The Oldest City in the New World

The Oldest City in the New World

By A. Hyatt Verrill

From Travel magazine 1929 September. Digitized by Doug Frizzle, October 2013.

This story was just located and acquired. It is an interesting contrast with another article from later, 1932, entitled ‘The Oldest City in the World’ and these images are much superior and probably taken by the author./drf

 

TO me—and I have found that others feel much the same—Lake Titicaca gives the impression of great age. Voyaging across this great lake on the roof of the world, one seems to be navigating waters that belong to a dead world, that hold the secrets of the ages in their impenetrable depths. And even the fact that one is traveling on a luxurious modern steamer, a miniature liner, does not dispel this sensation. Neither is it far from being the truth. On every side are the bare brown hills with scarcely a trace of vegetation; in the distance tower the endless snow-capped Andean peaks. Everywhere the steep shore slopes are covered with ancient Incan walls, with abandoned terraced plots reaching from the water's edge to the topmost summits of the hills. Ruins of great temples and palaces rear their massive walls here and there, but all seems deserted, dead, for the low stone or mud huts of the living Indians are scarcely discernible and rarely does one catch a glimpse of a human being. And beneath the waters lie countless relics of bygone races, of forgotten civilizations—idols and images and unknown, incalculable treasures in silver and gold and precious stones—the offerings to the mysterious gods of the lake, cast into its depths for countless years, countless centuries, by ancient people—by the pre-Incans and the Incans—who looked upon the lake as sacred. Ancient, too, is that mysterious spot, the Island of the Sun, whence, according to Incan allegory, came Manco Capac, the first Inca, with his sister-wife, Mama Oello, and who, so Incan mythology avers, were born of the sun and the lake.

Even Guáyqui, the tiny port on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca, looks very old (although as a matter of fact it is quite modern) despite the presence of railway tracks, locomotives, motor-boats and automobiles. The low adobe houses seem almost a part of the surrounding red-brown plain. The Indians' reed boats, or balsas, with their matting sails are the same as those of a thousand years ago, and the Indians themselves, in their bright-colored ponchos, their sandals, their gaudy manias and their voluminous brilliant skirts, might well have stepped out of the distant past.

Hence it seems quite fitting that, near at hand barely twelve miles from the port, there should be the oldest city in America. This city was old at the time of the fall of Rome —perhaps before the fall of Babylon. For all we know it was thriving and populous in the time of Moses, and in many ways it is the most mysterious, puzzling city in the entire world. Here at Tiahuanaco was the center of a civilization unlike any other; a civilization that rose to great heights in art, in engineering, in industries and in religion, so far back in the dim past that no tradition, no legend, no myth of its origin or its people remains, but which left its influence upon countless other cultures and civilizations over an area of hundreds of thousands of square miles of South America.

Everything connected with Tiahuanaco seems to be mysterious and inexplicable. Even the site of the city is most unusual. It stands upon an almost level plain in a far from fertile area, with no available water near it, and almost midway between the two ranges of hills that provide the only stone in the vicinity that is suitable for buildings. Yet within a dozen miles is the vast, navigable lake abundant water, arable land and easy transportation. Many authorities have claimed that, when the city was built and occupied, it stood upon the borders of the lake and that during the countless centuries that have passed, the waters have receded.

In support of this theory they point to the remains of what they claim were docks and quays. But there is no valid geological evidence that the lake has receded appreciably for hundreds of thousands of years, and careful observations made by the engineers of the Guayqui-La Paz Railway extending over a number of years prove conclusively that, at the present time, the mean level remains almost constant and that, if anything, the lake's level is rising rather than falling. Finally, the so-called quays might just as well have been structures erected for some entirely different purpose. Moreover, there is nothing in the sculptures, pottery, decorations or other features of the remains to indicate that the Tiahuanacans were a lake-faring race.

Hence the mystery remains as to why this great city was built in such a spot, and even greater is the mystery of its downfall, its abandonment. Who were these people, where did they come from, why did this marvelous civilization spring up, develop and vanish in this one spot in an almost desert land in the heart of the Andes?

Tiahuanaco seems to have had no beginning and no end. There are no traces of an archaic or evolutionary culture leading by regular steps to the zenith of the civilization, nothing to show that there was a gradual decadence or a decline. Judged by appearances, by what we know, Tiahuanaco and its civilization might have been brought bodily, wholly perfected, from some other planet, whither, centuries later, its inhabitants returned.

