{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_29212/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_29212","id":"gutenberg_29212","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29212","summary":null,"tags":["America -- Discovery and exploration -- Pre-Columbian","Category: Archaeology & Anthropology","Category: Architecture","Category: History - Ancient","Category: History - Other","Category: Religion/Spirituality","Central America -- Antiquities","Indians -- Origin","Indians of Central America -- Antiquities","Indians of Mexico -- Antiquities","Mexico -- Antiquities"],"text":"Julia Miller and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at\nhttps://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images\ngenerously made available by The Internet Archive/American\nLibraries.)\n\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note\n\nA number of typographical errors have been maintained in this version of\nthis book. They have been marked with a [TN-#], which refers to a\ndescription in the complete list found at the end of the text.\nInconsistencies in spelling and hyphenation have been maintained. A list\nof inconsistently spelled and hyphenated words is found at the end of\nthe text.\n\nOe ligatures have been expanded.\n\n\n\n\n  PREHISTORIC STRUCTURES\n\n  OF\n\n  CENTRAL AMERICA.\n\n  WHO ERECTED THEM?\n\n\n  A LECTURE,\n\n  BY\n\n  MARTIN INGHAM TOWNSEND,\n  OF TROY, NEW YORK.\n\n\n  TROY, N.\u00a0Y.:\n  T.\u00a0J. HURLEY, PRINTER, HARMONY HALL BUILDING.\n  1895.\n\n\n\n\nINTRODUCTION.\n\n\nIt was not a long period after 1492, when the great Italian navigator\nwith his Spanish crew made their first discoveries upon the central\nportion of America, that the Europeans, who had followed the footsteps\nof Christopher Columbus, began to fall in with structures of great\nmagnitude and architectural beauty scattered widely throughout Mexico,\nGuatemala and Yucatan, &c.; and when the conquest of Peru was achieved,\nartificial highways and water courses were found there, such as could\nhave owed their existence to no people but one with advanced knowledge\nof science as well as of the arts of civilized life. No people existed\nthen upon this continent capable of doing the work which so astonished\nthe world.\n\nThinking men and dreaming men have, from the earliest of these\ndiscoveries, been busying themselves to find out when, and by what\npeople, these early monuments to human efforts were constructed.\n\nNorwegian discoverers and Welsh emigrants have been pressed into the\nservice. Our own Donnelly has changed the place where God and history\nhad located the origin of the human race in the valley of the Tigris and\nEuphrates, to a suppositious island in the Atlantic Ocean, and led out\nthe nations of the earth from there to Asia, Africa and western Europe,\nuntil he had no further need of the island and then sunk it in \"the\nbottom of the sea.\"\n\nA whole people have been pressed into the service of explaining this\nmystery. The convenient \"Lost ten tribes of the House of Israel\" have\nbeen set to do this work, as their fathers were compelled to \"make brick\nwithout straw\" in the Land of Egypt, and then suffered to escape to some\nland where search for them would be in vain.\n\nThe following treatise is written for the purpose of showing--\n\nFIRST.--That the lands where these structures exist were known to\ncommercial people and to many of the scholars of the countries about the\nMediterranean Sea for at least a thousand years before the Christian\nEra.\n\nSECOND.--That these discoveries were made by the people of Phoenecia,\noriginally located on the eastern border of the Mediterranean Sea, and\nby their colonies settled about Carthage in Africa, and throughout Spain\nand Portugal up to the Ebro; and who traversed every ocean almost as\nthoroughly as have their Anglo Saxon successors for the past four\nhundred years.\n\nTHIRD.--That the origin of the people who made these structures is\nshown, to absolute certainty, by the character of the architecture and\nby the character of the religious belief exhibited upon the temples\nwhich were erected to Baal, or Moloch, i.\u00a0e. the Sun, who was their God,\nwho was worshiped by the immolation of their infant children upon his\naltars.\n\nThis is proven as fully by the carvings and frescoes in Mexico and\nGuatemala, and by the stone circle of Sillustani, in the high country of\nPeru, and the figures inscribed upon the great entrance to the cemetery\nof Tiahuanuco in the same region, as if a thousand witnesses arose from\nthe dead and testified before us.\n\n\n\n\nPREHISTORIC CENTRAL AMERICA AND PERU.\n\n\nTHE ANCIENT GREEK AND ROMAN SCHOLARS KNEW OF THE EXISTENCE OF THE\nWESTERN CONTINENT.\n\nIn the earlier existence of the Greek and Roman peoples, knowledge was\nextremely limited. These peoples were without any mode of perpetuating\nor transmitting knowledge until the days, a little more than a thousand\nyears before the Christian Era, when Cadmus brought from Phoenecia the\nletters which had been invented and adopted there for the representation\nand expression of articulate sounds; and by the combination of these\nletters to transmit and perpetuate human ideas. There is scarce a race\nof savages in our day where the mass of the body politic are as\nprofoundly ignorant as were the great body of the Greek people a\nthousand years before Christ.\n\nEven those men who made such acquisitions of knowledge as were possible\nin that day, could only learn from the lips of their imperfectly trained\nteacher, and by travel to those countries which the barbarous condition\nof the world allowed them to visit; and even after the learned men of\nthe Greek Islands came to know the power of letters, how small must have\nbeen the amount of knowledge existing in the world, and how slow must\nhave been its spread amongst the untaught commonalty of the then Greek\nworld? In the day when the Phoenician ship Argo made a voyage to\nColchis, at the east end of the Black Sea, it so fired the imagination\nof the Greek poets that they dreamed of the voyage and composed poems\nabout it for centuries.