Transcriber's Note A number of typographical errors have been maintained in this version ofthis book. They have been marked with a [TN-#], which refers to adescription in the complete list found at the end of the text. Inconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been maintained. A listof inconsistently spelled and hyphenated words is found at the end ofthe text. Oe ligatures have been expanded. THE ANCIENT MONUMENTS OF NORTH AND SOUTH AMERICA. SECOND EDITION, Corrected, enlarged and with some additions, BY C. S. RAFINESQUE, A. M. --Ph. D. _Professor of Historical and Natural Sciences, Member of many LearnedSocieties in Philadelphia, New York, Lexington, Cincinnatti, [TN-1]Nashville, Paris, Bordeaux, Brussels, Bonn, Vienna, Zurich, Naples &c, the American Antiquarian Society, the Northern Antiquarian Society ofCopenhagen &c. _ The massive ruins the arts and skill unfold Of busy workers, and their styles reveal, The objects and designs of such devisers: In silent voices they speak, to thinking minds They teach, who were the human throngs that left Uplifted marks for witness of past ages. _PHILADELPHIA_ 1838. Printed for the Author. NOTICE. This Essay or Introduction to my Researches on the Antiquities andMonuments of North and South America, was printed in September 1838 inthe first Number of the American Museum of Baltimore, a literary monthlyperiodical undertaken by Messrs. Brooks and Snodgrass, as a new seriesof the North American Quarterly Magazine. Being printed in a hurry andat a distance several material errors occured, [TN-2] which are nowrectified, and this second edition will form thereby the Introduction tomy long contemplated Work on the Ancient Monuments of this continent: towhich I alluded in my work on the Ancient Nations of America publishedin 1836. I will add some notes or additions thereto, and maygradualy[TN-3] publish my original descriptions and views, plans, maps&c, of such as I have surveyed, examined and studied between 1818 andthis time; comparing them with those observed by others in America orelsewhere of the same character--such works are of a national importanceor interest, and ought to be patronized by the States or LearnedSocieties, or wealthy patriots; but if there is little prospect of theirdoing so, I must either delay or curtail the publication of theinteresting materials collected for 20 years past. INTRODUCTION. The feelings that lead some men to investigate remains of antiquity andsearch into their origin, dates and purposes, are similar to thoseactuating lofty minds, when not satisfied with the surface of things, they inquire into the source and origin of every thing accessible tohuman ken, and scrutinize or analize[TN-4] every tangible object. Suchfeelings lead us to trace events and principles, to ascend rivers totheir sources, to climb the rugged sides of mountains and reach theirlofty summits, to plough the waves and dive into the sea, or even soarinto the air, to scan and measure the heavenly bodies, and at last tolift our eyes and souls to the _Supreme Being_, the source ofall. --Applied to mankind the same feelings invite us to seek for theorigin of arts and sciences, the steps of civilization on earth, therise of nations, states and empires, tracing their cradles, dispersionsand migrations by the dim records of traditional tales, or the morecertain monumental evidence of human structures. This last evidence is but a branch of the archeological science, embracing besides the study of documents, records, medals, coins, inscriptions, implements, &c. , buried in the earth or hidden inrecesses: while the ruins of cities, palaces and temples, altars andgraves, pyramids and towers, walls and roads, sculptures andidols--reveal to our inquiries not only the existence of their devisersand framers at their locations, but give us a view of theircivilization, religions, manners and abilities. If the annals of the Greeks and Romans had been lost, as have been thoseof Egypt, of Assyria and many other early empires, we should still havein the ruins and monuments of Italy, and Greece, complete evidence ofthe existence of those nations, their location, power and skill; nay, even of the extent of their dominion by their colonial monuments, scattered from Syria to Spain, from Lybia to Britain. If the Britishannals should ever be lost hereafter by neglect or revolutions, theruins of dwellings, churches, monuments &c. , built in the British style, will reveal the existence or preserve the memory of the wide extent ofBritish power by colonies sent from North America to Guyana, fromHindustan to Ceylon, South Africa and Australia. And thus it is in both Americas where many nations and empires havedwelt and passed away, risen and fallen by turns, leaving few or norecords, except the traces of their existence, and widely spreadcolonies by the ruins of their cities and monuments, standing yet assilent witnesses of past dominion and great power. It is only of latethat they have begun to deserve the attention of learned men andhistorians--what had been stated by Ulloa, Humboldt, Juarros, Delrio, &c. , of some of them, chiefly found in the Spanish part of America, aswell as the scattered accounts of the many fragments found in NorthAmerica, from the lakes of Canada to Louisiana, although confined to afew places or widely remote localities, have begun to excite thecuriosity of all inquiring men, and are soon likely to deserve as muchinterest as the famed ruins of Palmyra and Thebes, Babylon andPersepolis; when the future historians of America shall make known thewonderful and astonishing results that they have suggested, or willsoon unfold, particularly when accurately surveyed and explored, drawnand