Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1914-08-02
Recent Excavations High Andean Plateau That


discoveries with Professor Adolfe Bando-
lier, who was then working for the New
York museum, and he told me that Squier's
deductions were in the main correct.
Squier made some excavations under the
temple. He heard from the Indians that
there were large vaults beneath it, and that
an underground passage led from there to
Cuzco He dug under the foundations but
found no vault nor passage. The discov-
cries recently made are the work of Dr.
Otto Buchtein, the director of the National
Museum of La Paz. He has made some
wonderful finds in the earth not far from
museum here is full of them and the work
is still going on. I shall describe his discov-
cries further on in this letter, giving talk
with DR.. Buchtein
But first let me tell you what is still left
of Tiahuanacu. The ruins are accessible to
all, and some may be seen from the win
dows of the cars passing through on the
way to La Paz There are remarkable ruins
right at the railway station and in the town
that surrounds it. The town consists of
mud huts some of which have doorways
made of stone brought from the ruins and
set into the walls. | saw Aymara Indians
sitting in these stone doorways, and others
STOPPING as they went in and out The
huts are often plastered with mud, and upon
the matched roofs are wooden crosses,
showing the religious nature of the people.
The town has Catholic church that has
stones of the ancient city in its walls, and in
Of he &c II
made of such stones. There are carved idols
on each side of the gateway that leads into
the church. They all came from Tiahua-
nacu, whose people lived 5000 years ago and
worshiped we know not what.
The main ruins of Tiahuanacu lie on a
broad and level plain, situated about half
mile south of the railroad. They are scat
tered over the plain, some of them half
buried and others lying well up out of the
tufts of grass and other low plants that
cover it. The region is the picture of desc
lation The Andes are in plain view, but
outside them there is nothing but the mud
huts in the distance and the alpacas, llamas
and sheep watched by Aymara shepherds
spinning or knitting as they mind their
flocks.
One of the striking features of the ruins
is a great doorway cut out of one solid
block of stone This is fitted into the walls
of an old cemetery The block is broken al
one corner, but it originally was great
stone slab 18 inches thick, and twice as tai
as a man. The doorway that was cut
through its center is four and half feet
high and almost three feet in width. The
stone above the door is beautifully carved
with figures that seem to be Egyptian, anC
over the doorway is central figure in higf
relief Some of the figures evidently rep
resent kings, for each holds a scepter anC
some have crowns on their heads They
have human bodies, feet and hands.
Others of the stones are enormous.
saw one 80 feet long and seven feet thick
and another which is 20 feet long, 10 fee
wide and six feet in thickness. Some of the
| blocks are of sandstone and others are
trachyte, dark in color and exceedingly
hard The latter are beautifully carved ant
| polished.
Among the most remarkable features o
the ruins are the stone idols, dug out sine,
| Squier's time and made to stand upright
Some of these idols are of gigantic size
4 Their bodies are as big around as a flou
barrel, and they are more than eight feet il
height The faces have thick lips, and thu
/ heads are so cut that they would be a de
/ light to the cubists of today. They are al
/ angles, even to the eyes, noses and lips.
i Some of the smaller idols have beef