\n\nIndeed it was not until the Romans, just before the Christian Era, had\nsubdued all the borders of the historic Mediterranean Sea, that free\nintercourse amongst the inhabitants prevailed. Up to that period every\npeople, as a rule, carefully guarded all knowledge of their own wealth,\nand of their own acts and possessions from the rest of mankind, instead\nof making public expositions to attract the attention of the outside\nworld to their useful achievements, and they sometimes passed laws for\ninflicting the severest punishments upon citizens who should reveal to\nthe outside world the locations, nature, or extent, or value of their\npossessions.\n\nStill, we glean from the ancient writers the following announcements.\n\n1. That ancient book entitled \"The Book of Wonders,\" ascribed to\nAristotle, contains the following: \"When the Carthagenians, who were\nmasters of the western ocean, observed that many traders and other men,\nattracted by the fertility of the soil and the pleasant climate, had\nfixed there their homes, they feared that the knowledge of this land\nshould reach other nations, a great concourse to it of men from the\nvarious lands of the earth would follow, that the conditions of life,\nthen so happy on that island, would not only be unfavorably affected,\nbut the Carthagenian Empire itself suffer injury, and the dominion of\nthe sea be wrested from their hands; and so they issued a decree that no\none, under penalty of death, should thereafter sail thither.\" This\npassage is quoted, not merely with a claim that it refers to the\nContinent of America, but for the purpose of showing how carefully the\nPhoenician people, whether Asiatic, Carthagenian, or Spanish, guarded\nfrom the great world the foreign discoveries which they had made, and\nwhere their kindred were enjoying prosperity; and to enable us to see\nhow little likely their discoveries would be to come to the knowledge of\nthe great mass of mankind.\n\n2. Let us look for a moment at some of the things which the ancient\nGreek and Latin authors have said indicating their knowledge of the\nexistence of a western continent. Crates, a commentator on Homer, is\nquoted by authority of Strabo, a very learned author of the century\nbefore Christ, as saying that Homer means in his account of the western\nEthiopians the inhabitants of the Atlantis or the Hesperides, as the\nunknown world of the west was then variously called.\n\n3. Pliny also 6: 31-36, locates the western Ethiopians somewhere in the\nAtlantic. This shows that Crates and Pliny believed that the great poet\nHomer believed in the existence of a great continent on the western\nshore of the Atlantic ocean.\n\n4. Plato says in his Timaeus, Chapter VI.: \"The sea\" (the Atlantic\nocean), \"was indeed navigable and had an island fronting the mouth which\nyou in your tongue call the Pillars of Hercules, and this island is\nlarger than Libya and Asia put together, and there is a passage hence\nfor travelers of that day to the rest of the islands, as well as from\nthose islands to the whole opposite continent that surrounds the real\nsea.[TN-1]\n\n5. Humboldt quotes that Anaxagoras, who was born five hundred years\nB.\u00a0C., and was a most eminent Greek philosopher, speaks of the grand\ndivision of the world beyond the ocean.\n\n6. Aelian in his Vari\u00e6 Histori\u00e6, Book 3, Chapter 18, cites Theopompus,\nan eminent Greek historian, born about three hundred years B.\u00a0C., as\nstating that the Meropians inhabit a large continent beyond the ocean,\nin comparison with which the known world was but an island.\n\n7. Aristotle says in Chapters 84 and 85: \"Beyond the Pillars of\nHercules, they say that an inhabited island was discovered by the\nCarthagenians, which abounded in forests and navigable rivers and fruits\nof all kinds, distant from the continent many days' sail. And while the\nCarthagenians were engaged in making voyages to this land, and some had\neven settled there on account of the fertility of the soil, the Senate\ndecreed that no one thereafter, under penalty of death, should voyage\nthither.\" Aristotle was born three hundred and eighty-four years before\nChrist.\n\n8. Diodorus of Sicily, who lived in the century preceding the Christian\nEra, says in his Book 5,--19 and 20, that it was the \"Phoenicians\ninstead of the Carthagenians who were cast upon a most fertile island\nopposite Africa, where the climate was that of perpetual spring, and\nthat the land was the proper habitation for gods rather than men.\"\n\nHe speaks of the continent, however, at length and with great detail,\nenumerating its fertile valleys and navigable rivers, its rich and\nabundant fruits and supply of game, its valuable forests and its genial\nclimate.\n\n9. Pliny quotes Statius Sebosus, in his volume 2, page 106, Bohn, as\nsaying that _the two Hesperides are forty-two days' sail from the coast\nof Africa_.\n\n\nTHE PHOENICIAN PEOPLE WERE EQUAL TO THE DISCOVERIES ON THE WESTERN\nCONTINENT, IF WE JUDGE THEM BY WHAT THEY ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED.\n\nThe prophet Isaiah, writing soon after seven hundred and fifty years\nbefore Christ, in the twenty-third chapter of his prophecy, gives us a\npretty good idea of the unlimited commerce and the unlimited prosperity\nof the merchants of Tyre. Among other things he says the following,\nspeaking of the City \"_Whose antiquity is of ancient days_.\" He calls\nthe City \"The Crowning City,\" \"whose merchants are princes, whose\ntraffickers are the honorable of the earth.\" The wealth and luxury of\nTyre was eternally injurious to the Jewish people from the time of their\nreturn from Egypt to Canaan to the carrying away of Israel to Babylon in\nthe later days. The Jewish husbandman, dazzled by the luxuries of Tyre\nand Sidon, was affected as those in more moderate circumstances are in\nlater days, by the manners and customs of their rich neighbors, and were\nbuilding groves in high places under which to worship, as did the\npriests of Baal in Palestine, and under the oaks in the northwest of\nEurope, where they acquired the name of Druids. They forsook the God of\nAbraham, Isaac and Jacob and worshipped Baal and Ashtaroth and Astarte,\nthe Phoenician Venus.