engraved; instead of being hidden and veiled, or hardly noticed bythe detractors of the Americans, the false historians of the school ofDepaw and Robertson, who have perverted or omitted the most strikingfeatures of American history. The most erroneous conceptions prevail as yet concerning them, and themost rude or absurd ideas are entertained in our country of theirobjects and nature. As in modern Greece, every ruin is now a_Paleo-castro_ or old castle for the vulgar peasant or herdsman, thusall our ruins of the West are _Indian forts_ for the settlers of theWestern states; and every traveller gazing at random at a few, exclaimsthat _nothing is known about them, nor their builders_. The more refinedwriters can be very sentimental on their veiled origin, but scarcely anyone takes the trouble to compare them with others elsewhere, in or outof America, which would be, however, the only means to attain the objectthey seem desirous of, or to unravel their historical riddle. Somewriters speak of them as if they were only a few mounds and graves, scarcely worthy of notice; yet they are such mounds as are found yet inthe Trojan plains, sung by Homer, dating at least three thousand yearsago, and even by many deemed earlier than the Trojan war, and stillexisting to this day to baffle our inquiries: while similar monumentsexisting by thousands in the plains of Scythia and Tartary, Persia andArabia, as well as the forests and prairies of North America, evince astriking connexion of purpose and skill by remote ancient nations ofboth hemispheres. But our monuments do not merely consist in such mounds or tumuli, sincewe find besides in North America, ruins of cities, some of which werewalled with earth or even stones, real forts or citadels, temples andaltars of all shapes, but chiefly circular, square or polygonal, someelliptical, hexagonal, octagonal, _&_c. , quite regularly pointing to thecardinal points. We have also traces of buildings, foundations, roads, avenues, causeways, canals, bridges, dromes, or racecourses, pillars andpyramids, wells, pits, arenas, _&_c. And of these not a few, buthundreds of them, many of which are unsurveyed and undescribed as yet. These, it must be recollected, are all north of Mexico, or the region ofthe more perfect monuments of Mexican and Central America, althoughoften in the same style. There, as in South America, structures are metof the most elaborate workmanship, of cut and carved stones, with hardcement, vaulted arches, fine sculptures and even inscriptions. Thematerials of our Northern monuments are often ruder, chiefly of earth, clay, gravel, small stones, or even _shells_ near the sea-shores, sometimes of _pizé_ or beaten and rammed clay, (as in Peru, ) unbakedbricks and rough stones. These facts may confirm the Mexican traditions, stating that the nations of Anahuac (now Mexico) once dwelt furthernorth, in our fruitful Western plains, where wood abounded and stoneswere scarce, wherefore they built their cities and _t_emples[TN-5] ofwood, raising altars, platforms, walls and entrenchments of earth orclay. The dreams and false hypotheses upon America have amused the learned forages: in attempting to account for the origin of the Americans andtheir monuments, they have generally neglected to compare them with themonuments and languages of all the other nations scattered over thewhole earth, or else only taking a partial view of them, comparing a fewfragments of two or three nations or regions, a few words of acentesimal part of the actual languages, the writers or historians havefallen into egregious mistakes; more fond of systematic errors thanhidden truth, they have indulged, without due consideration, in meredreams or systems, based on a few facts, that are overruled by hundredsof other facts, unknown to them, or neglected when known. It would beuseless and tedious to refute again such false systems, that have beenrefuted and upset by each other. It may, however, be needful, perhaps, to mention three of the most absurd, in order to warn against them, orshow their improbability and impossibility. They may be called fordistinction sake, the _Jewish_ system, the _Mongolic_ system, and the_American_ system. Among these the first named is one of the oldest, and at the same time, has yet a powerful hold upon many minds; it ascribes the whole Americanpopulation with one hundred languages and one thousand dialects, myriadsof ruins and monuments, _to the Jews_! either of the ten dispersedtribes, who were not Jews but Israelites--or of Solomon's time andvoyages, while the Jews only began to exist as such after his death--orof patriarchal times antecedent to their existence, when they were onlyOBRIM, whom we miscall _Hebrews_, or going still further back to thetimes of Noah and Peleg, when not even the Obrim had any existence. Ithas been proved that the American nations did not possess the use ofthe plough, iron, alphabets, or week of seven days, which no Jewish norHebrew descendants could have forgotten. The American languages have asmuch, or more affinities with the Sanscrit, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Persian, Berber, Turkish, &c. , languages, than with the old and modernHebrew and Arabic. The Jews or IEUDI, who only began two thousand fourhundred years ago were not navigators; therefore it is evident that theycannot have come to America and produced here the two thousand nationsand tribes of this vast continent: nay, not even a single one of themperhaps. The Mongolic opinion, lately revived by Ranking, is the most extravagantof all, since it ventures to assert seriously, and derive all thesenations and languages from late colonies of Mongols within less than onethousand years ago, who