The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1912-11-22
COLUMBIA Gets
DEAD RACE RELICS
University Has Figures Made by
People Aliedating AzteCS.
UNEARTHEO IN RIVER BED.
Crude objects With MILLINERY" Found
Far Under Mounds of Younger Ma
tion-AImost a Thousand Pieces In
the Collection.


tion-AImost a Thousand Pieces In
the Collection.
Relics OF the oldest civilization on
the American continent have been
placed i'll Columbia university, New
York. The exhibition consists of bro
ken figures and fragments of pottery
which were found 10y the International
School Of Archaeology and Ethnology
in Mexico city in the course of research
III the Valley OF Mexico. The collec-
tion is made up of almost 1000 pieces
ar! illustrates e sequence of cultural
types in the valley Of Mexico as work
ed out pre-, ding and during the Az
tees occupation of the valley.
Professor franz Boas of the depart
ment of anthropology at Columbia be-
lieves the excavations of the school
have turned up specimens used by
primitive Peoples and practically all
of the pottery is we'll advanced. Many
Of the heads of the figures are covered
with wonderful hats and headdreSses,
some of which have their counterpart
in millinery Of today. As a rule, the
figures are very small and have been
rolled by the water of river long
since buried.
The heads found in this river bottom
were made by hand. Eyes and orna-
ments of the body consist Of little pei
let's OF clay added to the figure itself.
Clothing, too, was stuck on the figure
in the same way and remains only in
fragments. Most of the figures bear
evidence OF having been painted.
That considerable time has elapsed
since the depositing of the layers on
the old river bed is made evident by
the fact of the collection Of twenty
six feet OF surface soil and conditions
are such it is almost certain the geog-
raphy and topography Of the country
in and around what is now Mexico
City have changed very considerably.
Report on the Discoveries.
This in part is a report which the
Archaeological school has made in ref
erence to the discoveries:
The bottom or the valley is composed OF
a thick layer Of decomposed tufa, which
is much used for making firebricks and
sun dried bricks. Scattered over the sur
face are found large and small mounds,
all of which contain archaeological re-
IhainR They are generally erected over
floor OF a few layers Of pebbles. All these
and the surrounding surface soil contain
remains chara cteristic of the Aztec peri
cd. II is evident. therefore, that these
mounds were erected by the Aztecs and
that they lived in the valley OF Mexico
during the period when the surface layer
Of the soil was deposited
Descending farther down, the remains
become little less frequent, but they re-
tain the same character until depth of
little over twenty feet from the surface
has been reached. In the hard decom-
posed tufa Of this layer human bones are
found every now and then, but no COM
plete skeletons. In one place large stone
slab was encountered which covered the
remains OF a deer.
At depth Of twenty-one feet the char
acter Of the soil changes quite suddenly.
coarse gravel arranged in such a way as
to show that river used to flow here.
The thickness OF the river deposits is
about seven feet All the remains found
in this layer nave been rolled by water.
The type which they represent is quite
different from the type OF the preceding
stratum. The pottery Is thick, and al
though a large number Of heads are found
here also, they are much ruder and show
q different technique.