\n\nThey even sacrificed their children to Moloch, the relentless fire god,\nas Baal appeared in his sterner characteristics. But upon the loss of\nwealth which Phoenicia sustained in the wars with Nebuchadnezzar and\nsubsequently with Alexander, the Phoenicians ceased to be conspicuously\nwealthy and luxurious, and Israel was left to worship that God who\ncalled their father Abraham from upper Chaldea, and who afterwards\nbrought him out of the \"House of Bondage\" in Egypt after having been\nfour hundred years enslaved there.\n\nWe have now glanced at the widespread influence of the Phoenician\npeople over the borders of the Mediterranean sea and over the west and\nnorthwest of Europe.\n\nLet it be remembered that what we have said upon this subject is founded\nupon authentic evidence from ancient history and modern fact.\n\nLet us look for a moment now and see what these peoples accomplished\nthrough the waters of the Red sea and upon the waters easterly of the\nstraits of Bab-el-Mandeb. After Solomon had associated with Hiram, King\nof Tyre, and Hiram, the son of Abif, the chief of the mechanics who\nbuilt the temple, and become acquainted with the wealth brought home by\nPhoenician ships from the great outside world, his spirit of Jewish\nthrift was excited, and he determined to share in the profits of\nnautical adventures. In the first book of Kings, chapter 9, verses 26,\n27 and 28, we find the following: \"And King Solomon made a navy of ships\nin Ezion Geber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red Sea, in\nthe land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen who\nhad knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.\n\n\"And they came to Ophir and fetched from thence gold, four hundred and\ntwenty talents, and brought it to King Solomon.\" In the 18th chapter of\nthis book, 11th and 12th verses, we find the following: \"And the navy\nalso of Hiram that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great\nplenty of almug trees and precious stones, and the king made of the\nalmug trees pillars for the house of the lord and for the king's house,\nharps also and psalteries for the singers. There came no such almug\ntrees nor were seen unto this day.\"\n\nIn the Second of Chronicles, chapter 9, verses 10 and 11, we find the\nfollowing: \"And the servants also of Hiram and the servants of Solomon,\nwhich brought gold from Ophir, brought algum trees and precious stones,\nand the king made of the algum trees terraces to the house of the lord\nand to the king's palace, and harps and psalteries for the singers, and\nthere were none such seen before in the land of Judah.\"\n\nIn Second Kings, chapter 10, verse 22, we find the following: \"For the\nking had at sea a navy of Tharshish with the navy of Hiram. Once in\nthree years came the navy of Tharshish bringing gold and silver, ivory\nand apes and peacocks.\" This navy of Tharshish is beyond question the\nnavy of big ships manned by Jews and Phoenicians, and the expression\nhere used beyond question is used in the sense we should use in speaking\nof a navy of big ships, or Baltimore Clippers.\n\nIn Second Chronicles, chapter 3, verse 6, we find the following: \"And he\ngarnished the house with precious stones for beauty, and the gold was\ngold of Parvaim.\"\n\nWe will not at the present time stop to ask where was Ophir, where was\nParvaim, where did the sailors of Tyre, so skilled in navigation and so\ncapable of navigating the western ocean, as we have seen them to be, as\nto make successful voyages over to the Orkneys, a distance of some four\nthousand miles from their homes, spend the three years during which they\nwere absent on their voyages from the easterly gulf of the Red Sea? No\nJewish lexicon tells us of almug or algum trees; no Hebrew writer\nundertakes to describe them. But that enterprising publicist, O'Donovan,\nwho for the purposes of knowledge a few years ago traversed the\nCaucasus, crossed the Caspian sea and buried himself for two or three\nyears among the still wild tribes of Turkestan, tells us that after his\nliberation from the Turks, and while traveling in eastern Persia towards\nthe capital, he found a tree which attracted his attention because its\nfibre reminded him of that of the Lignum Vit\u00e6, which tree the natives\ncalled \"The Yalgam.\" Here we have Solomon's algum tree with the name\nscarcely modified. Would it be the strangest thing that ever happened if\nthese \"yalgam,\" \"almug,\" or \"algum\" trees, so beautiful as to be\nunequalled by anything known in Palestine, and for that reason set up as\nornaments in God's house, should turn out in the day when all things\nbecome known to be rosewood and mahogany from the west coast of Central\nAmerica, taken on board by Solomon's servants on their return from\nParvaim or Peru and the old mines of Potosi, where they had gone for the\ngold which filled the coffers of Solomon. It may be said that such would\nbe a long voyage; true, but not much longer than a voyage to the\nOrkneys. Authentic profane history tells us that between six and seven\nhundred years before the birth of Christ, Pharaoh Necho, King of Egypt,\nbuilt a fleet in the Red Sea, manned it with Phoenician sailors and\nsent them out upon the waters to discover the shape and dimensions of\nthe continent of Africa. These sailors passed down through the straits\nof Bab et Mandel and clear around the Cape of Good Hope and the\ncontinent of Africa more than two thousand years before Vasco Degama,\nand coming in through the straits of Gibraltar after an absence of about\ntwo years. Their food supply run low, their supply was mainly wheat,\nthey tied up their ships, landed, plowed the ground with sharpened\nsticks, cast their bread, not upon the waters, but upon the ground, and\nthus raised a new crop of wheat, preparing to supply their wants until\nthey should return to Egypt, that eternal land of plenty.\n\nIt will be remembered that for centuries previous to the close of the\nPunic wars under Hannibal the Phoenician people owned and controlled\nthe whole north of Africa, west of Egypt, and the whole of Spain up to\nthe Ebro, and the whole of Cyprus and a very large portion of Sicily,\nand that when the ancient writers, and even modern writers speak of\nSpain, the Carthagenians and northern Africa, they refer to the people\nwho sprang from the commercial cities on the eastern shore of the\nMediterranean sea, occupying a territory of not more than one hundred\nmiles in extent north and south, and extending back into Syria not more\nthan fifteen miles, whence all these people sprang, and applied to them\nthe general term of Phoenicians.