At the time of the Spanish Conquest, Tiahuanaco was a far more imposing city than today. At that time many if not all of its gigantic buildings were standing, its magnificent temples and marvelous palaces were nearly intact; its titanic statues were in place. But nothing, not even the imposing wonderful city, escaped the Spaniards' greed. And what the treasure-hunting Dons did not destroy the fanatical Padres did. To them it was a holy duty to destroy everything that savored of Paganism, and the wonder is that any idol, sculpture or image remained after their zealous crusade. Possibly they grew weary of destroying stone images, and it must have seemed a rather hopeless task, or perhaps they had neither the time nor the money to complete the job. And it did cost both time and money. It is recorded that at one spot, near Willcas Huaman, the Spaniards found an image, carved from a single block of stone, that measured nearly sixty feet in length by fourteen feet in diameter. To destroy this titanic statue required the united labor of thirty men working steadily for three days! Whether such stupendous images ever existed at Tiahuanaco no one knows, but even today several immense monolithic statues remain standing, chipped, scarred, defaced by vandals and by the rifle fire of Bolivian soldiers, but still gazing calmly across the plain towards the rising sun as they did thousands of years ago when Tiahuanaco was in its prime. Even the name of the city has been a matter of mystery and has caused much discussion. Its origin has been explained in various ways, the commonest and most widely accepted being that an Inca, who was staying at the spot, was brought an urgent message by a runner. In compliment to his fleetness of foot, the Inca compared him to a Guanaco, and bade him be seated, using the words "Sien te Guanáca" This, however, is a far-fetched and highly improbable explanation. In the first place, the words are a hodge-podge of Spanish and Indian, and no Inca would have used Spanish when addressing one of his own race. In the second place, the Guanaco is not a native of Peru or Bolivia but of Chile and the Argentine, and an Incan, wishing to praise a fleet-footed courier, would be far more likely to compare him with a Vicuna, an even faster creature. Finally, the word Guanaco is not identical with Huánaco. As is so often the case, those striving to explain the name of the city have overlooked the real and simplest solution. In the ancient Quichua or Hualla dialect, "Huánacu" means "dead," and Tiahuánaco would signify a place of the dead or a dead city. The use of the word Huánacu or its derivatives or root, as applied to anything devoid of life or associated with dead persons, was very prevalent among the Incans. Thus the statues of the Incas in the Temple of the Sun at Cuzco were known as the "Chuqui-huáncas," the burial ground was called "Huánacu-Pampa," etc. So we may be quite certain that the name Tiahuánaco or "the city of the dead" was bestowed upon the ruins by the Huallas or Incans who knew the place only as a deserted, forgotten city of an ancient vanished race.

Originally Tiahuanaco must have presented a most imposing appearance. Though doubtless the houses of the common people were of adobe and thatch, and have long ages ago vanished, yet the great public and ceremonial edifices were of almost incredible dimensions. As the ruins are today they may be roughly divided into three sections, known as the Akapana, or Fortress, the Kalasasaya, or Temple and the Tunca-Puncu, or place of Ten Doors. But originally, the entire area between and about these three principal groups of ruins was covered with structures, idols, immense stone monoliths, and other works of these people, who, judging by the remains they have left, might well have been supermen, giants who would have made Goliath puny by comparison. Just how the city may have appeared, even at the time of the Incas, no one can positively state.

Through the ages that had then passed since Tiahuanaco had become a veritable "Place of the Dead" and, through the centuries that have passed since the days of Incan dominion, this most ancient American city has been desecrated, looted, literally torn to bits. Choice portions of its magnificent sculptured stone work have been carried off by the natives and used to build their own miserable huts, and there is scarcely an Indian dwelling within miles of the ruins that does not possess a doorstep, a lintel, or some portion of its walls formed of fragments of Tiahuanaco. Even the rough, narrow, filthy streets of the villages are, in places, roughly paved with pieces of carved or worked stone filched from the ruins. The little Spanish church at the modern village of Tiahuanaco is almost entirely constructed of portions of the ancient town, and, flanking the entrance are the heads and shoulders of two colossal stone images that were ruthlessly knocked from the bodies of Tiahuanaco's stone gods. The Indian farmers have surrounded their stony, thin-soiled fields with walls constructed of stonework from the ruins, and vandals, collectors and curio seekers have done their part. But the greatest damage of all, the most ruthless and inexcusable destruction, was caused by the railway whose tracks run directly through the center of the ancient city. Thousands of tons of stone, idols, statues, monoliths, carved columns, magnificent doorways, immense slabs and priceless sculptures were broken up, crushed and used for ballasting the tracks.

