Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1896-09-25
THE EGYPT OF AMERICA.
Prehistoric Ruins Discovered
the New World.

Remains OF Magnificent Buildings of
Untold Age at CopRn in Honduras
Sculptures OF Remarkable Artistic
Merit Found---Rare Dishes and other
Antique objects.
Thousands of years before Columbus
came to America great and mighty peo-
pie lived in the New World. It has gen
orally been thought that the earliest civili-
cation, of which there was any monument
or yestige here, was the one which the
Spanards found and spoiled, and that was
lacking in progressive elements. Now it
is known, however, that long before the
Spaniards thought Of coming, people of
high degree Of civilization had lived and
passed away. Nor could Palacio, in 1873,
find even an Indian tradition to account
for the old ruins which he saw in Hondu-
ras. Natives told him that great lord
had come from Yucatan and built the
splendid editices, and had then abandoned
them and gone back to his native land !;
but this story sounds like a fabrication,
and the ruins at that time were covered
with the mould Of centuries.
Similar ancient ruins are found all over
the country, from southern Mexico south
through Guatemala and Honduras. But
the greatest and the most magnificent are
those of a ruined city in Honduras, called
Copan after village near by, for even the
original name has been forgotten. The
city extends two miles along the Copan
river, and its ruins today tower 1870 feet
above the water, although the weather has
worn them for countless centuries and the
river has washed against them. Here. I'M
der the debris Of ages, lies the evidence of
a mighty people, ruins of great temples on
terraced elevations, dwellings and pyra-
mids, some partly fallen, some only heaps
OF fragments Of what were once magnifi-
cent buildings.
These ancient people would not have
needed many points from modern archi-
tects. They used tine triangular arch and
the vault. In some cases, where they
rooted a space with stone, it is impossible
for modern Investigators to see how the
builders supported the roof. They built
their walls of finely cut stone. Staircases
of public buildings were deliberately and
magniticently carved step faces were COW
cred with heroglyphics. Interiors were fin
ished in plaster, which was then orna-
mented with paintings. Painted stucco
was used. Sculptures were everywhere.
The buildings of Copan have a curious
compleXity, structures being built upon
each other sometimes three deep, old and
massive buildings serving as bed on
which TO lay new foundations. Perhaps
rulers glorifed themselves by building up
on the dwellings of their predecessors
But more likely these complex buildings
resulted from centuries of changing style
in architecture and the abandonment of
older parts, which were sometimes left
eempty, and which sometimes were filed
With clay and rubble. Other evidence of
successive periods of occupation is forth
coming. For on the river front appears
what seems to be ''three great strata, di-
vided by floors or pavements of mortar
cement" Between the three times of oc-
cupancy, when the city was swarming with
life, are long periods of silence whose
length can only be inferred from the thick
ness of the strata. These structures have
style that is peculiar to the region, but at
the same time the style has a similarity to
that of southern Asia. 1t expresses the
same ideas, and the two may be said to
come from the same architectural "root."
The people who lived in this city knew
how to make sculptures; in fact, they
were remarkably good at it. They lived
long before the time of Michael Angelo,
yet in one respect they were like him.
Michael Angelo never expended his art on
clay models to be copied in marble, as mod
ern sculptors do. He felt that his figures
were imprisoned in the solid stone, and
that he must cut them out of it. Thus
did the ancient people of the New World
countless centuries before. They had WV
i'd ideas of what they wanted TO make, and
carved them directly out of the rock.
Prof. Putnam of Harvard university,
from whose work on the "Prehistoric Ru-
ms of Copan" much of the material in
this article is drawn, is the only scientist
who has explained how these old sculptors
worked. He thinks that they did not use
the mallet and chisel, but cut away the
stone by drawing a sharp instrument over
it. Thus they made more delicate and
sharply-defned lines, but lost accuracy of
proportion. They made good heads, arms
and legs, but the bodies were not al
ways of proper size. Their technique,
however, was always perfect. Their work
always expressed just what the sculptor
intended. This, with accurate proportion
which they sometimes attained, made theirs
the highest art. The strength of their fig
ures is remarkable. The terra-cotta vase
in the Peabody museum of Harvard uni
versity, representing a VOLTS head, is of
great accuracy and has an extraordinary
artistic merit. And its power at once sug-
gests the famous "wounded lion" in bas-
relief from old Assyria.
Like every other people, these ancient
Central Americans had a passion for orna.
ments, and, like all the rest, they used for