\n\nFrom the authorities we have quoted we think there can be no doubt but\nthat here and there a learned man among the Greek scholars had come to\nbelieve that some eastern navigator had discovered a western world\nexceedingly productive and beautiful, and that a population of eastern\norigin had sprung up and existed in the lands so discovered.\n\n\nIF THE WESTERN CONTINENT HAD REALLY BEEN DISCOVERED ACCIDENTALLY, OR OF\nSET PURPOSE, WHAT EASTERN NATION WOULD BE MOST LIKELY TO HAVE BEEN THE\nDISCOVERERS OF THIS WESTERN WORLD.\n\nNineveh and Babylon are never spoken of as having sent even a keel boat\nout upon the seas. Egypt has been called the \"Cradle of The Arts\" and\nthe \"Birthplace of Science and Civilization,\" but Egypt never attained\nthe maritime power or skill to enable her to navigate the waters of the\nMediterranean beyond the mouths of her eternal river.\n\nGreece, afterwards so celebrated for science, art and philosophy, was at\nthe day of which Homer sung, a mere association of savage groups,\nengaged in wars instead of seeking commercial profits in distributing\nthe products of civilized life among the nations of mankind.\n\nAnd Romulus and Remus had not yet emerged from the sheep folds upon the\nItalian hills. But very early in the history of the world, and as\nstudents of history believe, earlier than the call of Abraham, the\ninterests of mankind had called into existence along the eastern shore\nof the Mediterranean Sea an active and intelligent population which had\nengaged in commerce as a means of subsistence, and were carrying it on\nwith such success as was possible in the then condition of the world of\nmankind. A civilization had sprung up at a very early period along the\nbanks of the united rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and from the\nPersian gulf to Nineveh and Nimroud, where was produced a great variety\nof articles of necessity and luxury unknown to the rest of the world.\nWe all understand the story told of Aehan, who secreted in the floor of\nhis tent a Babalonish garment about fourteen hundred years before the\nChristian era, while Israel was battling against Ai[TN-2] See Joshua,\nChap. 8. The children of Japhet had passed up through Persia to the\nCaucasus, and from the Caucasus around the Black Sea to the waters of\nthe Danube and the Grecian Islands. The luxuries produced in the valley\nof the Euphrates and the Tigris, called Mesopotamia, furnished a ready\nbasis for a successful commerce across the desert by the way of Damascus\nto the shores of the Mediterranean; and it was by this means that a\ncommerce sprang up along these shores such as the world had never seen,\nand which rendered the people resident there the leaders in all the arts\nof life, including the art of navigation, throughout the then known\nworld, a result but twice paralleled on earth, once in the middle ages\nat Venice and once in our own age at our magical Chicago. This enabled\nthis people to become the leaders of their race down to about six\nhundred years before Christ, when there came that terrible war wherein\nNebuchadnezzar, by besieging Tyre, caused \"every head of that people to\nbecome bald and every shoulder to become pealed.\"[TN-3] Tyre subsisted\nafter the siege of Nebuchadnezzar, but Tyre never attained again the\nprosperity or influence which she possessed at the commencement of this\nmemorable siege. She had before this time planted two hundred and fifty\ncities upon the north coast of Africa, including the celebrated city of\nCarthage. She had settled and occupied two hundred cities in the\nterritory of Spain, and for centuries occupied the whole of that country\nup to the Ebro. The Jewish historians speak of Spain as Tharshish. Greek\nwriters speak of Spain as Tartesus. Jewish historians and prophets\nspeak of the ships of Tharshish as the most magnificent sea-going crafts\nknown to the world, as we for half of a century boasted of our Baltimore\nClipper. Her sailors passed beyond the Pillars of Hercules and passed up\nthe northwest coast of France and established their religion, the\nworship of Baal, or the sun, among the simple people of Bretagne so\nfirmly and universally that at this day at Carnac, in the Morbihan,\nthere stand more Phoenician funereal monuments of unknown antiquity\nthan can be found together in any form of religion in any other portion\nof the world's surface. They discovered tin in the Scilly Islands, off\nthe coast of Cornwall, and wrought those mines for centuries. Those\nIslands were known to the ancient Greeks and Romans as the\nCassiterrides, or Tin Islands. They worked both tin and copper mines in\nCornwall, and made profits on the sale of the products throughout the\nknown world. They passed up the British channel and through the German\nOcean, and in the immense sand dunes at the mouth of the Baltic\ndiscovered and utilized that beautiful product of the primeval forests\ncalled amber, which they dug from the sand hills. They took with them\ntheir priests (the priests of Baal) and introduced the worship of the\nsun, and made that worship paramount and universal in England, Ireland\nand Scotland, as well as in Bretagne and the northwest of France. So\nthoroughly has the religion of Baal been fastened upon the peoples of\nthese regions that portions of them at this day salute the arrival of\nthe Summer Solstice, June twenty-fourth, with burning fires, the precise\nmeaning of which is forgotten, but through those fires in all the early\nportions of the present century the inhabitants have jumped with their\nlittle ones in their arms, as the phrase goes, on Saint John's eve,\n\"for luck.\" The wizard of the north, Sir Walter Scott, in his song\nentitled \"Hail to the Chief,\" in the Lady of the Lake, has the following\nwhen speaking of \"Clan Alpines Pine\":\n\n    \"Ours is no saplin,\n    Chance sown by the fountain,\n    Blooming at Beltane,\" (Baaltime)\n    \"In winter to fade.\"\n\nIndeed the literary men of Scotland very generally call the Summer\nSolstice the Beltane. One of the finest of the smaller towns in England\neven to this day bears the name of Belper, (i.\u00a0e. Baalpeor.)