New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1884-02-13
ALLEGED PALEOLITHIC RELICS IN NICAR-

A Managua Nicaragua paper the Porgenir, states
that fossilzed human footprints have been dlscov-
cred in quarry near Riyas, at depth OF fifteen
feet from the surface; that /" they are of several
sizes, as if made by men, women and children u; and
that DIR. Carl Flint, who has examined them, " cal
cuates these prints to be at least fifty thousand
years old" The story is further complicated by the
announcement that " in other excavations III the
neghbOrhood several pieces of earthenware pottery,
standing three legs, painted in black, red and sill
yer colors and the drawings which are entirely
Etruscan have been obtained On one of them a
dressing-gown is drawn, almost on the European
model of to-day" 1t is evident, even from the very
loose and imperfect account given, that If these
finds are genuine and if their connection in time is
to be inferred from their position, the pottery dis
proves the alleged remote antiquity OF the human
footprints.
1t is indeed true that the whole question of geologic
time is uncertain and at best matter for conjec-
turo. There Is nothing approaching agreement
concerning It among biologists themselves Estimates
of the time preceding the development of life on
the globe vary from one hundred millions of years TO
three or four millions. Sir William Thompson puts
the former figure the maximum. Professor Gelkle IS
content with eighty million years. Professor New
comb takes about fourteen millions from the Silurian
Period and about three millions from the end of the
there is plenty of room.
There is no conclusive reason why such relics
shonld not have been found in Central America
footprints either of men or of tertiary
or quaternary mammals or birds-though
In a.. region which has been so long exp posed
to volcanic action the slow aocreion OF sedlmentary
deposits which elsewhere demonstrates the lapse OF
long periods would require to be established upon
particularly trustworthy observation. At present
we do not know even the structure of the rock in
the Rlvas quarry, and great many facts would be
required before II was possible to form an fntelh-
gent judgment as to the antiquity of the relics
But no such hesitation is necessary regards the
alleged find Of pottery, the drawings on which are
entirely Etruscan." OF course II may prove that
Dr. Carl Flint is not an authority either subject,
but It Is quite certain that 10 pottery resembling
that of Etruria can be at all archaic as compared
with Paeolithc Man. The Etruscan pottery. which
is now believed to be mostly Greek, does not date
further back than 1900 b. c. at the earliest. More
archaic pottery has been found by Schliemann both
al Mykene and Troy. None of the very earliest
pottery however, has what can be called draw
ngsn on IT, and none of 1t has more than two coiors,
namely. red and black Thus it appears that no
reference to Etrusoan pottery will carry US back
tithe of the time required to synchronize the foot
prints and the ceramics on the theory OF very
great antiquity. No such pottery as Is described
can possibly be referred to the Paeolithic epoch,
nor TO the Neolithc. In fact 1t is modern, speaking
from geologic standpoint and far more suggestive
of a Totec or Chichinec origin than of anything
much earlier than these races.
No doubt it is possible that the footprints are
really much older than the pottery That is ques-
ton to await more critical observation. But any
attempt to assign to supposed Paeolithic Man
civilization such as this pottery indicates must
break down. ana might well be at once aban-
doned And, as already limited, there have been so
many dynamic agencies constantly operating
through Central America during the historic period
that sedimentary deposits may well have been
formed there by volcanic action much more rapidly
than where the conditions were more stable and the
mutations consequently more gradual. For all this,
the alleged discoveries in Nicaragua no doubt de-
serve to be followed up and fully and carefully ex-
amined and described by competent men of science.