The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1936-05-07
Vagabond
from
Indiana
ERNIE PYLE

EDITORS NoTE-This rowing reporter
for The Times goes where he pIesses.
when he pIeases. in search Of odd stories
shout this and that.
INAxACA, Mexico. May Most
" people in the United States
get about as excited over the dis
covery of new Mexican ruin, I'm
afraid, as they do over the build
ing of new movie house in Cedar
Falls, Ia.
Take myself. I knew that ancient
temples had been uncovered in
Mexico, that one of them was called
Chichen-I liza, that Lindbergh few
over the temples in Yucatan-and
that's all I did know. And that's
all I cared.
But things are different now. I've
become an archeologist. Yes sir,
I've been nosing around half-buried
cities, and crawling into tombs, and
picking up rocks that look as though
they'd been carved centuries ago,
and yelling Hey, come here, look
at this one!"
suppose there is no way to make
anybody enthusiastic about Mexi-
can ruins unless he can actually
came down and see them. But once
you look at one. the digging bug
has got you. How envy the scien-
fists, and the rich men with scien-
tif1c hobbies, who can come to Mex
lea and just keep digging!
n them:
The original Indians of Mexico
had a very high civilization. That's
definite. 1t is very probable that,
many centuries before Columbus,
their civilization was the most adj
vanced in the world. Some
Psychologists think that some day
the key to all human history will
be found in the Mexican ruins; that
| the cradle of humanity Is here,
and not in Cobb or Egypt.
When the Spaniards came in 1919,
something had happened. The In
dian civilization was not what it
had been. There we're records, but
the Spanish priests threw them on
the fire as pagan relics.
So the only way to find out now
is to dig and dig and dig among the
buried ruins, and hope some day to
find records that will unroll the
curtain from this closed chapter of
history.
Many think that man first
evolved from fishes right in Mexico.
instead of doing it somewhere else
and then migrating to Mexico. tt
may or may not be important to
know, but it certainly would be in
tereSting.
Il HAD always been under the
l. vague impression that just a
few buried temples and cities had
been found IN Mexico. But I find
that the country is filthy with
ancient buildings, even cities, all
covered by time and weather. Let
me give you one tiny example.
stood on the top of Monte Al
ban. 1000 feet high, just a few miles
out of OaXaca. 1t is big mountain
top, maybe 40 acres. They have
been digging in it for years. stood
on top of the highest pyramid All
around me were pyramids, dozen
or more of them, laid out systematic
cally, like buildings in a city. 1t
thrills you to think of them being
there centuries before our Pilgrim
| Eiofhprc coxry pixy1,a DAoir
And then looked around, at the
hill tops and mountain peaks below
me. And as far as I could see. in
every direction. every peak was
crowned with one or more irregular
mounds. And I knew (and con-
firmed it later that under every one
OF them was a building of some
kind, maybe 1000 years old, maybe
5000. Put there by men who had
to have some kind of scientific
civilization approaching ours of to-
day 49,. civilization that, for some
unknown reason, withered and
vanished.
T DIDN'T count the mounds within
Il eyes reach, but there were easily
hundred. Any of them may hold
the secret. It will take years and
millions of dollars to dig into all of
them.
And this is just one ancient, I'M
covered city. South Mexico is
strewn with them. Scientists don't
have to go out exploring for new
mounds. It will take more than the
life span of any living scientist to
dig into all the known mounds in
Mexico.
This is what excites me so. To
see these hundreds of mounds, and
to know that maybe in one Of them
is the key to the evolution of all
humanity. I can see how fellow
might go crazy, and run around
tearing at the dirt with his hands,
trying to get them all uncovered be-
fore he dies.