As a result of all this, the ruins today are in pitiable shape, and at first glance seem scarcely more than meaningless piles of hand-worked stone. But even so their immensity, their perfection and the classic beauty of their sculptures cannot fail to arouse the wonder and the admiration of even the most indifferent observer. And as one examines them more closely and becomes accustomed to the surroundings, one can, in a measure, reconstruct Tiahuanaco in one's mind, and can—inadequately—visualize the buildings as they were in the long ago when the Condor-God was worshiped in the great temple.

Parts of the ruins may be viewed from the railway, and several of the great stone columns and images are within a few yards of the tracks. But to see the best of the ruins, to obtain any idea of their extent and their titanic proportions, one must walk about amid the remains.

Nearest to the railway, and most prominent of all, is the so-called fortress or Akapana, a pyramidal hill of artificial origin that rises to nearly two hundred feet above the fairly level plain. It is accurately placed so that its four sides are in line with the cardinal points of the compass, and at the base measures about seven hundred by five hundred feet. Originally, no doubt, its sides were completely faced with cut stone, like the pyramids of the Mayas and the Teocalli of the Aztecs. But few of these blocks remain, the greater portion having been broken up for use on the railway. Once, too, a magnificent stone stairway led to the summit of the hill where there was an immense basin, apparently for holding water, and, from this, a conduit or pipe line of beautifully cut stone troughs led down the pyramid. Why the ancient Tiahuánacans should have devoted such an immense amount of labor and time to erecting this great mound merely to place a basin at its summit, or why, once they had done so, they should have installed a drain, are unsolved mysteries. Assuredly it had some very important and definite purpose. Possibly it was a sort of reservoir to be drawn upon in time of drought or necessity; but in that case the question of how water was conveyed to the summit is as great a mystery as the pyramid itself. Unless the climate of the district has vastly changed, the rain alone could never have been counted upon to keep the huge cistern filled, but possibly thousands of toiling human beings may have carried water up the steep stairway by hand. At any rate, whether it was a reservoir, a fort, the site of a temple or the residence of the Tiahuánacan monarch, today it is scarcely more than a stone-littered hill, and the casual passerby would never give it a second glance or dream it was raised by the hands of men.

About one thousand feet from the base of this former pyramid is the so-called Temple of the Sun, or Kalasasaya, perhaps the best preserved of the ruins. Here is an immense rectangular terrace nearly five hundred feet square with its edges outlined by rows of cut stone columns from fifteen to twenty feet in height. Originally the entire area within the boundaries of these columns was paved with carefully cut and fitted stones, but between the natives and the railway builders, who found these paving blocks most useful for their purposes, scarcely a trace of the ancient pavement now remains. Originally, also, the upright columns were connected or capped by timbers or other stones, for the tops are carefully and accurately mortised, evidently with the purpose of supporting lintels. At a short distance from the ruins, and facing the east, is a solitary huge stone image, its face marred and scarred by vandals and time, but still gazing with an enigmatical smile towards the rising sun, though it alone remains of all the hundreds of similar statues that once flanked the temple. Access to the Kalasasaya is now easy from any side, but in the days when it was in use the only entrance was by way of a flight of great stone steps on the eastern side. Each step is a single slab of cut stone nearly twenty feet in length by ten feet in width and over three feet in thickness, and the whole is flanked by two huge, sculptured stone monoliths.

But by far the most interesting object in the temple, in fact the most interesting and remarkable object in the entire city, is the Gateway of the Sun, as it is called, and which, in all probability, served as the portal to an inner temple in Tiahuánacan days. This magnificent piece of sculpture measures nearly fifteen feet in length by eleven feet in height and two feet in thickness and is pierced by a rectangular doorway nearly five feet in height and over two feet in width. It is cut entire from a single block of andesite rock—the largest single piece of stone sculpture in the world. But remarkable as it is for size, and as an example of the ancient stone cutters' skill, one scarcely notices this in view of the far more remarkable sculptures that cover it. Upon one side, the upper portion above the doorway, it is completely covered with a beautifully-carved facade in low relief. Although no one can decipher the carving, yet it unquestionably had a very real significance to the inhabitants of Tiahuánaco, and its motif is easily recognized. The largest and central figure is that of the Tiahuánacan supreme god, commonly known as a sun-god. In all probability, however, it was more in the nature of the Pre-Incan Pachacamac or the Condor-god, creator of the universe, maker of the lake and "He who Upheld the Heavens." Rays or feathers encircle his head, and these terminate in beautifully designed miniature heads of the jaguar, the symbol of the Night or Moon-god. On either side the chief deity is flanked by forty-eight other figures, twenty-four to a side, all facing the god and depicted as running towards him. In all probability these were symbolic of the god's supreme power and the homage paid to him by the lesser deities. Beneath the throne on which the god himself is seated is a row of sixteen carved figures showing small replicas of the god's head, as well as the heads of condors, separated by ornamental designs.