came to America over the ice, bringing with themtame elephants for sport, that are since become the fossil elephants andmammoths buried in our diluvial or alluvial soil--to state theseabsurdities is a sufficient refutation, every man of any reading andscientific knowledge will perceive the impossibility. Galindo and Josiah Priest have quite lately revived also the opinion ofsome dreaming philosophers who had asserted that America was the _cradleof mankind_ or one of them, instead of Central Asia. Galindo allows, however, the Caucasian race of men to be distinct; but he says--"_Thehum_a_n[TN-6] race of America I must assert to be the most ancient onthe globe_;[TN-7]"[8-*] He goes on to state that to the primæval civilization of America must beassigned a great and indefinite antiquity, leaving however no palpablemonuments; but sending colonies to civilize China and Japan! is not thispreposterous? where are the proofs either from traditions, languages, monuments or other sources? Meantime Josiah Priest, in his compilation on American antiquities, hasboldly asserted that Noah's ark rested in America, (whereabout?) andthat he had three sons, one white, one red and one black! (what was thecolor of their wives?) from whom are descended the three races ofmankind, who colonized the whole earth, leaving, however, neither whitenor black in America[TN-8] The glaring incongruity, of these boldassertions, or of the indefinite origin of Galindo are equally palpable;but nevertheless it is not improbable that they will find now andhereafter other advocates, since the absurd Jewish origin of all theAmericans has still many believers, and even Ranking has perhaps somesupporters. To admit that America was the only cradle of mankind, is based on noevidence whatever, either historical or philological or monumental:while on the contrary all the monuments and records of the easternoontinent[TN-9] trace this cradle to Central Asia. To suppose thatAmerica was one of the human cradles, is certainly worthy of inquiry;but such a cradle must be sought for and located somewhere, and neitherthe volcanic mountains, nor swampy plains of South America, nor thefrigid wilds of North America, appear calculated to offer it. Othershave been thought of in Africa and Australia; but seldom in the spiritof seeking truth, rather in that of supporting some favorite doctrine. Such speculations ought at least to be based on better foundations thanmere assertions, evident philological proofs are required before theycan be listened to, and no total and complete diversity of mankind inevery aspect has been found any where to support the theory of aplurality of human species and Cradles. Europe and Africa have beenrepeatedly invaded by migrations from Asia. In America such migrationscan be traced north and east by the Atlantic ocean, or north west fromBerhring's[TN-10] strait, while we have not the faintest indication ofinvasions of Asia from America. The only traditional account of theinvasion of Europe, and North Africa by the _Atlantes_ (probablyAmericans, for the great _Atlantis_ was this continent) is involved indoubt, and besides these very Atlantes were deemed Neptunian colonies;although it must be confessed that in almost every instance thecolonists to America appear to have found previous inhabitants, who musthave been still earlier and remote colonies, if they were notindigenous. But the sea-shores of North America from Labrador toCarolina were desert at a very late period comparatively, when theWestern tribes came there. The actual purpose does not extend to all the details of these deepinquiries, but is chiefly confined to ascertain and prove the similarityof the oldest primitive monuments of both hemispheres, and whereby aconnection of coeval and similar civilization is evinced in the earliesttimes before the records of history. This evidence, which may be called_monumental_, dives into the gloom of past ages, and hence descends toours, reaching our understanding by gradual links: while the_philological_ evidence of spoken modern languages, fragments orchildren of older primitive languages, ascends by their means to equalantiquity; both combining, therefore, to complete the history ofmankind, where annals and traditions cease to lead us or are quiteobscure: these combined bring more certainty to the scrutinising mindthan the mere physical features of men, and their complexions, sofluctuating and mingled. But neither of them solve the question of theactual original Cradle or Cradles of mankind. If indeed monuments andlanguages of various parts of the earth were quite different, and thefeatures or colors of men likewise distinct there, we might supposethere could have been several species and cradles of men: but it is notso, features and languages are so variable and mingling in our owntimes, and so diversified every where, as to baffle and precludecomplete insulation. Monuments are also after all so much alike in manyremote parts, that although divisible into styles of various ages andstages of improvement, they do evince a great similarity in coeval agesor stages of civilization. To prove this great fact and the important results, might be the subjectof a large work, and we have heard that Mr. Warden has been engaged inParis in something of this kind. His work has not yet reached us; butwhenever it will be completed, it shall be only one step towards theelucidation of this deep theme. Many facts are yearly evolved inAmerica, new researches undertaken and discoveries made: while inAfrica, Lybia, Arabia, Persia, India and even the Oceanic world ofAustralia and Polynesia, similar discoveries are progressing and newfacts made known, that will unfold many new and unexpected