

1. The Dresden Codex, preserved in the Royal Library of that city.

It is called a "religious and astrological ritual" by Abbe Bra.s.seur.

2. Codex Troano, in Madrid, described in two folios by Abbe Bra.s.seur.

3. Codex Peresia.n.u.s, named from the wrapper in which it was found, 1859, which had the name "Perez." It is also known as Codex Mexica.n.u.s.

In Lord Kingsborough's great work on Mexican Antiquities there are several of the Mayan ma.n.u.scripts printed in facsimile, and others in a book by M. Aubin, of Paris.

Each group of letters in a Mayan inscription is enclosed in an irregular oval, supposed to resemble the cross-section of a pebble; hence the term _calculiform_ (i. e., "pebble-shaped") is applied to their hieroglyphs, as _cuneiform_ (i. e., "wedge-shaped") is applied to the Babylonian and a.s.syrian letters.

The paper which the prehistoric Mexicans (Mayas, Aztecs, or Tescucans, etc.) used for writing and drawing upon was of vegetable origin, like the Egyptian papyrus. It was made by macerating the leaves of the _maguey_, a plant of the greatest importance (_v._ p. 94). When the surface of the paper was glazed, the letters were painted on in brilliant colors, proceeding from left to right, as we do. Each book was a strip of paper, several yards long and about ten inches wide, not rolled round a stick, as the volumes of ancient Rome were, but folded zigzag, like a screen. The protecting boards which held the book were often artistically carved and painted.

The topics of the ordinary books, so far as we yet know, were religious ritual, dreams, and prophecies, the calendar, chronological notes, medical superst.i.tions, portents of marriage and birth. The written language was in common and extensive use for the legal conveyance and sale of property.

One of the most remarkable facts connected with this extinct civilization was the accuracy of their calendar and chronological system. Their calendar was actually superior to that then existing in Europe. They had two years: one for civil purposes, of three hundred and sixty-five days, divided into eighteen months of twenty days, besides five supplementary days; the other, a ritual or ecclesiastical year, to regulate the public festivals. The civil year required thirteen days to be added at the end of every fifty-two years, so as to harmonize with the ritual year. Each month contained four weeks of five days, but as each of the twenty days (forming a month) had a distinct name, Humboldt concluded that the names were borrowed from a prehistoric calendar, used in India and Tartary.

Wilson (Prehistoric Man, i, 133) remarks:

By the unaided results of native science the dwellers on the Mexican plateau had effected an adjustment of civil to solar time so nearly correct that when the Spaniards landed on their coast, their own reckoning according to the unreformed Julian calendar, was really eleven days in error, compared with that of the barbarian nation whose civilization they so speedily effaced.