Arizona weekly citizen., 1881-12-18
AyTIOUATED AMERICA.
The Ruins of New Mexico Compared With Those Elsewhers-A Plausible Theory About the Mound Builders and Aztecs.
rB.Evnns in the Chicago Times. ]

i Is. B. Evans m the Chicago Tmes-l
 The antiquities of New Mexico, Col
 orado and Arizona, are distinct from those of any other portion of the United ! States, and the forms peculiar to the | two last named are found in New Mex ! leo, and these are the best examples of them have examined. The object of | these explorations was primarily and prominently to throw some light on ! the orlgin of the mysterious mound ! builders. and to find, if it exists, the analogy between their works and those | of the pyramid builders in valley of | Mexico. If that analogy were estab- lished it was believed that one lm-
 portant step would be gained in the sO- ' lution of the problem.
 Beginning in Minnesota, l have by personal survey traced the mound | builders to the gulf, and found an un- | broken chain of their curious works down the valley of the Mississippi into colonies on the principal trlbutarles tra-
 versing the States that border on the great stream It Is not necessary to re- count the days that were passed m the Mississippi valley, or the work that was done. It will be enough to say here that
 mounds were found along the entire route, and on the shores Of the gull Crossing into Mexico, We were not long in finding the chain dropped in the sea at Galveston, but recovered It near
 Vera Cruz. On the plain of Cholula IS a mound that, if transferred to CahOkia, would fit the landscape, and appear m keeping with the general plan of the works. On the other hand, If the great mound of Cahokia were brought Tn pres ence of PopOcatepetl 1t would not be abashed, but be a fit companion for the pyramid. The pyramids of the sun and moon at TeotlihuacOn would be mounds in Virginia and Ohio, and the great
 mounds of Grove creek and SeltzertOwn might embellish the ancient "City of the Gods" Excavations were made in Mexican mounds as they were made in the United States, and substantially the results were the same-tombs in some mounds, altars in others, and noth- ing in a few. Pottery was found with the lines of ornamentatiOn the same as that discovered in Arkansas; heads of idols. the counterpart of those found m Tennessee: children's toys from each, that might have been produced from the same moulds, and skulls from the tombs of San Juan with the same peculiar flat tening of the Occipital region that dis tinguishes the skulls of the mould build CTS wherever they are found in the United States. The presence of an in- trusive race was early detected, and the comment made that 1t was ImpOs- sible for the Aztecs to have been the builders of the pyramids or Of'any of the works of antiquity ln that region. This I have demonstrated since, and produced absolute proofs through lnves- | tigations made in this Territory. The 1 Aztecs were not then or at any tlme mOund-building race, and there are no mounds i'll New Mexico from whence | they spring.
 It will now be seen how necessary it | was to investigate the antiquities of this | Territory in order to throw light on | those of Mexico and the States. With | the evidence all in let us recapitulate | and see what We have gained. Investi- gations have established the following | facts.
 l. The mounds of the United States were made by the same race that | built the mounds of Mexico. Proven | by close resemblance between the rocks, by implements used in common; similar manners of burial and skulls from the | tombs of each locality.
 ? The mounds of Mexico antedate | Aztec occupation. Proven by records that the Aztecs did not enter the valley | until the close of the thirteenth century; | by investigation, that the mounds con- tain skulls that are not Aztec; that they contain specimens of the plastic art that could not have come from the hand of an Aztec.
 3. The Aztecs were not a mound building race. Proven by investigation in New Mexico, disclosing the fact that there are no temple, sacrificial or burial mounds in the land from which they come; that they built DO mounds here and built none in Mexico from the time the Spaniards occupied the country, in 1920. until the present, and 1t was physical impossibility, even though they had the knowledge, to have erected all the mounds and pyramids in Mexico during the space of time that elapsed from their entry into until its occupation by the Spaniards.