analogieswith American inquiries. Of the early Monuments of China, Tartary andThibet, we know little or nothing, and in the very heart of Asia, thereal Cradle of Arts and Sciences, if not mankind itself, our learnedtravellers have not yet penetrated, and the most interesting region ofthe globe is thus almost unknown to us. This subject is therefore in aprogressive state of inquiries, and future ages will yet add thereto:although a number of Ruins and Monuments crumble or disappear under theplough or the leveling energy of men, little respecting these structuresof antiquity, enough of unexplored sites will be discovered andsurveyed: some of our rudest monuments appear indestructible, the loftymounds of earth have withstood like the heavy pyramids of Egypt, thelapse of countless ages, some even appear now covered with a dress ofnew soil, or even diluvial coat, as if they were antediluvian! Meantime we may endeavor to collect and compare the facts already known, and deduce therefrom some useful instruction to satisfy curiosity orgratify the greedy wish to ascend to the origin of every thing, and ofmankind above all. The most proper and obvious way to elucidate AmericanAntiquities and Monuments, would be by classifying them, which hashowever never been attempted, having always been noticed or elucidatedloosely at random, or in a kind of geographical arrangement of theregions where found. Such classification might be based either on theirstyles, forms and materials, or ultimately their ascertained scopes ofpurposes which are even now often doubtful or doubted. They might thusbe divided into classes or series easily distinguished betweenthemselves, but all finding their equivalents or similar structures inthe Eastern Continent, _an important fact_ to be kept in mind. There areout of America some structures not found in it, but there are none in itthat cannot be detected somewhere else, either in Europe, North Africaor Asia, Polynesia, &c, among the earliest Monuments or Ruins, or therudest structures. None of the latest styles and improved Architecture, such as Colonnades, roofed temples, Budhist and Mahometan temples, Gothic or Modern Churches, fortifications with large towers orbastions--are met in America, being a convincing proof that all theAmerican structures were of a previous date, or of an earlier style, than these later. But even some very ancient Eastern structures are lacking in America, oronly found in a modified form. Thus although the Cyclopian structureshad been denied to America, they are not quite lacking; although theirTyrinthian style, the rudest of huge unshapen blocks of stone puttogether, has not yet been met with, the other Cyclopian styles arefound of rough polygones or irregular squared stones: the most commonhowever is of rough flat stones put together pretty much as our drywalls are to this day by us. If we do not exactly find in this Continent, the Celtic style ofStonehenge and circles of stones scattered from Persia to Scotland, wemeet several other branches of the Celtic style, standing rough pillars, massive altars, circles of earth, fortified villages similar to those ofBritain, miscalled _Roman Camps_, although no such camps are foundwhere the Romans went out of Celtica, and the American camps or fortsare certainly not Roman! Whether the Celtic race ever came to Americahas been doubted, and maybe deemed doubtful yet: there are two strongarguments against it at least, the lack of Monuments like the Stonehengetemples, and the Celtic structure of Language, or regular series ofinterposed ideas not being widely spread in America, and chiefly foundin Brazil and Florida, where nations of another lineage dwelt. Yet it ispretty certain, notwithstanding that nearly all the writers, omit it ordeny it, that the old Celts had an intercourse of trade in America once, even from Gaul. It has lately been discovered by Sir A. Brooke, thatthere are Celtic monuments in Morocco, he describes a large mound with acircle of stones around. The N. W. Of Africa must in very early timehave been one of the regions whence the _Atlantes_ went or came; this isan historical fact, and their posterity yet live in Africa from MountAtlas to Nubia, their language[TN-11] have the Celtic and Semeticstructure. They gave name to the Atlantic Ocean, and this name is one of the fewthat have reached our times, Africa and Spain once joined, even theBerbers have a tradition of it. The same Nations filled Lybia and Spain, the _Bas-Tules_, _As-Tures_ of Spain were _Tulas_, _Turas_, as inCentral Asia and Central America; so were also the _Tur-tules_ or_Tur-detani_, &c. While the _Cantes_ of Spain were akin to the _Antes_of Lybia, _Hyantes_ of Greece. The Greeks have stated that theirAtlantes or _Atalantoi_ were formed of the united nations of Atlas andAntoi or Anteus. Pyramids exactly similar to those of Egypt, and pillared temples similarto those of Thebes, are not met with in America; but we have theirequivalent in the pyramidal Teocalis of Anahuac, and the temples ofPeru, similar to the pyramidal temples of Assyria and India, towers instages like those of Lybia, Syria and China. In all cases the materialsdepend pretty much on the localities, and the kind of stones or propermaterials at hand, although often carried from a distance, and requiringthe joint labors of many thousand men during several years. But it has been ascertained that there were older inhabitants in the westof Europe, than these very Celts, Cantes and Atlantes. The _Creons_ asuperior race that erected the annual monumental pillars of Carnac inBrittany, the Cunis or Cynetes, that dwelt at the S. W. Of Spain andPortugal, the degraded Vassals or outcasts of the Celts called _Cacoux_, _Cahets_, _Cunigos_, whose posterity is not yet quite extinct. TheEskuaras now called Basks and Gascons, but formerly Cantabrians were theCantas of the river Ebro, they had great affinities of Language withmany American nations. The Atlantic monuments may be distinctly tracedfrom Syria and Greece to Lybia, Morocco, _&_c. Immense mounds have beenfound as far South as the river Nun. Of these Atlantes their countries, deeds of yore, &c. Much has been written, and much more remains to beelucidated: they can be traced Eastward as far as the very Centre ofAsia, once called Turan, through Scythia, in the North and Persia inthe South, to the utmost verge of Africa and Europe Westwards. Next tothe famed Island Atlantis, or rather _Megatlantides_ which was America!the smaller Atlantis seated midway between the two continents, has beensupposed to have sunk when the Volcanos of the Azores, Canaries andother African Islands did explode. The American Nations connected with these were widely scattered inAmerica, and chiefly wherever the earliest monuments were spread, evenas far as Chili to the South, in Guyana to the East under the name of_Atures_ or _Atules_, and Northwards as far as Ohio and Illinois. It iseasy to trace surprising analogies of Languages between the earlylanguages of South Europe and North Africa, with the Chilians, Peruvians, Muyzcas, Haytians, Tulans or Tol-tecas, &c. , and many otherpre-eminent Nations of this Continent. By the useful process of generalization we may collect the followingimportant results concerning our monuments: 1. They are scattered allover Amer. From lat. 45d. N. To 45d. S. Of the Equator, thus occupying90d. Of latitude, which is no where else the case. --2. They chieflyoccupy a flexuose belt from our great Lakes to Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Quito, Peru and Chili. --3. There are few or none in BorealAmerica, the Eastern Shores of it as far as Virginia, the Western as faras California, nor in the Antilles, Guyana, Orinoco, Maragnon, Brazil, Paraguay and Patagonia; although some of these regions not having yetbeen properly explored may hereafter offer some likewise. --4. Thoseknown from our Eastern Shores, the Antilles and Brazil are few, and of apeculiar character, distinct from the general style of the others. InNew Hampshire concentric castramations have been found as in Peru, butnot of stone nor shaped like stars. In Massachusetts inscribed rocks aremet with, those of Pennsylvania East of the mountains are rude andsmall, and such they are as far as Virginia and Carolina. In theAntilles or West Indies, they are chiefly caves, temples and tombs. InBrazil we know of but few, but they are of stone and peculiar style. --5. Therefore the main monuments and structures occupy only one half ofAmerica or even less, they are mostly thickly scattered in the fertileregions near rivers, from Ohio to Florida, from Missouri to Texas, fromSonora to Honduras, from Bogota to Chili, &c. Being often on highgrounds and mountains, table lands and valleys, seldom in the lowplains. Such are the most interesting by number and extensive spreadinglocations. Yet there are among them various ages and styles, theFloridan or North American, the Mexican or Anahuac, the Guatimalan orTulan, the Peruvian or Inca--Series, are all somewhat different, mingledwith others of earlier or various ages--in Peru the _Pucaras_ or oldestfortified cities in a stellate form are of earliest ages, the ruins ofTiahuanaco with sculptures of a remote period, the ruins of Chimu ofanother style yet, all different from the style of the Incas. In centralAmerica, the Cave-temples--the fortified cities and Palaces--and the_Teocalis_ or Pyramids and Towers, offer as many eras and styles. In North America we have also at least three great Eras and styles ofmonuments, the first or most rude, somewhat similar to that of theAntilles; excavations, small houses &c. And this, although so rude, isfound to have lasted till very lately, as our log-house style is lastingwith us along with large stone buildings. 2. A primitive style usingearth and wood or rough stones for large and fine structures, temples, _&_c. 3. The most refined employing cut stones and ornaments, &c. , rare inthe North, but becoming more common towards Mexico. We may assert in ultimate result that America had no Monuments ofGrecian or Roman structures, except such as belong to primitive Italyand Greece, ascribed to their ancestors as a different race the Pelagic, Curetes, Hyantes, Taulantes, Aones, and other similar old tribes ornations, long previous to Roman power and Grecian refinement, above allno colonnades and no baked bricks. None of our monuments were like thebest Celtic structures, but rather similar to the earliest or ruderCeltic style, if not perhaps previous, such as standing or rockingstones, rough pillars and pilasters, tumuli and mounds, circular andangular areas and temples. None were like the Egyptian temples andpyramids, our American pyramids being rather in stages, as iu[TN-12]Ethiopia, Assyria, India, &c. , or in huge platforms bearing temples andpalaces, as in Balbec and Persepolis, but by no means so ornamented, norwith such huge stones. None were like the Tyrinthian or Titanic style, but rather a modification of it. None like the slender pillars and roundtowers of India, Persia, Ireland. None like the modern structure of theChristians, Mahometans, Budhists, Chinese &c. , no Gothic or Arabicstyle, nor domes were found. The inference cannot trace any of thesereligions to America by their peculiar structures. While on the other side, we can assert and prove that the Americanmonuments were more or less alike to. 1. The oldest monuments, squareand circular platforms