THE AZTEC AND MAYA ARCHtEOLOGY 433
CHAPTER XIII
THE AZTEC AND MAYA ARCHIOLOGY
Mexico and Central America form, archological1y, a region
of great interest, not inferior in this respect to Peru and
Bolivia. This portion of America was the home in preHispanic times of several distinct but connected civilisations, whose evolved or derived cultures and building powers
were the admiration of the first European adventurers, and
to-day are subjects of deep interest to the antiquarian. It
is not the purpose in this chapter to enter into a full description of these ancient civilisations, but to provide a few
broad details concerning the existing structures and remains
scattered throughout the region. The state of civilisation
existing at the time of the Conquest has not been without
exaggeration, both by the Spaniards, who strove to represent the things they encountered in high colours to their
monarch and countrymen, and also by later writers The
great bulk of the early Mexicans lived—as many of them
do to-day--in huts of mud or reed; and the stone buildings,
whose beauty and ingenuity need no exaggeration, were
structures of a special nature.
The valley of Mexico was the seat of the Aztecs and
kindred peoples, themselves successors to the far more
ancient Toltecs ; evidence of whose arts exist in the great
pyramids encountered in different parts of the region, such
as those at Teotihuacan, slightly north of the city of Mexico,
Papantla, Cholula and others. South of this region lies
the seat of the Zapotec culture, with the remarkable ruins
of Mitla as its centre ; and still further south, in Yucatan,
Chiapas, and the republic of Guatemala, the Mayas and
Quiches flourished, and left to posterity the extraordinary
EE
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pyramid-temples and objects of sculptured stone which to-day
stand amid the jungles and forests of those regions. The
monuments of these ancient civilisations cover a very large
range of territory, and the extent and variety of the remains
are such as have supplied material for an extensive literature The Toltec pyramids in some cases rival in size the
pyramids of Egypt, and in certain points of construction
the stone-built halls of the Mayas have no superior among the
ancient structures of the world. The early civilisations
of Mexico and Central America present the same problem
of origin or development as those of Peru. Recent excavations at Teotihuacan shew that various culture periods
followed each other in Mexico as in Peru. The Mexicans
had not the remarkable land laws and social system of the
Incas, but they were more advanced in the evolution of a
"literature " in their picture-writing. In their religion
also, they were not without some vision of an unknown God
Whether the early Peruvian and Mexican cultures were
indigenous—the result of the national reaction of man
to his environment—or whether they were offshoots of Old
World cultures are problems which have occupied much
attention, but which are still unsolved. Both aspects
of the question have their adherents. Of the Toltecs little
is known. The Aztecs were in their full prosperity when the
Spaniards under Cortes arrived, but the Mayas were more
or less decadent. Whatever may be the truth regarding
their origin, the culture they displayed must have taken
an equal time to develop with those of the Old World
The tendency exists among anthropologists to admit a
common origin, if very remote, between the tribes of Tartary
and America: and the resemblance may be noted by any
traveller. This, however, may be a circumstance apart from
any relationship in culture origin.
The northernmost monument or ruin of the pre-Hispanic
people in Mexico* is that at Quemada, in the state of Zacatecas, consisting in the remains of a stone building of some
* The arhology of Western North America, Mexico, and Peru is
described and illustrated in the author's book, "The Secret of the
Pacific." T. Fisher Unrn, London, 1912.
THE AZTEC AND MAYA ARCH?EOLOGY 435
considerable extent. North of this the remains are mainly of
adobe, such as the remarkable ruins of the great community
house of Casas Grandes, upon the United States border,
near Ciudad Juarez. Far to the north of the border, in
Arizona, Utah and Colorado, are the famous stone buildings
of the Cliff-Dwellers, which have much in common with
the more primitive works of the Aztecs of Mexico, and their
contemporaries or predecessors.
It is to the Toltecs—a vague and shadowy people of whom
more is conjectured than really known—that the most
striking monuments north of the city of Mexico are attributed: the famous pyramids or teocallis of the Sun and the
Moon at San Juan Teotihuacan, in the valley of Mexico; and
this great Egyptian-like structure is the chief riddle of early
Mexico. The pyramid of the Sun is 700 feet long on the base
and nearly 200 feet high, and exploration and restoration
work has been carried out of late by the Mexican governments. The structure is perfectly oriented ; its principal
side to the east. It consists in four terraced portions, and
is truncated: and upon the summit platform, tradition
states, an image of the sun-god, with a burnished gold
plate upon its breast, flashed back the rays of the rising
sun.
In the national museum of the city of Mexico are preserved a large, interesting collection of objects, mainly
of sculptured stone, of Toltec, Aztec and Maya origin.