\n\nThey built that wonderful prehistoric open air temple, still standing\nupon Salsbury Plain, and bearing the name of Stonehenge, the most\nwonderful monument now standing upon the earth's surface. They built\nseveral other circular open air temples in the British Islands, and\nconspicuously among them, away up in the Orkneys, above Scotland, a very\nperfect and beautiful one called the \"Standing Stones of Stennes.\"\n\nThey visited the Azore Islands, west of Gibraltar, out in the Atlantic\nocean, and as we learn by Chateaubriand's Outretombe, Phoenician coin\nin the last century was found scattered in the soil of these Islands. A\nman who carries his eyes about him will rarely enter a large Irish\nassembly, or an assembly of Canadian Frenchmen whose blood comes\nprincipally from Bretagne, without noticing here and there a swarthy\ncomplexion surrounding intensely bright flashing eyes which speak of\nSpain and Carthage and the blood of warmer climes.\n\nAbout one thousand years before Christ, Solomon, the Prince of Israel,\nresolved to build a temple to the God of Abraham which should exhibit on\nMount Zion architectural skill and beauty such as the world had never\nseen. The construction of that erection was intrusted entirely to the\npeople of Phoenicia; everything was perfected at Tyre so completely\nthat \"no hammer or instrument of iron sounded upon the building\" after\nits component parts reached the Mount of God. Even the basins that were\nto be used in the Lord's house were constructed by the artizans of\nPhoenicia.\n\n\nIS THERE ANY EVIDENCE EXISTING UPON THE WESTERN CONTINENT SHOWING OR\nTENDING TO SHOW WHENCE THE PEOPLE WHO ERECTED THE PREHISTORIC STRUCTURES\nON THE WESTERN CONTINENT CAME?\n\nFIRST.\n\nThe soil, climate and productions of the Peninsula of Yucatan, and that\npart of Mexico and Guatemala where these prehistoric remains are found,\nare precisely what are described by the European writers who speak of\nthe beauty, the loveliness and the grandeur of the Hesperides and the\nhomes founded by eastern adventurers beyond the western ocean.\n\nSECOND.\n\nThe prehistoric structures found in those regions and in neighboring\nregions are all built on plans and patterns borrowed from lands\nbordering the Mediterranean Sea, although the structures seem to have\nfollowed verbal descriptions rather than exact mechanical patterns.\n\nAll of these structures north of Panama seem to have been erected for\npublic purposes, and probably in connection with the offices of some\nform of religion; and every structure of them, of which any appreciable\nportion is standing, is built upon or in connection with pyramids as\nperfectly pyramidal and regularly constructed as were the pyramids of\nancient Egypt. Most of these pyramids, however, are mere earth mounds,\ninstead of being constructed of brick or stone as were those upon the\nbanks of the Nile. Let us refer to a few of the localities where these\npyramidal structures are most conspicuous.\n\nAt Copan, situate at the western border of Honduras, and by the side of\nthe river Copan, is a large enclosure, some two miles in extent, bounded\nupon the one side by the Copan river, on the bank of which are walls of\nbeautiful cut and fitted stone rising to the height of fifty to one\nhundred feet, designed to keep the earth upon that side of the river\nfrom being carried away by floods. This river at this place constitutes\none side of a tract of land laid out nearly in a square, along the outer\nsides of which, at regular intervals, are constructed, and still\nremaining, a very large number of pyramids made of hewn stone evidently\ndesigned to outline this extended sacred field.\n\nThis field within, is ornamented with a wealth of statuary, monuments\nand figures of idols, practically inconceivable in amount; but we count\nthis statuary of no importance now, as we are confining our attention to\nthe tendency of this prehistoric people to erect pyramids. For a fuller\naccount of this locality we refer to Stephens' Travels in Central\nAmerica, Chiapas and Yucatan, Vol. 1, Chap. 8.\n\nAt Santa Cruz Del Quiche, within the State of Chiapas, Mexico, there\nexists a pyramid erected for defensive purposes, constructed of earth\nand terraced as it rises, of enormous proportions; upon its top is a\nregular fortification upon the top of which rises a pyramidal temple\nabove the fortification. This structure is particularly described by\nStephens in the work above quoted, in his second volume, chapter 10,\npage 161, &c.\n\nAt Occasingo in Chiapas, there is a conspicuous pyramid constructed of\nearth, of somewhat exalted proportions, upon the top of which is a small\npyramidal temple having over its porch the ornamentation which is so\ncommon upon the temples of ancient Egypt, and occasionally seen in the\nland of Phoenicia, to wit: a winged globe wrought in stone. The globe\nitself has become loosened, and has dropped from its place upon the\nfront of the temple but still rests upon the ground before it, while the\nwing to which it was attached remains in place upon the temple as\nperfect as when it was first wrought. For a description of these works\nat Occasingo, see Stephens' second volume, chapter 15, page 258, &c.\n\nThe same sort of pyramidal structures remain in admirable preservation\nconspicuous at Palenque, in Chiapas, where an immense pyramid still\nexists standing in great perfection with an elegant temple upon its top.\nPyramidal structures and shapings are found everywhere at Palenque. See\nStephens' Work, above quoted, vol. 2, chap. 20, page 337, &c.\n\nAt Uxmal, also in Chiapas, we have another exhibition of pyramidal\nstructures with temples upon their tops. We refer again to the same work\nof Stephens, vol. 2, chap. 25, page 420, &c.\n\nThese remains, to which we have referred, have far greater importance in\nour investigation than can be attached to the mere building of pyramidal\nstructures. The wealth of sculpture found at the places referred to is\nimmensely great and deserves the attention of scholars and thinking men\nto an extent greater than we can now devote to them.\n\nIn our view, the people who erected those structures possessed a\nknowledge and civilization far in advance of the population that\nsurrounded them, and that the surrounding populations to a great degree\nimitated their examples and adopted their religion.