The opposite side of the portal, though wholly different, is even more remarkable. Here, the surface of the stone is bare of ornamental bas-relief carvings, but is decorated with a severe geometrical design. On the upper portion, at the opposite ends of the gateway, are four rectangular niches, two to a side, and on the lower portion there is a rectangular niche on either side of the doorway. These niches, which are cut into the hard rock to a depth of nearly six inches, together with their ornamental frames or borders, are so accurately cut and so mathematically perfect that even by means of a steel square and a millimeter scale I could not find a deviation of more than one-fiftieth of an inch in their angles or surfaces. This is perhaps the most astonishing feature of the Tiahuanaco stone work. At the Tunca-Puncu ruins, nearly a mile southwest of the temple, such geometrically and mathematically cut squares, rectangles and crosses are abundant. Often they are carried into the rock in a series of concentric steps to a depth of a foot or more, the final, deepest niche being only two or three inches square. In places, too, there are cross or key-shaped sculptures in high relief which obviously fitted into recesses of the same forms, thus locking the stone together, and the most painstaking measurements prove that the greatest variation in size between these recesses and the projecting crosses is less than a millimeter! How any human beings could have performed such amazingly accurate work in a hard refractory rock with only stone tools is a mystery that no one has been able to explain.

Even today, our most skilled stone-cutters, equipped with steel tools and machinery, would find it a difficult undertaking to duplicate the feat, and yet, as far as known, the ancient Tiahuánacans had no knowledge of steel, and no bronze or copper implement has ever been found that will make the least impression on the rock.

But regardless of how they did it, the ancient inhabitants of Tiahuanaco accomplished it, and, judging from the remains, did not find it a very difficult undertaking at that. To many, however, the immense masses of cut stone upon the low mound of Tunca-Puncu are more remarkable than the sculptures. Originally the mound, like the Akapana, was faced with stone, and immense stone steps led from the plain to the summit where there was a stupendous stone building the exact purpose of which is unknown. But, unlike Akapana, the stones that surfaced the Tunca-Puncu mound were of colossal size, while the structure that surmounted it was built of stone slabs that are far larger than any others known in prehistoric architecture.

Some of these are estimated to weigh over two hundred tons each, while slabs weighing sixty to one hundred tons are abundant, and all are as accurately and smoothly cut, trued and squared as though cut and planed on some gigantic machine.

Several of the largest of these immense slabs formed huge platforms or floors, and about their edges are numerous niches or recesses cut into the rock. Originally, these probably served as resting places for idols or statues. Although called the "Place of the Ten Doors" yet there is little evidence to show that the structure ever had ten doors. Far more probably there were no doors whatever, the building being more in the nature of an open colonnade with columns supporting sculptured lintels.

It was probably roofless, for in many places there are basin-like hollows and drains cut into the rock, with gutters evidently designed to carry off water that fell within the structure. With the place in the regrettably ruinous state it is in today it is difficult to say what it was like originally or what purpose it served. But that the stones were not cemented together, but were locked or keyed in place by immense metal staples is evident. Everywhere about the edges of the mammoth blocks of stone are T-shaped recesses cut deeply into the rock, and sometimes with a perforation extending entirely through the slab. In places, two of these mortises still remain in line so that it is easy to see how the metal staples held the two slabs together.

It has been assumed by many that these staples were of copper, but last year an employee of the railway discovered one of them intact, and, instead of being of copper, it proved to be of solid silver. This is not, however, surprising. Silver is abundant in Bolivia, it was widely used by all the ancient races, and as it had no intrinsic value to them and was far stiffer and stronger than copper it was far more suitable for locking the great stones in position. And the fact that the staples were of silver explains in great measure why the massive structure collapsed. To the Spaniards, copper would have meant little —it was far too worthless to pay for the time and trouble necessary to tear the staples from the stones. But silver was a different matter. Each of the great staples weighed many pounds; there were hundreds, perhaps thousands of them, and the rapacious Dons wrenched and pried them loose, thus allowing the massive stones to fall apart and tumble to the earth. Possibly, very probably, many of the silver staples still remain in the lower portions of the stones, buried beneath the mammoth slabs, but even with modern devices and steam power it would cost far more to move one of the masses of cut stone than the metal would be worth, even though there were hundreds of them.