of all shapes and sizes, some as large as hillsor even natural hills cut to shapes for altars, or support of templesand staged pyramids, _&_c. , as are found from Celtica and Ireland toFrance, Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, &c. , from Morocco to Senegal, Lybia and Abyssinia; in Asia, from Natolia and the Trojan plain, toSyria and Arabia, Persia, Media around the Caspian, and even in India, Tartary and China; also, the _Morais_ of Polynesia. All of which werethe primitive altars of early men or their imitation, in later times asin China. --2. Or like the Cave temples, scattered also from Ireland toIndia, found in Greece, Syria, Egypt, Persia, &c. , sometimes like theexcavated cities of the Troglodyte nations, found in Sicily, Crete, Cyprus, Syria, Arabia, Cabul at Bamiyan, &c. --3d. Or like the massivestructures of stones of earliest ages, the _Norajes_ or Conical towersof Sardinia and the Balearic Islands, the angular towers of Lybia, &c. Imitated in Peru, Brazil, Guatimala, Chiapa &c. --4th. Or like thefortified cities of oldest ages in Persia, India, Arabia, Turan, _&_c. Imitated in Peru, and Central America, often with concentric inclosuresor curious shapes, sometimes with arks or citadels or acropolis, as inPersia, Greece, Etruria &c. --5th. Or like the vast inclosures and sacredareas of temples, with peculiar cells or holy recesses, shrines, oracles, &c. , as in India, China, Thibet, formerly in Syria, Egypt, Assyria, even like the old temples of Mecca and Solomon; such are foundin Peru Tunca, Mexico, North America as far as Missouri, where mostwere of wood as were the first temples of Solomon, Tyre, Delphos, andare yet in China very often. Then it is evident that the American Monuments are similar to the oldestand earliest of the Eastern Continent, or the modern ones that are yetbuilt there on the primitive models. We have some late instances of iteven in Europe, when the huge mound of Waterloo was erected after thebattle of that name. Grecian buildings are often built now in Europe andAmerica, the Gothic style has travelled from Arabia to Europe and is notyet quite out of use. The national altars of the Celestial Empire atPekin in China are yet exactly similar to those of earliest times, andfound in America. Architecture and the various styles it has employed for monuments, temples, cities &c. Have undergone several changes and improvements, from the rude imitations of a tent, or cottage, or hill, to that ofpyramids, towers, pillars, colonnades, caves, _norajes_, _teocalis_, &c. , from irregular inclosures to square, circular, octagon forms, fromheaps of earth forming ditches, canals, to regular walled excavations. Styles of building are fluctuating with the Nations and times, taste andreligion: some are occasionally revived or improved; yet they have acertain duration, location, or age, and origin somewhere. Neverthelessthey may happen to be blended by the same people; our own moderncivilization admits yet of the tents in camps, the loghouse, the shed, the hut, the cottage, the houses of wood, brick or stone, palaces andtemples, theatres, Capitols, and negro huts! We must not be surprised tosee the same incongruity and admixture in various parts of America informer times. Many tribes followed 300 years ago the style of 3000 yearsbefore, as yet partly done in China. Every thing on earth follows the universal law of terrestrial mutations, monuments and arts, as well as languages and human features! they riseand fall like the nations, mingle or blend as our modern English nationand language formed out of many others. What diversity in any one of ourcities in complexions, statures and features of men! there are moredifferences between some men of our own race, than between negroes, redor white men. White, black and bay horses, are not peculiar species, norare men of different hues, hairs, eyes, noses, &c. Inscriptions are monuments also, and of the highest value, even when wecannot read them. Some of these will be hereafter, since those of Egyptso long deemed inexplicable, have at last found interpreters. So it willbe at a future day, with those of America. Few have been made known asyet, but there are many all over the range of the monumental regions. Those sculptured in the temples and palaces of _Otolum_ near Palenque, are not the only ones. Several in caves, or upon rocks, involve in rudepainting, a symbolic meaning, to which we are obtaining a clue. Severalnations of North America had a language of signs made or written;although known sometimes to but few, these signs or symbols prevailedfrom Origon[TN-13] to Chili--or else _Quipos_ as in China, were used asrecords, in coloured strings or knots, wampums, belts, collars. Allthese however, appear to belong to the first attempt of mankind toperpetuate ideas, they seem to have preceded the alphabets of India, Persia and Europe, or the vocal signs of China, although some of thesedate of the earliest ages. Tula, Oaxaca, Otolum, &c. , had glyphs or akind of combined alphabet, where the letters or syllables were blendedinto words, as in our anagrams, and not in serial order. A few traces ofAlphabets have, however, been found in South America on the R. Cauca andelsewhere, which have not yet obtained sufficient atteution:[TN-14] thatof Cauca given by Humboldt, is nearly Pelagic or Etruscan; traces ofRunic signs were found in Carolina--other signs have occasionally beenmet in North America, but neglected. Painted symbols or hieroglyphies, [TN-15] or sometimes abridged outlinesof them, were used chiefly in Anahuac, from Panuco to Panama; in NorthAmerica, from Florida to New Mexico, also in Cuba, Hayti, Yucatan, Bogota, Peru, by the Panos, Muyzcas and other