\n\nThat, as we believe, led to the construction at Cholula, a little town\nnow of ten thousand inhabitants, fifteen miles from Puebla, on the road\nleading from Vera Cruz to Mexico, on the plains of Anahuac, at the\nheight of 6912 feet above the sea, of that immense pyramid of earth\nstill standing, 177 feet in height, measuring 1445 feet on either side,\nand ascended by 120 steps.\n\nThere are two other pyramids at Otumba, seven leagues north-east of the\nCity of Mexico, and in the language of the aboriginal inhabitants,\ncalled, one \"The House of the Sun,\" and the other, \"The House of the\nMoon.\" The House of the Sun is 680 feet square at the base, and 221 feet\nhigh.\n\nOn the top of this there was originally erected a great statue of the\nsun. The other pyramid is much smaller but rises to the height of 144\nfeet, and on its top was a statue of the moon. Upon the plain about\nthese structures are a number of smaller pyramids not necessary to be\ndescribed.--The sides of all the pyramids here constructed correspond\nwith the cardinal points of the compas.[TN-4] The pyramids that we have\nreferred to are all patterned after those constructed upon the banks of\nthe Nile, and are all found about the west border of Yucatan, about the\nnorth border of Guatamala[TN-5] and south of the centre of the great\nRepublic of Mexico.\n\nIt will be well to remember that the mountains and plains of North\nAmerica cover millions of square miles north and east of the country\nwhere these pyramids have been constructed, and that those mountains and\nplains are covered in many places with earth mounds of an almost\ninconceivable variety of forms, and yet the form of the pyramid seems\nto be utterly unknown on the Western Continent, except in the narrow\nregion that we have delineated. We might, perhaps, be justified in\nasking: From what people on earth could this building of pyramids be\ncopied except from those dwelling upon the banks of the Nile?\n\n\nTHE RELIGIOUS BELIEF OF THE PEOPLES WHO CONSTRUCTED THE WONDERFUL\nPREHISTORIC TOWERS AND TEMPLES UPON THE CONTINENT OF AMERICA.\n\nThey were the worshipers of Baal, the god worshiped by the Phoenicians,\nand paid their devotions to him with the same rites that they practiced\nwherever their influence was effective.\n\nIt will be remembered that Baal was supposed to exist and was worshiped\nas a being of biform existence. In his beneficent qualities, as the sun,\nhe was supposed to be the author and sustainer of all life and the\nfountain of all pleasures. In his sterner character wherein he was known\nas Moloch or Molech, by the children of Israel, he was the most cruel,\nstern, relentless monster that the imagination of man ever depicted, and\nhis votaries everywhere sought to conciliate him by presenting him with\nthe most horrid scenes of human agony. Attempts were everywhere made to\nconciliate him by laying human captives upon his altar, and for want of\ncaptives taken in war, such peaceful citizens as the priests saw fit to\nselect.\n\nHuman victims were constantly dying upon a thousand altars not only in\nPhoenicia, but in all western and north-western Europe.\n\nIt was firmly believed by the votaries of Moloch that he could be most\nreadily conciliated by the offering of children upon the altars, that he\nmost especially delighted in the sacrifice of the first born of every\nfamily. Men thus offering \"the fruit of their bodies for the sin of\ntheir souls.\" Early in the history of this worship it was deemed\nsufficient if children passed through the fires without the destruction\nof their lives, but down the ages it came to be believed, that if a\nfamily would secure the favor of this deity, the oldest child of each\nunion must be actually roasted to conciliate favor. Even good old\nAbraham who had been called from upper Chaldea to receive all the land\nof Israel for him and his seed forever, conceived the idea that God\nrequired the roasting of the son of Sarah upon the hill of Zion, and\nnever relented until a ray of common sense enlightened his intellectual\nvision, after he had actually bound Isaac to the altar.\n\nWe have referred to the beautiful monuments that still exist at Uxmal,\nPalenque, Occasingo, Queche and Otumba, and to the temples and monuments\nstill standing there. Upon all these beautiful structures are engraved\nin the living stone, or wrought in stucco, most striking representations\nof the sun with a huge priest on either side, standing with arms\noutstretched each holding in his hands a naked child offering it to the\nrelentless deity. The practice of burning human beings as offerings to\nthe sun existed very extensively down to the date of the Spanish\nconquest. Showing that the same so-called religion which prevailed in\nwestern Europe before the Roman conquest, was still paramount and\nterribly enforced among these settlers in America, though so far removed\nfrom the parent stock. We have spoken thus far of American remains which\nare found north of the Isthmus of Panama, but there are still existing,\nin the old land of Peru, structures which for thousands of years have\nbeen telling the story of their origin.\n\nThere are all over this land of Peru remains not of palaces and temples,\nbut of roads and water-courses showing a mechanical skill such as\nperhaps cannot be found in any part of the earth elsewhere as existing\nas early as these must have been constructed.\n\nThe people who did this work are absolutely extinct. Many have supposed\nthat in the population of Central America there is still a remainder of\nthe blood of the people who once dwelt there, thus rendering the local\ninhabitants in some degree superior to the aboriginal Indians of that\ncountry. Not so in Peru. It is only from the structures which we find\nand the conditions which attend them that, any evidence is found that\nthere ever was in Peru, any people superior to the dull Indians of the\nmountains.\n\nThe traditions of the country speak of one Manco Capac appearing in the\ncountry at some indefinite period, and that he and his family\ndescendants were rulers for a long course of time, ruling and\ncontroling[TN-6] the business and social life of the population of Peru.\nThat blood had been long extinct before the Spanish conquest.