Principal among these is the famous Calendar stone of the
Aztecs, or sun-stone, a beautiful and massive monolith of
carved basalt, circular in form, and twelve feet in diameter.
The stone was both a sun-dial and a calendar, such as the
Egyptians and the Chaldeans used, and the procession of
cyclical animals carved thereon, and other characteristics,
have given rise to the assumption by various authorities—
among them Humboldt—that the chronological system which
produced the stone must have had some connection with that
of the Tartar zodiac, and possibly the Chinese and Indian
astronomical systems. A translation of a hieroglyphic on
the stone has given its age as from the year 1479 . D. ; but
it must have been a copy of a previous example, handed
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down or evolved through thousands of years. Other
remarkable objects are the sacrificial stone, nearly nine feet
in diameter, circular, and beautifully sculptured with
figures, from a block of trachyte. Upon this stone the
human victims in the appalling religious sacrifices of the
Aztecs were butchered, their breasts cut open with obsidian
knives and the still-beating heart torn out and flung before
the statue of the war-gods, in the temples on the summit
of the teocalli or pyramid. Most terrible and repulsive of
all the idols which have been recovered is that of Coatlique,
the woman-god, or goddess of the dead, a figure which it is
supposed was placed on the summit of the tcocalli of the
capital, as it was found buried in the great plaza of Mexico
city. It is also of trachyte, eight feet and a half high,
carved with a skirt of serpents, and half-human head and
hands. This striking and repulsive idol is preserved in the
museum, along with many other objects of almost equal
interest, including various other huge sculptured figures,
in some cases presenting features curiously " Egyptian " in
character.
Others of the well-known pyramids and mounds of Mexico
are those of Papantla, near Vera Cruz, remarkable for its
likeness with similar works in the Old World. Xochicalco,
a small structure of elaborately sculptured stone, and
Cholula, larger than the pyramid of Cheops, measuring
1,440 feet on the base, but much deformed by time.
Further towards the south, in the state of Oaxaca, lie
Monte Alban and Mitla. In the first named, entire crests
of hills have been cut away to form terraces on the summits,
and pyramids, courts and quadrangles constructed thereon
and the work, like that of Teotihuacan, must have called for
an astonishing display of power by their constructors, and involved the labour of anumcrous population: doubtless under
the mandates, for generations, of Mexican Pharoahs.
The beautiful ruins of Mitla are still in a fine state of preservation, and exhibit an extensive series of halls, walls and
doorways, great monolithic columns and lintels, and highlysculptured façades. The Hall of the Monoliths is 125 feet
long, with a row of columns down the centre formed of
THE AZTEC AND MAYA ARCHAEOLOGY 437
shafts of trachyte, twenty feet long and in some cases
weighing twenty tons, which were quarried five miles away
in the hills 1 1 000 feet above the site of the buildings, and
transported thereto by methods which can scarcely be conjectured. Some column-stones still remain in the quarry
unmoved. The most striking features of Mitla, however, are
the richly carved and fretted walls, interior and exterior ; *
a beautifully executed 'Greek" pattern or geometrical
design, in which is traced the square or zig-zag fret and
"stepped" pattern encountered from Arizona to Peru, and
on textile fabrics throughout Mexico and Peru, and even
among the Indians of the Amazon and of Panama; and
such as is figured on Japanese and Chinese sculpture, and
is, in brief, a common ornament throughout the world.
With this, and in its world-wide occurrence, is associated
the familar device of the Swastika. Mitla is one of the
greatest archaeological mysteries of the world, and it is conjectured that it was the abode of some peculiar religious sect,
possibly of a character such as is revealed in Buddhist lands.
South, or rather east, of Mitla begins the archaeological
region of Central America, the home of the Maya and
Quiche cultures. In some respects the extensive series of
halls and pyramids there encountered—which astonished
Europe when they were discovered, and which still excite
the admiration of the traveller—are the most remarkable
in the New World. They protrude from the jungle which
has overwhelmed them, like fairy places, the creation of
myths rather than actual fact. The principal of these
ruins lie in the north of the peninsular of Yucatan, known as
Uxmal and Chichen Itza, followed by those of Palenque
in the state of Chiapas, and Quirigua and Copan, across
the border in Guatemala, with other numerous remains
scattered throughout Central America. Some represent
the ruins of entire cities which once flourished there,
others of single structures. They comprise pyramids with
temples on the summit platform, reached by staircases;
sometimes built of adobe, but in general of stone with a
covering of carved slabs ; halls, quadrangles, galleries,
* J1ltratd in The Secret of the Pacific,' ante.
CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
dwellings for priests, subterranean works, "tennis courts"—
for in these structures the early Mexicans played a ball game
with an india rubber ball; also sculptural figures, friezes,
stairways and other matters; and at Copan and Quirigua
great carved stelae, and enormous stones sculptured in the
form of reptiles. Uxmal contains five great groups of
structures: vast halls of stone, with facings and decorations executed with great skill. The buildings are generally
rectangular in form, with one or two stories, having roofcrests of remarkable shape which give an appearance of
great height. The interior construction is that of the Maya
"arch" or rather vault, for the true principle of the
arch was unknown in early Mexico as in early Peru.
Among the chief buildings is the" Temple of the Magicians"
so-called, upon a pyramid 240 feet long on the base, with
a wide stone stairway leading to the summit, upon which
are situated the vaulted chambers. The " Nunnery," the
House of the Turtles," the " House of the Pigeons," the
"Governor's Palace" are other structures at Uxmal of a
somewhat similar character. They appear to have been
communal dwellings for priestly orders. The feathered
serpent, well known as an early Mexican or Mayan emblem,
is constantly sculptured upon the walls and columns, in the
mytho-asthetic motive of the decorations.
Chiclien Itza is scarcely less noteworthy. There are eight
principal bodies of ruins, grouped round two natural flowing
sacred " wells, the cenoles, which exist in the singular
limestone formation of Yucatan. The beautiful façades
of the temples and halls of Chichen reveal singular designs,
in which some archaeologists have endeavoured to prove
Indian, Bhuddist, Japanese and Egyptian traits. The
largest well is 350 feet long. The " Casa de Monjas," one
of the principal buildings, is of three storeys, and includes
the " Caracol," a small round structure; also "El Castillo,"
an ornate temple on the summit of a peculiar pyramid 200
feet on the square, and seventy-five feet high, adorned with
serpent pillars; and another temple-pyramid with caryatid
figures; also a tennis court and the 'Temple of the Tigers"
with coloured reliefs.
THE AZTEC AND MAYA ARCH2OLOGY 439
The exquisite execution of this work gives rise to the
question, as it does with regard to the trachyte figures in
the Mexican museum, of how such work could be performed
without the use of steel tools, and how buildings of so
excellent a form of construction could be built withoutpresumably—any instruments of precision. Buildings are
true and plumb and scientifically formed.
At Quirigua in Guatemala, in a valley which has been
described as "a sheltered tropical paradise," and scattered
over an area of some 200 square miles, are the remains and
monuments of the Mayas; mounds, monoliths, graves,
buildings ; silent witnesses to a bygone people, and the
centre of some strange old civilisation. The principal
monuments are the great sculptured steim, or vertical
shafts of stone, still standing in their original position.
These are of sandstone, the carving in low relief, exceedingly ornate, the tallest being twenty feet above the ground,
and probably ten feet below, and five feet square. They are
remarkably well preserved,and,are maintained by the government as public property. Some are carved with the faces
of women, others with hieroglyphics, and upon some figures
the " sphent " or headdress of the Egyptian is observed,
or at least some have traced the similarity. The ruined
city of Quirigua lies in the heart of the jungle, but must
have formed a metropolis in pre-Hispanic days.
Guatemala was the centre of the great Quiche nation,
which was ruthlessly destroyed, like the Aztecs and the
Incas, at the time of the Spanish Conquest, but various
valuable documents remain, which throw some light on the
religions of the people, including the famous Popol Vuh,
containing the Quiche version of the creation of the world,
and of some great migration.
Copan lies in Honduras, and contains ancient sculptured
buildings and terraced structures, which have been made the
subject of a good deal of archeological investigation, and
from which some examples of carvings are in the British
Museum. In other parts of Honduras are ruined pyramids,
terraced stone mounds, ramparts and other ancient works,
which extend into Salvador and even to British Honduras,
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CENTRAL AND SOUTH AMERICA
but appear to terminate at the borders of Nicaragua and
Costa Rica. At Chiriqui, in Panama, however, a notable
ancient art in metal-craft flourished, as shewn by the
objects recovered.
In Colombia there are also traditions of earlier civilisations and remains of works, in the form of roads and other
matters, and taken with Ecuador and Peru it is seen that
the ancient civilisation of America flourished with more or
less intensity throughout a region extending over qo° of
latitude, or nearly 5,000 miles. From Babylon to Egypt,
from the civilisation of the Euphrates to that of the Nile,
was but a thousand miles, and thus the ancient civilisations
of America were spread over a wider area than those of the
Old World. What the connection between ancient Mexico,
Central America, and Peru was, it is at present impossible
to say, but it would seem reasonable to suppose that all
these cultures had a common basis, although they may
have become separated later. It cannot be doubted that,
as increasing attention is directed to Latin American
archaeology, the problems of origin and development of
these early civilisations will be solved. The structures
themselves are of the utmost interest, and fuller measures
should be taken for their preservation.