The Aborigines of America: Mexico

Many of these structures were evidently erected for defensive purposes, and they constitute an extensive system of earthworks on the hills and river-bluffs, indicating a considerable population in the valleys below. Other works are remarkably regular earthworks on the valley levels, forming enclosures in various geometrical patterns, which comprise circles, squares, and other figures. The purpose of these peculiar enclosures is unknown, though it was probably connected with religious observances. Of the smaller mounds, some are supposed to have been used as altars; but the most numerous class are the burial-mounds, in which skeletons have often been found. In Wisconsin, and to some extent elsewhere, are found mounds rudely imitating the shape of animals. But the most extraordinary of these erections, from their great size and the enormous degree of labor which they indicate, are the so-called "temple mounds," of which the one at Cahokia, Illinois, measures seven hundred by five hundred feet at base and ninety feet in perpendicular height. It was probably the seat of a temple. Many similar mounds, though none so large as this, exist in the Gulf States.

The mounds contain very numerous relies of the arts of their builders, these consisting of various articles of pottery, stone pipes of highly-skilful construction, in imitation of animal forms, stone implements in great variety, ornaments of beaten copper, pearls, plates of mica, fragments of woven fabrics, and other articles, indicative of much industry and a considerable advance in the simpler arts.

Whether the semi-civilization of this people developed in the region in which their remains are found, or is due to the northward movement of a civilized people from the south, cannot be decided. That they were a numerous agricultural people, under the control of a despotic government, and of strong religious superstitions, seems evident from the vast labors which they performed and the religious purpose of the greatest of these works. There is abundant reason to believe that they were in hostile relations with tribes of savages, perhaps the original inhabitants of the country, to the northward and eastward. Against the assaults of these the earthworks were built. These assaults were finally successful. The "Mound-Builders" were conquered, and either annihilated or, more probably, driven south. It is highly improbable that they constituted a single empire, or a series of extensive governments. We may more safely consider them as a congeries of strong tribal organizations, probably to some extent mutually hostile, who were weakened by intestine wars and conquered piecemeal by their numerous and persistent savage foes.

Before considering the political and other relations of the northern Indians, some reference may be made to the architectural remains of the other aborigines of America. Remarkable ruins exist in the mountain-region of the west, in parts of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, Arizona, and northern Mexico. Principal among these are the Pueblo buildings, huge communistic structures, of several stories in height, and some of them capable of sheltering a whole tribe within their very numerous apartments. Of these edifices some are of adobe, others of stone. They are probably of considerable antiquity, and most of them are in ruins, though several are still inhabited. Still more remarkable are the "cliff dwellings," recently discovered in the river-canons of this region. These exist at considerable heights, occasionally as much as six hundred to eight hundred feet, in almost inaccessible situations in perpendicular cliffs, in which they occupy clefts or natural terraces. They were doubtless intended as places of refuge from dangerous foes, though they occur in localities now so barren that it is not easy to perceive how their inhabitants obtained subsistence.

The architectural remains of Mexico, Central America, and Peru are far too numerous and important to be described in the brief space at our command. Some of the more imposing of those of Mexico are pyramidal mounds, not unlike the temple mounds of the north, though occasionally much larger. Of these the most extensive is the great pyramid of Cholula, which covers twice the area of the great Egyptian pyramid of Cheops. The height is variously estimated at one hundred and seventy-seven to two hundred and five feet. This huge structure is built of small sun-dried bricks, alternated with layers of clay. It may have been moulded on a natural eminence, though this is doubtful. The temple of the deity Quetzalcoatl, which once occupied its summit, was destroyed by the Spanish invaders.

In Yucatan, Chiapas, Honduras, and Guatemala have been found the ruins of enormous and profusely-sculptured stone edifices, built on truncated pyramids, of which that of Palenque measures two hundred and sixty by three hundred and ten feet, and is forty feet high. Its sides were originally faced with cut stone, while the building displays a considerable advance in the arts of architecture and sculpture. Numerous other such structures exist, which display great boldness and skill in architecture. As to who built these forest-buried edifices no positive knowledge exists, though there is some reason to believe that they were still in use, and surrounded by cities, at the epoch of the Spanish conquest.