\n\nLet us see for a moment whether anything remains to show what were the\nreligious ideas of Manco Capac, and those coming with and descended from\nhim. We find abundant remains of structures and carved columns in the\nalmost desert regions of Atacama, in the high lands of what is now\nBolivia, between Peru and Chili, between twelve and thirteen thousand\nfeet above the level of the sea. These structures and carved monuments\nare largely gathered about the lake of Titicaca. At Sillustani on a\npromontory extending into that lake, is constructed a stone circle as an\noutdoor temple, standing more perfect to-day than Stonehenge or\nStennes, or the structures at Carnac in Bretagne. It is undoubtedly an\noutdoor temple for the worship of the sun. See Squires' Travels in the\nLands of Incas, page 384, &c.\n\nThis, taken by itself, might not prove to a certainty that this outdoor\ntemple was for the worship of the sun, but at Tiahuanuco, in the same\nwork, at page 288 to 292 inclusive, we have the whole story told as\nplainly as it could be in a thousand printed volumes. Over the entrance\nto a cemetery is a carved monolith, or single stone, on which is the\nfollowing described carving: Centrally over the gateway upon this\nmonolith is a well carved figure of the sun, and upon the right hand and\nthe left hand and below, are sculptured some fifty figures of beings\nwith human bodies, and the wings of angels as imagined and represented\nin western Asia and in Europe. Half of the angels have human bodies,\nangel wings and the heads of hawks. The Romans and the Greeks held\nMercury to be the god of eloquence and of wisdom.\n\nInstead of furnishing him with the wings of the Asiatic angel, they\nclothed his head in a cap close to the ears with wings extended from the\nears, and with other wings extended from his ankles.\n\nIt will be remembered that when Paul and Barnabas were upon their great\nmission through Asia Minor, preaching the gospel, the people became very\nmuch excited at Paul's preaching at Lystra and Derbe, and believing that\nthe gods themselves had come to them, they called Barnabas, Jupiter, and\nthe orator Paul, Mercurius. See acts of the Apostles, Chap. 14, 12th\nverse.\n\nIn the Egyptian economy, Thoth was worshiped as the god of wisdom and\neloquence, and represented as possessing a human body with a hawk's\nhead. Both regions representing the hawk as the embodiment of wisdom\namong the feathered creation. Here, at Tiahuanuco, we have the Greek and\nEgyptian god of wisdom, furnished with the wings of the Asiatic angel,\nand standing in eternal attendance upon the Phoenician sun god. All\nthese figures are perfect, as showing the ideas and intentions which led\nto their construction, yet indicating in the roughness of the work that\nthey had been constructed by one who was without exact measurements,\nprobably without patterns, and without the means of obtaining either\nmeasurements or patterns. In this cemetery at Tiahuanuco, one will find\na hundred structures so like the round towers upon the south coast of\nIreland as strongly to awaken one's attention. So that, Manco Capac and\nhis descendants were not only sun worshipers but very strongly imbued\nwith the ideas which originated in the eastern and southern coasts of\nthe Mediterranean sea.\n\nThus we have seen that the prehistoric people who built the structures\nin Central America and Mexico, which have in these later days filled the\ncivilized world with wonder and admiration, were constructed by a people\nwhose knowledge of science and the arts had reached the same point of\nadvancement as had been reached upon the banks of the Nile, and in the\ncities of Phoenicia, for at least a thousand years before the Christian\nera. That in the erection of these structures they had implicitely[TN-7]\nfollowed the patterns, even to their ornamentation, of structures and\nornaments then known and adopted in ancient Egypt. That their religious\nbeliefs were identical with those which prevailed among the Phoenician\npeople upon the eastern shores of the Mediterranean sea, upon the coast\nof north-western Africa and throughout the entire west and north-western\nportions of Europe. They were sun worshipers, offering infants and full\ngrown human victims to appease the wrath and conciliate the favor of\ntheir god. And we have farther seen that that strange people called the\nIncas, built outdoor temples of standing stones, and upon the entrance\nto their cemeteries engraved the effigies of the same god worshiped in\nCentral America, and in so large a portion of the eastern world.\n\nSo we think we may say, with entire confidence, that it was known to\nmany learned men in ancient times that there were settlements upon the\ncontinent of America, and that the dreams of the Western Islands of the\nBlest, and of the gardens of the Hesperides, rested upon most\nsubstantial facts. Modern scholars, looking at the matter casually, have\nallowed themselves to conclude that, because these discoveries were made\nat a very early period in the history of the world, by a people who were\nunable to build their ships according to the rules of modern science,\nand were compeled[TN-8] to navigate stormy oceans without the aid of\nsteam, and probably without the aid of the mariner's compass, could\nnever have navigated wide seas and stormy oceans.\n\nBut how baseless this idea is found to be, when we come to see how\neasily and successfully the Phoenician people traversed northern,\nwestern and eastern oceans, and brought home the products of the whole\nworld to enrich themselves and the peoples among whom Providence had\nfixed their destinies! And how strangely such a suggestion sounds when\naddressed to the understanding of peoples who have seen again and again\nthe boisterous Atlantic traversed from continent to continent by three\nmen, two men, and even a single man, in an open boat! So that the origin\nof this people, who were so conspicuous at one time in Central America,\nis certainly found to have been of the Phoenicians from Tyre, Sidon or\nAridas or from Tharshish or Carthage or the settlements towards the\nwest. The settlement of these countries must have been very early, and\ntheir location must have been guarded by all the pains and penalties so\ngraphically described in the ancient authors which we have quoted.