OAXACA, EXECS or. Enormous xv(vr1:s of the ancient Mexicans near the city of Oaxaca. The whole range of Monte Alban as seen in profile gives evidence of artifieial modification. On as cending the summits one is amazed at the display of p? ramids, terraces, quadrangles, and mounds eovering every space. and one finds that the whole mountain has been remodeled by the hand of man at cost of immense Iahor. Trie great est of these works is located on the summit of Monte Alban at 1000 feet elevation. and eovers an area of :Mtn by 1200 feet, sculptured into a vast series of IeVel courts. inclosed by suecessive ter races and bordered by pyramids. The qmo11rangle4 are flanked at the corners by pyramids, and in the centre is a mound. the ruins probably of 11. temple. One of these pyramids is 400 feet square :Ind 10 feet to the summit, xvhieh is 300 feet square. Another court. or plaza. is a level, sunken field ram feet wide and 1000 feet long, inclosed by pyramids and terraces and having a line of four pYramids ranged along its Ventre. It has been found that these ennstrnetilms, no mat ter how situated with regard to the mountain profile. are accurately oriented, as arc the ruins of Mitla (q.v.), sonic thirty miles away, and it is conjectured that the same were their authors. In the absence of suitable building stone at ,Monte Alban. the builders employed cures made up of small stones and adobe faced usually with small rough blocks. but sometimes with dressed masonry, and covered with eement on the exterior. There is no evidence'that the surface as finished in fresco as at itla. Lenient floors may also be observed in the ruins, and there are traces of strong walls. Little sculpture
has been found, the principal examples being a serpent carved front quartzite originally on the face of a pyramid, and two colossal turbaned heads in low relief cut in limestone. The pottery scattered ou the surface and in the dAris is of slate color like the ware sold in Oaxaca market. The makers of the old ware deeorated their ves sels with raised ornaments and In numenlble small amulet: of jadeite and other hard stone in form of a rudely carved human figure are found. These objects show drilling, sawing. and other methods of stone-working. A few gold and copper objects have been taken from the ruins.
Prof. W. H. Holmes, who made a careful ex amination of Monte Alban in 1596, concludes that we have there the remains of a hill-top city oc cupied by a population which utilized for their crops the rich valley in NVIlich the city of Oaxaca stands, and covered the mountain slopes with their garden plots. There are also evidences of other cities in the valley. In the State of Onerrero, directly west of oaxaca, are many square miles of similar ruins covering the slopes of the mountains, indicating an extension of this culture. The local museum at Oaxaca contains a large and instructive collection of archreological objects from Monte Alban and other ruins in the State, Consult: Bandelier, Rrport on Arehiroloyien1 in Mexico (Boston, 1555) ; Bancroft, Bares of the Pneifie Mates, vol. iv, (New York, 1875) ; Holmes. Areturologirul Studies Amory the Ancient Cities of Merin) (('hicago, 1S97 ).
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