nations. Those without anymeans to convey ideas could even in America, as in Scythia and Africa, use emblems or objects to which a peculiar meaning was applied, andtrace rude pictures of them on trees or rocks. The monuments connected with pictures, emblems, hieroglyphics, scatteredin caves, on rocks, on cliffs above human reach--are very curious, andought to be collected, sought for, and explained; they will all imparthistorical events. The rock of Taunton and a few others, have aloneexercised the ingenuity of antiquarians, and perhaps to little purposeat yet, since the inscription has been ascribed by turns to thePhenicians, the Jews, the Atlantes, Norwegians or even to our moderntribes. It may not be properly understood until all the graphic systemsof America are studied and explained. The late successful attempt of theCherokis to obtain a syllabic alphabet for their language, proves thatthe Americans were not devoid of graphic ingenuity. But the contents of mounds, graves, caves, &c. , are also veryinteresting, affording us a clue to their purpose, and the arts of timeswhen raised or inhabited. Many kinds of implements, ornaments, tools, weapons, vases, &c. , have been found every where, displaying skill andtaste. Idols and sculptures have given us the features and religiousideas of some nations. Astronomical stones and calendars have beenfound, recovered, and lost again, revealing peculiar systems ofastronomy and chronology. We possess the oomplex[TN-16] calendars of theTulans, Mexicans, Chiapans, Muyzcas, Peruvians, &c, that of the Talegasof North America, a dodecagone with one hundred and forty-four parts andhieroglyphics, was found on the banks of the Ohio, and has since beenlost or hidden. Humboldt's labors on American astronomy and his results coincide withthose on antiquity to make the American systems quite different from theoriental, Hindu, Jewish, Egyptian, Greek, Roman, and Celtic systems ofdays, months, zodiac, and cycles; while they are more like those ofThibet, China, Japan, Lybia, Etruria, &c. At any rate the Americansystems were anterior to the admission of the week of seven days, beingthe fourth of a lunation, each day dedicated to a planet, and theSabatical[TN-17] observance of the Jews based thereon. The American weekswere of three, five, nine, and even thirteen days, as in some parts ofAsia and Africa, in Java, Thibet, China, Guinea. The week of five daysappears the most ancient of all and the most natural, including exactlyseventy-three weeks in the solar year, and sixty-nine in the lunar year;that of the three days is only the decimal part of a month; in China thelong week of fifteen days prevails as yet being half a lunation ormonth. Accounts of monuments with dry descriptions and measures, are oftenuninteresting, unless with figures and explanations to illustrate theirnature and designs. The writer having himself surveyed many Americansites of ancient cities, may hereafter describe and explain some ofthem, with or without figures. He has also collected accounts of similarmonuments all over the earth, and will be able to elucidate thereby ourown monuments. Meantime whoever wishes to become acquainted with such ashave been made known in the United States alone, must consult a host ofwriters who have described a few, such as Soto, Charlevoix, Barton, Belknap, Lewis, Crevecoeur, [TN-18] Clinton, Atwater, Brekenridge, Nuttal, McCulloh, Bartram, Priest, Beck, Madison, James, Schoolcraft, Keating, &c. ; and in the appendix to the Ancient History of Kentuckywill be found my catalogue made in 1824. Such study in[TN-19] then a task, and requires the amending hand of a careful compiler at least, before wecan even obtain the complete knowledge of what has been done with usalready on this historical subject. _Philadelphia, September, 1838. _ FOOTNOTES: [8-*] Letter to Col. Winthrop, in 2d vol. Archeologia Americana. ADDITIONS. 1. The Mexican Antiquities have lately been illustrated in many splendidworks, by Aglio, Kingsborough, Dupaix, Baraden, St. Priest, Nebel, Icaza, Gondra, Waldeck &c. In a clever review of these works (in theforeign review) it is distinctly asserted that the _Tul-tecas_ (peopleof Tul, ) or American Atlantes, were quite a different people from theLater Mexican tribes, that their monuments are equal in interest tothose of Egypt and Syria, with colossal and even Cyclopianstructures--which agrees with my former statements, and I have tracedthem in America from Missouri to Chili, but their central seats andempires were from Mexico to Quito. Their great temple at Otolum nearPalenque was equal to Solomon's temple. Their mythology was quitepeculiar and Asiatic, their maindeity[TN-20] was _Hun-aku_ (first cause)comparable to _Anuki_ the Syrian Cybele, their Astronomy wasantediluvian, the year of 360 days or 18 months of 20 days. 2. The first monuments of the United States may be ascribed to the_Talegas_, a northern branch of these Atlantes. The oldest monuments ofPeru long before the Incas with those of Brazil and Oronoco are relatedthereto, and were erected by their Southern tribes, the _Atules_ and_Talahets_. 3. In a late work of Harcourt (1838) all these ancient monuments ofAmerica, Africa, Europe and Asia, are ascribed to the _Arkites_ saved atthe flood of Noah; which was also the previous opinion of M'culloh inhis American researches. But some Antiquaries are yet seeking in Americatraces of the _Adamites_. 4. The _Tulawas_ and _Telingas_ nations and languages of Decan ofSouthern India, are probably of Atlantic or Tulanic (Syn. Of Turan orTartary) descent; and these nations sent colonies furher[TN-21] east inearly times to Polynesia and perhaps as far as America! yet the bulk ofOceanic population from Madagascar to Japan and Australia is of Hamitedescent, by the regular structure of all the languages; while thisseldom happens in America as in China and Tartary. 