\nIntercourse with Central America from the east must have ceased before\nthe discovery of letters, for nowhere that we have discovered throughout\nthe extent of the American settlements has a letter been found of any\nform whether Cuniform, Greek, Roman, Hebrew or Phoenician. These western\nsettlers must have been entirely ignorant of Egyptian hieroglyphics,\nfor the figures upon their walls show the invention of a system of\nhieroglyphics more complicated than anywhere else discovered, and which\nno Champollion has yet been able to translate. The human mind was not\ndormant here but its discoveries are utterly lost to mankind. It will be\nasked what has become of this Central American population who wrought\nthe works in question? This can only be answered from conjecture. The\nnumber of actual settlers from the east were doubtless few. In erecting\nthe structures which have been so much admired and wondered at, they\ndoubtless used the labors of untold thousands of the aboriginal\ninhabitants, appealing perhaps to their fears and desires to conciliate\nthe favor of that God, whose terrors made the Phoenecian priests such\nan irresistable[TN-9] power over the nations in the west and north of\nEurope.\n\nBut if for a moment superstition lost its terrors, this little flock of\nmore intelligent incomers were powerless to resist the avenging hands of\nthe million aboriginal barbarians. But we are not engaged in discussing\nthe mode in which this people became extinct, but choose to confine\nourselves to the questions, who were they, and where did they come from?\nWe say without hesitation, that when Columbus parted from Palos in\nSpain, he sailed from a Phoenician city, in Phoenician vessels, manned\nby Phoenician crews to rediscover worlds that the Phoenician ancestors\nof these men had known and settled not less than three thousand years\nbefore. We believe that traditions had always existed in Spain, whose\nblood up to the Ebro is almost purely Phoenician, of these western\nworlds discovered by their fathers. No nation north of Spain could be\ninduced to give any considerable attention to the arguments and\nsolicitations of Columbus. True, Ferdinand and Isabella were of northern\nblood, red haired Goths, but their northern blood had been nourished for\na thousand years upon the hillsides of Northern Spain, and they had\nbecome Spaniards in fact, with all Spanish beliefs and tendencies.\nBeyond all question Columbus took into account the Norwegian and\nIcelandic voyages and the voyage of Madoc with his Welsh brethren. But\nColumbus knew that those voyages only claimed to relate to lands lying\nwest and north-west of the Straits of Gibraltar. But when Columbus\nunfurled his sails outside these Straits, in latitude thirty-five, he\nmade no effort to find the lands claimed to have been discovered by the\nIcelanders, Norwegians or Welsh, but directed his course to a point from\nfifteen to twenty degrees farther south, and thus reopened to the\nknowledge of the world what should have been the happy islands of the\nwest and the storied gardens of the Hesperides. We make no doubt that\nthe Incas of Peru were brought to that country by the ships of the same\nPhoenician people. But the Incas were very few in number, and came to\nPeru with mechanical knowledge and the knowledge of pottery far in\nadvance of that possessed by the settlers in Central America, and their\nworks initiated for the purpose of improving water courses and\nconstructing roads were far more beneficial to mankind than the temples\nerected to Baal in Central America, although the Incas, though more\nintelligent than the settlers in Central America, were not yet\nemancipated from belief in that heathen god. Manco Capac, the first\nInca, may have been left, for aught we know, by Solomon's fleets from\nEziongeber, when in search of rosewood, mahogany, and gold, and may have\nbeen one of those skilled mechanics that built Solomon's Temple, and\nconstructed the basins for it, and thus have become enlightened in\nreligious matters, although he had not yet advanced so far as to\nentirely abandon the worship of Baal.\n\nWe are not unaware that Peruvian tradition introduces Capac into Peru at\na much later period, but no confidence can be placed in dates suggested\nby a people utterly unacquainted with letters or figures, and we make no\nsuggestion as to the exact time when the first Inca showed himself in\nPeru. It may be asked what we are to say in regard to the storied\nAtlantis, and especially, what shall we say to the fancies of Ignatius\nDonnelly, who has written such a beautiful romance in regard to that\nisland supposed by him to have existed, and have been the actual\nbirthplace of man. Our reply is that Central America was the only true\nAtlantis; and that Atlantis sunk in the ocean only when its discoverers\nbecame weakened in the face of the barbarous people who surrounded them\nand lost their supremacy in the commercial world among the nations.\nBeyond what was true of Central America, Atlantis was a dream of fancy\nat an age of the world when fancy supplied the place of facts to an\nuninstructed people.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *\n\nNOTE.\n\nI am under strong obligations to MR. GEORGE R. HOWELL, Archivist of the\nNew York State Library, for the aid he has given me in selecting from\nancient Greek and Roman authors their substantial statements in regard\nto what they considerered[TN-10] in their day to have been discoveries\nin the western world.\n\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Note\n\n\nThe following misspellings and typographical errors were maintained.\n\n       Page Error\n  TN-1   5  real sea. should read real sea.\"\n  TN-2  13  against Ai should read against Ai.\n  TN-3  13  pealed should read peeled\n  TN-4  20  compas should read compass\n  TN-5  20  Guatamala should read Guatemala\n  TN-6  24  controling should read controlling\n  TN-7  26  implicitely should read implicitly\n  TN-8  27  compeled should read compelled\n  TN-9  29  irresistable should read irresistible\n  TN-10 31  considerered should read considered\n\nThe following words were inconsistently hyphenated.\n\n  north-west / northwest\n  Sea / sea (when referring to a named Sea)","title":"Prehistoric Structures of Central America: Who Erected Them?","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":8313}