ARCILEOLOGY OF THE AREA OF MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA.
Only the slightest relations have ever been observed between the ancient art of any portion of the United States and that of Mexico and Central America. We have noted (p. So) the singular resemblance be tween some of the designs on shell-gorgets found in Missouri and the remote sculptures of Yucatan. But the Pueblo-dwellers of the valley of the Gila do not owe their semi-civilization to the Aztecs, nor did the latter derive theirs in any degree from their northern neighbors.
The two principal civilized nations of this area were the Aztecs and other Nahuatl-speaking tribes in Mexico, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, and the Mayas and their related branches in Yucatan, Guatemala, Chiapas, and Tampico. There were, indeed, nations scarcely inferior to these, as the Tarascas and Zapotecs in Mexico, the Mangues in Nicaragua, the Chiriquis still farther to the south, and others; but it is likely that all these were in close communication for a long period, and borrowed much one from the other. Hence there is a certain similarity in the art-products of all, which, however, is far from being an identity.
There is no sufficient reason for assigning an extraordinary antiquity to the culture of this region, as some antiquaries have insisted. Wherever it shows a notable advance over that of the northern tribes, we may safely assign it to a date well within the Christian era. Nor need we search for some ancient nation or foreign influence to which to attribute it. The nations whose names we have mentioned developed it by slow degrees themselves, and as one gained some new point, the others learned it by the observation of traders or through the habit of adopting captives taken in war. The story of the Aztecs that their arts were derived from an ancient and extinct nation, the Toltecs, was purely mythical; no such nation ever existed.
All these tribes were familiar with copper and the precious metals; one or two of them knew the alloy bronze, but, for reasons already given (P. 55), they must still be assigned to the Stone Age.