5. The late attempts of tracing analogies of origin and descent betweenthe Chinese and Polynesian Nations, are quite vain. The Chinese Nationsare evidently Asiatic and primitive akin to the Tartars and Turks (themodern Turans, ) their language have the same inverse position, andmonosylabic[TN-22] structure. The idea of Harcourt to deem the Chinesethe real Semetic stock of Languages, is worthy of enquiry. He has provedthat the _Obri_ (Hebrew) was in reality a Hamite language, the posterityof Abraham having adopted a dialect of the _Acuri_ (Assyrian) and_Xnoni_ (Canaanit;)[TN-23] but the Arabic languages and nations, so akinthereto must then also be Hamites! and the old Arabians alone wereSemites. 5. [TN-24] Meantime the Turanic or Japhetic nations and languages (IFHmeaning _widely spread_ is our Japhet) should be the real Turans andAtlantes, including the Medians, Caucasians, Hindus, Pelagians, Thracians, Slavonians, Goths, and nearly two thirds of the AmericanNations, the most civilized and powerful of them. But it appears to methat the Celts and Cantabrians were like the Etruscans and Phenicians ofHamite Origin. It is strange that all the brown or black nations ofAfrica, Asia and Oceania are also of similar descent. 7. In my work on the Ancient American Nations, may be seen which werethe oldest or earliest in America, and to which other nations elsewherethey are most intimately connected. I have proved that two great nationsof America the _Aruac_ including the Haytians and tribes from Florida toPatagonia, with the _Sekeh_ or old Chilians, having branches from Chilito Brazil; were certainly very akin in language with the ancient Greeksand Italians and Spaniards, or rather their ancestors the Pelagic, Oscanand Cantabrian Nations. 8. The American Atlantes of North America (Talegas)[TN-25] the Tols andChontals of Anahuac and Central America, the Muyzcas of Tunca and Peru;with the ancient Peruvians of mixt origin, were certainly the mostcivilized nations of this continent, as their monuments prove it, andtheir languages are of Japhetic or Turanic structure, having their majoraffinities in Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Illyrians, Slavonians &c;but some also with the African Atlantes or ancient and modern Lybians, Getulians, Shellus _&_c. 9. The Guarani group of languages and nations in South America was mostwidely spread from Guyana to Paraguay, and all over Brazil. It is quitemonosyllabic, with the Hamite or African structure, having itsaffinities all over Africa, where hardly any except the _Qua_ orHottentot nation are of Chinese? or Turanic descent by structure ofspeech. 10. In North America, 4 widely different stocks of nations had theHamite structure, the Floridian including _Chactas_, the _Wakons_ orMissourians, the _Ongwis_ or Iroquois, and the Uskimas or Esquimauxspread across the whole or[TN-26] Boreal America. This last stock isevidently akin to the Northern Asiatic Hamites such as the Fins, Slaves, Chudis, Ostiaks _&_c. The Wakons and Ongwis appear also Asiatic, akin tothe Tonguz and other Northern Tartars; but the Chactas with the Natchez, Seminoles and akin tribes appear of Eastern descent, and find theirparents in North Africa. 11. In my work on Historical Palingenesy or the restoration of ancientnations and languages presumed lost, I have been able to restore many ofall the parts of the world (but chiefly America and Europe) in the samemanner as I once did for the Haytian nation and language, whereby manyhistorical links will be evolved and traced. My process is similar tothat of Cuvier and the modern Paleontologists, who restore extinctanimals by fragments of their bones. I do the same with extinctlanguages by fragments of their words and elements, discovered and puttogether. 12. In result the monumental evidences combine with the philological todescry and ascertain whatever is obscure in Ancient History. By theirmutual help and accordance, with the use of acurate[TN-27] comparisons inboth Hemispheres, we shall certainly be enabled to advance theArcheological and Historical knowledge of Yore, beyond our most sanguineexpectation. The path is open and becoming easy to pursue; muchtherefore will be achieved by following the comparative process anddiscarding all the conjectural systems. THE END. Transcriber's Note The following typographical errors were maintained in this version ofthe book. Page Error TN-1 1 Cincinnatti should read Cincinnati TN-2 2 occured should read occurred TN-3 2 gradualy should read gradually TN-4 3 analize should read analyze TN-5 6 _t_emples should read temples TN-6 8 _hum_a_n_ should read human TN-7 8 globe; should read globe. TN-8 9 America should read America. TN-9 9 oontinent should read continent TN-10 10 Berhring's should read Behring's TN-11 14 language should read languages TN-12 18 iu should read in TN-13 21 Origon should read Oregon TN-14 22 atteution should read attention TN-15 22 hieroglyphies should read hieroglyphics TN-16 23 oomplex should read complex TN-17 23 Sabatical should read Sabbatical TN-18 24 CrevecOEur should read Crevecoeur TN-19 24 study in should read study is TN-20 25 maindeity should read main deity TN-21 26 furher should read further TN-22 26 monosylabic should read monosyllabic TN-23 26 Canaanit should read Canaanite TN-24 26 5. Should read 6. TN-25 27 (Talegas) should read (Talegas), TN-26 28 or should read of TN-27 28 acurate should read accurate The following words were inconsistently spelled or hyphenated. Guatemala / Guatimala log-house / loghouse Tol-tecas / Tul-tecas &c / &c. / _&_c.