THE growing interest in the origin, migrations and life of the races of American Antiquity has led me to believe that the subjects considered in these pages would meet with the favorable attention of the public and of the specialist in this field. With such a conviction I present this volume, realizing the difficulties which attend any efforts to elucidate such dark problems. Yet I cannot conceal my satisfaction that the age of North American Antiquity is not all darkness, but on the contrary is

THIS, the third edition of “The North Americans of Antiquity,” has been carefully revised and new facts incorporated. In this connection I take the opportunity of thankfully acknowledging the kindly reception and marked consideration which this work has enjoyed at the hands of specialists, of learned Societies in both America and Europe, and from the University of Leipzig. Columbus, Ohio , September, 1881 ....

ON that eventful morning nearly four centuries ago, when the spell of uncertainty and mystery which enshrouded the Atlantic was broken, and the darkness of the deep vanished with the darkness of the night, the illustrious admiral discovered a world populated with beings like himself. They were male and female, with all the physical characteristics common to the rest of mankind, and differed from the Spaniards only in that their skin was of a copper hue, and their cheek bones more prominent. They

AT the opening of the preceding chapter we made some allusions to the supposed antiquity of the Red Indian, a subject of growing archæological significance, though as yet it affords us rather unsatisfactory evidence, scientifically considered, relative to the problem of man’s antiquity on this continent. Quite different, however, is the estimate which we place on data left us by the people of the mounds. The question of the antiquity of the Mound-builders is one which cannot be accurately determ

VARIOUS perplexing problems presented themselves to the minds of the discoverers of the new continent for solution, as well as to their immediate successors, which were greatly intensified by the dogmatic teaching of the times. The status of science in the Middle Ages was defined from time to time by some ecclesiastical utterance without any reference to the phenomena of nature or the revelations of accidental discovery. We say accidental, for no designed or systematic investigation was so much

THE want of evidence for the theories which designate particular nations as the first colonizers of the Western Continent, long ago produced a feeling of distrust, which led some to repudiate all claims for the foreign origin of the first inhabitants of this continent. This theory, which claims for the most ancient inhabitants an autochthonic origin, has had from time to time among its advocates some of the most respectable ethnologists. The character of their attainments, and in many cases thei

THE most ancient civilization on this continent, judging from the combined testimony of tradition, records, and architectural remains, was that which grew up under the favorable climate and geographical surroundings which the Central American Region southward of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec afforded. The great Maya family with its numerous branches, each in time developing its own dialect if not its own peculiar language, at an early date fixed itself in the fertile valley of the River Usumasinta,

IN considering the origin of the Nahua nations, especially of the Toltecs and Aztecs, it is common to look upon the former as the first inhabitants of Mexico. Such a conclusion is, however, erroneous, since the Toltecs were preceded in Central-Southern Mexico, and even in Anahuac, both by people of different extraction from themselves and by scattering tribes of their own linguistic family, the Nahua. Of the former class, the most conspicuous are the so-called Quinametin (or Quinames), otherwise

IN the State of Chihuahua, Mexico, and in our Territories of Arizona, New Mexico, Utah and the State of Colorado, a class of remains are found, wholly unlike those of the Mayas, Nahuas, or Mound-builders, though in some instances they are associated with earthworks resembling those of the latter race. The style of architecture is unlike that of any other people on either continent, and though varying considerably in its individual examples, still present certain marked and general features which

WITHOUT pretending to furnish an exhaustive treatment of the subject proposed for this chapter, we desire to make observations on some phases of the development of American civilization in the Pre-Historic period. One of the most natural fruits of the study of the arts and customs of any people, is a disposition on the part of the investigator to institute a comparison with corresponding features of civilization in all parts of the world. Unfortunately this disposition has led many writers on Am

Chronology and Calendar Systems. —No tablet or relic of Mound-builder origin has yet been discovered, which can be said to give any clue to the system of chronology employed by that people. Several supposed calendar stones have been found, such, for instance, as the Cincinnati Tablet referred to in Chapter I, and the Tablet from Mississippi in the possession of Wm. Marshall Anderson, Esq., of Circleville, Ohio. However, their character is only a matter of conjecture, since no progress whatever h

LANGUAGE in aboriginal America may be pronounced a mystery of mysteries and a Babel of Babels. Mr. Bancroft has catalogued nearly six hundred distinct languages, existing between northern Alaska and the Isthmus of Panama. Many of these, however, scarcely deserve to be called more than dialects; while each has its individuality, it is true that all have certain characteristics in common, a fact which by some has been considered sufficient ground for belief in the unity of the American race, a hyp

WE have observed that traditional and linguistic evidence seems to point to a trans-Atlantic origin for some of the American peoples. In a preceding chapter (iii), we quoted the story of the Platonic Atlantis, as recorded in the Critias , and alluded to the advocacy by the Abbé Brasseur de Bourbourg of the hypothesis that the submerged continent of Egyptian tradition was a reality. In support of this view, the Abbé has cited the opinions of geologists and the remarkable traditions preserved by t

THE dim uncertainty which envelopes the most ancient period of American antiquity, like that which obscures the beginnings of Egyptian, Assyrian and Trojan history, to say nothing of the origin of the venerable Asiatic civilizations, renders much of the effort in this field unsatisfactory. Still the results are of surpassing interest. A new cosmogony, mythology and traditional history full of weird poetic inspiration, an inspiration such as is begotten in contemplating the struggles of nature’s

SINCE the greater part of this work was put in type, the exploration of ancient mounds in several localities in the United States has yielded gratifying results. Most conspicuous for rich returns, both in pottery and human remains, are the researches which have recently been prosecuted with such rare intelligence and vigor by the Literary and Scientific Society of Madisonville, Ohio, in the aboriginal burying-grounds and among the mound-works of the Little Miami Valley. Through the liberality of

THE question as to whether man and the mastodon were contemporaneous in America, has long been a matter of dispute as the reader is aware after the perusal of our second chapter and other sources. The “elephant Elephant Pipe from Louisa Co., Iowa. pipe” figured in the accompanying cut has been the means of calling fresh attention to the subject. Dr. R. J. Farquharson, of the Davenport Academy of Sciences, who kindly furnished us the photo from which our illustration is a reduction, states that s

THE exploring expedition under French and American patronage, led by M. Désiré Charnay, began its labors in Mexico, May 1st, 1880, and continued them nearly a year. During this time a large number of ruins, scattered over the area extending from Teotihuacan and Tollan, on the north, and Palenque, on the south, are reported to have been examined. How thorough the examination was, or how scientifically accurate were the published reports, it would at present (September, 1881) be impossible to dete

AMONG the unsolved problems of American archæology is that of the use to which the extensive systems of embankments attributed to the Mound-builders were put. The Newark (Ohio) system of works, now covering two miles square, but formerly presenting twelve miles of embankment, reaching at some points a height of thirty-five feet, with sufficient width for a carriage-way on top, has been a veritable sphinx to all inquirers. Nor does it stand alone in an architectural aspect. Its square is precisel