Where the Tiahuánacans secured the stone they used, or how they transported it, have always been mysteries. No similar stone exists within six miles of the city, and it would appear to have been an Herculean, an impossible task to have dragged these blocks, weighing one hundred to two hundred tons, across the sandy plain. And the theory that they might have been brought on rafts across the lake is even more improbable.

The problem has been the more perplexing because it has always been held that no ancient American race ever discovered the wheel. But last year, while carrying on investigations at Tiahuánaco, I discovered two immense stone disks that might well have served as wheels. Both of these were at Tunca-Puncu. One was concealed beneath a fallen mass of stone, the other was partly covered with a fragment of a slab and was deeply embedded in the earth. They were approximately seven feet in diameter by eighteen inches in thickness, and were pierced with square holes in the centers. At first sight they might have been mistaken for Spanish mill-wheels, or arastras, but as far as known no Spanish mill ever was situated near the spot, and there is no reason why one ever should have been there. Moreover, they differed materially from any mill-wheels I have ever seen, and they were of the same stone and the same class of workmanship as the structure itself.

With such wheels, fitted to a fixed axle, it would have been a fairly simple matter to have transported the blocks of stones from the hills to the site of the city. Their width would have prevented them from sinking deeply into the sandy soil, and, by slinging the stone beneath the axle by means of ropes, they could have been dragged along by man power. Having no wood of any size the Tiahuánacans would have been forced to use stone wheels if they used any. As a stone wheel, rotating upon a wooden axle, would have ground through the latter in no time, it would have been quite natural to fit a fixed axle with squared ends, and allow this to rotate in a greased sling. Perhaps these great stone disks were never used as wheels. Perhaps they belonged to a later epoch than the Tiahuánacans. But personally I believe they were wheels, and that they were used in transporting the immense stones. Who can say? Who will ever know?

Of the inhabitants of this oldest American city we know little. Although many skulls and skeletons have been found in and about Tiahuanaco, it is doubtful if any are those of the builders or the original denizens of the city. More probably they are the remains of the later pre-Incas and Incans, for we know that these races occupied the district for many years. At all events, all the skeletal remains thus far discovered are not different, anatomically, from those of the living Indians of Bolivia.

However, that the Tiahuánacans were a highly cultured and civilized people, and that their arts and industries were not confined to the erection of stupendous buildings and to amazing sculptures, is proved by the pottery, the metal work and the other artifacts that have been obtained from the site. In their ceramic ware the Tiahuánacans had few equals and no superiors among the prehistoric races of South America, and throughout Peru, Bolivia and even in Chile, one finds pottery, textiles, carvings and other objects showing the strong influence of the Tiahuanaco art and culture.

Not only was their pottery beautifully modeled and magnificently decorated with painted designs, but in addition, they were past-masters in the plastic art, and modeled most lifelike and accurate figures of men, birds, reptiles, beasts, gods and inanimate objects. Many of their jars are of the effigy type, others are of the portrait type, and the features, the expressions, the very characters of the individuals depicted are truly marvelous. Often, too, they modeled large, life-sized hollow images, some apparently representing gods, others heroes, others monarchs and individuals. And from these and their portrait jars we can obtain a very good and no doubt accurate idea of the personal appearance, the costumes and the habits of the people. Judged thus, the Tiahuánacans were obviously of the so-called Indian race.

Though Tiahuánaco may be shrouded in mystery, though we may know nothing of its origin or its past, though no one can decipher the sculptures and the hieroglyphs that decorate much of the pottery, though even the Incas and their predecessors knew so little of the ancient race that they referred to the city merely as the "Place of the Dead," yet we may be sure that the oldest of American cities was built and occupied by real Americans.

Who are the Mysterious Bearded Indians 2

At  long last this little series of two articles on the Bearded Indians is complete with the images thanks to Alan. Part 1 has been updated and is here.

Who Are the Mysterious Bearded Indians?— Part 2

Many Scientists Believe that the Cultures of Central and South America Were Brought from the Old World by Oceanic Invaders Who Crossed the South Pacific in Canoes— The "Diffusionist" Theory

By A. Hyatt Verrill

Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation

From Scientific American, July 1928. Researched by Alan Schenker; digitized by Doug Frizzle, March 2012.

