LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 1. Gateway at Labna.... 2. Great Mound near Miamisburg. 3. Square Mound near Marietta.. 4. Works at Cedar Bank, Ohio.. 5. Works in Washington County, Mississippi 6. Works at Hopeton, Ohio.... 7. Principal Figures of the Hopeton Works. 8. Graded Way near Piketon, Ohio 10. Fortified Hill, Butler County, Ohio.... 12. Work on North Fork of Paint Creek. 13. Ancient Work, Pike County, Ohio 16. Work in Randolph County, Indiana. 17. 18. Vases from the Mounds.. 19. Ancient Mining Shaft... 20. Pueblo Ruin at Pecos.. 21. Modern Zuni....... 22. Ruins in the Valley of the Gila.. 23. Pueblo Building restored.. 24. Ground Plan of the Building. 25. Arch of Los Monjas, Uxmal. 26. Arch most common in the Ruins. 27. Casa No. 1, Palenque..... 30. Ruins at Mitla.... 31. Great Hall at Mitla.. 32. A ruined "Palace" at Mitla. 33. Mosaic Decoration at Mitla 35. Circular Edifice at Mayapan 38. Two-headed Figure at Uxmal....... xii List of Illustrations. 39. Decorations over Doorway, Uxmal. 40. Ground Plan of Las Monjas, Uxmal. 41. Ruined Arch at Kabah.. 42. Casa Colorada, Chichen-Itza.. 43. Great Stone Ring.. 44. Great Mound at Xcoch 45. Bottom of an Aguada.. 46. Subterranean Reservoir. 47. Plan of the Walls of Tuloom.. 48. Watch-tower at Tuloom.. 149 52. Ruins of a "Temple" on the Island of Titicaca.. 228 UNIV. OF ANCIENT AMERICA. I. THE MOUND-BUILDERS. ONE of the most learned writers on American antiquities, a Frenchman, speaking of discoveries in Peru, exclaims, “America is to be again discovered! We must remove the veil in which Spanish politics has sought to bury its ancient civilization!" In this case, quite as much is due to the ignorance, indifference, unscrupulous greed, and religious fanaticism of the Spaniards, as to Spanish politics. The gold-hunting marauders who subjugated Mexico and Peru could be robbers and destroyers, but they were not qualified in any respect to become intelligent students of American antiquity. What a select company of investigators, such as could be organized in our time, might have done in Mexico and Central America, for instance, three hundred and fifty years ago, is easily understood. In what they did, and in what they failed to do, the Spaniards who went there acted in strict accordance with such character as they had; and yet we 14 90 VIŅU CYTILOKMNY Ancient America. are not wholly without obligation to some of the more intelligent Spaniards connected with the Conquest. There are existing monuments of an American ancient history which invite study, and most of which might, doubtless, have been studied more successfully in the first part of the sixteenth century, before nearly all the old books of Central America had been destroyed by Spanish fanaticism, than at present. Remains of ancient civilizations, differing to some extent in degree and character, are found in three great sections of the American continent the west side of South America, between Chili and the first or second degree of north latitude; Central America and Mexico; and the valleys of the Mississippi and the Ohio. These regions have all been explored to some extent-not completely, but sufficiently to show the significance and importance of their archæological remains, most of which were already mysterious antiquities when the continent was discovered by Columbus. I propose to give some account of these antiquities, not for the edification of those already learned in American archæology, but for general readers who have not made the subject a study. My sketches will begin with the Mississippi Valley and the regions connected with it. THE MOUND-BUILDERS-THEIR WORKS. An ancient and unknown people left remains of settled life, and of a certain degree of civilization, in the valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries. We have no authentic name for them either as a nation or a race; |