The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1877-04-12
Extraordinary Archaeological Discov.
cries.

In stoddard County, No., strange arch
Biological discoveries have been made an(
unique relics Of forgotten race exhumed
/ have written to the World already of In
scriptions on tablet of stone inserted IN
the inner wall of . ruined temple in Qua
najuato. The writing is in the same
Characters, if my memory be not griev
ously at fault, as those used by the sun
wOrshipers of the old temple Of stone n
Western Mexico. The tablet exhumed il
Stoddard County is of glazed terra. Gotta
and is almost a. perfect as when depos.
tied in the mound from which it wa
taken . few days ago. It 10 ten and halt
iAches wide and thirteen inches long, and
covered with characters clearly cut, bear
ing . suggestive resemblance to Sauscrit
letters. On both sides Of the tablet ap.
pear these unique hieroglyphics. The
tracing was evidently executed when the
clay was yet soft and thin; it was dried
hardened and glazed. The whole appear.
ance of this undeciphered leaf from The
Continents remotest history has many
characteristics of the library tables of the
Assyrian King Assur- Bani- Pal recently
dug from the mounds at Nineveh, and
when remember how near the likeness
is to the inscriptions in the old Mexioar
temple, I am persuaded that some ex
plorer will yet have photograph,
made Of all these drawings and Of
that discovered on . stone mot far from
Tuscaloosa, Ala, and, comparing the
strange records of the unknown
races, ascertain their origin, and deter
mine perhaps the vexed question OF
unity. The characters of this Missouri
tablet are arranged in regular lines or rows
and are clear and distinct in outline. A
key to solve the mysteries involved in
these two "pages" of prehistoric lore
would be an "Open sesame to the pro.
foundest mystery that affects the fortunes
of the human race. Is there no Champol.
lion to make stones eloquent, dead centur.
les loquaci0us, and to invest mummies
with habiliments of ancient life? Were
the Mound Builders IF the Valley of the
Mississippi of the same race with those
who reared temples at Chichen and Copan
and Otolum and PalenQue? Were the
bearded Natchez Indians the descendants,
as they claimed, of this race, whose power
was cOterminous with the two oceans, and
extended, as their raconteuys told the fol.
lowers of Bienville and LaSalle, even to
Africa? They said that when the cont.
nent was convulsed, a. never before OF
since, their broadest, richest domain east
of Florida and South America was sub.
merged and the west was upheaved. The
French fOrefathers of the writer of thia
were never beaten until their priests were
made drunk, and sacred fires that burned
perennially ON the great mound below
Natehez were suffered to become extinct.
When this cataclysm befell the hapless
race no further serious resistance was en-.
c0untered by the French invaders. The
Natchez were destroyed or dispersed, and
this was the end Of the latest and very re-
mote descendants of the Mound Builders
that lefttrsces of their toll everywhere, from
the great lakes to the Gulf. in the Valley
Of the Mississippi. Whether the writer
of the strange glyphs on the Stoddard
County stone was of the Colhuas or Tol.
tees, or wanderer from the Orient, a voy.
ager with Hanno or some Phenician who
passed beyond the Pillars of Hercules to
return no more-theee are inquiries to be
solved by him who translates the story in.
scribed on this tablet and on that in the
old temple of Guanajuato. If Congress
should appoint q commission to survey
the l0wlands of the Mississippi. If only
with reference 10 the possibility Of con.
trolling its floods, much might be done ia
the way of exploring the hidden mysteries
Of the swamps, once the seat of this
unique and ancient civilization.
The St0ddard County tablet has been
forwarded to the learned Orientalist Of
Harvard University. Though the similar.
ity between the characters EMPLOYED by
the Mound Builders and the Sanscri,
!" letters" is striking, it is perhaps only
fanciful. and careful analysis of thu
structural forms Of these glyphs may re-
veal NO likeness whatever to any alphabet
cal language. In fact, the inscription
may be wholly Geographic, and the Ian
guage employed by the writer may moi
have been developed into Photographic
unity. If this be true, speculative
arch@olegists may again infer that thii
was the oldest Of inhabited continents and
the seat of the earliest civilization Of oul
race,-COr. N. =. World.