IN our last issue, Mr. Verrill told something of his explorations in South America, and of the tribe of bearded Indians found there. He also described the perils of travel in the jungles, and presented a thrilling word-picture of the dangers of water travel through the wilderness. In the following article he continues his discourse, giving his reasons for adhering to the diffusionist theory to account for the presence of the bearded Indians of South America.—The Editor.

PRACTICALLY everything that lives is food to the bearded Indians. Their menu is most varied and includes worms, grubs, insects, lizards, et cetera. Fire is made by rubbing two sticks together and is kept burning perpetually. Cooking is more of a name than a reality, and food is usually eaten half raw, in fact the rawer the better as long as the meat is dead.

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the tribe is the fact that they have remained so totally distinct from all other tribes and have not apparently mixed with any other race. They appear to be completely isolated in customs, dialect and physical characters, the remnant of some primitive ancient race which has remained unchanged and at a complete standstill for countless thousands of years. In this respect they are much like the Bogenahs of northern Panama and the Bogsas of the interior of Brazil, both of whom are possibly common offshoots of the same race as that from which the bearded-Indian stock sprang.

Both the Bogenahs and Bogsas are small, almost pygmies in fact; both are exceedingly primitive, both live like beasts, subsisting upon anything that by the wildest stretch of imagination can be classed as food; both lack fixed homes or villages, and both are renowned for their ability to track game and to follow a trail by scent. Both of these tribes possess beards which are heavier than is usual among Indians, and the physical appearances of both are totally unlike other Indians.

IN both cases, also, they are surrounded by superior tribes who dominate them, and yet they have retained their peculiar characters so steadfastly and completely that instead of learning the dialects of their neighbors they have forced the latter to learn their own tongues in order to communicate with them. Moreover, the two are so similar in many ways that one cannot help feeling that they are closely related, although separated by thousands of miles, while the names Bogenah and Bogsa are phonetically so similar that they might well be local variations of the same word. At all events they are quite distinct from all other known races of Central and South America and in some respects seem to bear such a resemblance to the bearded Sirionos that they might well be offshoots of the same original stock.

All through the interior of Peru and Bolivia are many little known and interesting tribes who do not appear to be related to the better known Quichuas and Aimaras whose ancestors reached high stages of culture and civilization, culminating in the Incan Empire. Some of these possess the typical Indian characteristics facially and otherwise, while far more might well be natives of the South Seas.

The same holds true of the better-known Andean and desert tribes. Among the Aimaras and Quichuas individuals of the so-called Mongolian type are common, but by far the greater number are of the Oceanian type which would be exactly what we might expect if the original stock had migrated from some Pacific archipelago and later mixed with the more northerly tribes who may have come originally from central or southern Asia or might have wandered southward from the northwest where Mongol migrations are known to have taken place.

Even today it would be an easy matter for any large South Sea Island canoe or catamaran to cross the Pacific to South America. And we have no reason to think that at some time in the past there were not large archipelagoes in the Pacific which formed a series of oceanic stepping-stones from west to east. In fact, according to Dr. Thompson who made an exhaustive study of Easter Island, such an archipelago existed in comparatively modem times. It is not unreasonable to assume that the supposed subsidence of these long-lost islands forced the inhabitants to seek new homes in America.

THAT there was communication between the west coast of America and the Pacific islands has been indisputably established. In excavating prehistoric graves on the coast of California, expeditions from the Museum of the American Indian, Heye Foundation, found specimens of axe and adze heads from Hawaii and other mid-Pacific islands.

It was largely to search for traces of prehistoric cultures which might bear out this theory of an Oceanian origin of the South American races that I made my most recent expedition into the interior of Peru and Bolivia, for there, if anywhere, where ruins, graves and mummies of prehistoric peoples are so numerous and so perfectly preserved, one might expect to find such indications.

Although countless scientists and others have dug and delved among the ancient remains, and although innumerable works have been published in regard to them, yet the surface has not been scratched, and hundreds, even thousands, of ruined temples, forts, cities, buildings and cemeteries have never been studied nor have they even been seen by white men or, for that matter, by other natives. Here, hidden under the debris of ruined temples or palaces, or buried in the graves with the mummified dead, may lie the material which will set at rest all questions as to the origin, the identity and the history of the long-dead races who reached astounding heights of culture and civilization and vanished and were forgotten centuries before the coming of the Spaniards.

AT any moment most astonishing discoveries may be made which may completely upset our ideas of prehistoric man in America. Within the past three years two immense prehistoric cities have been discovered in Peru, close to the thriving port of Pisco and the sea, and my own discovery of an undreamed-of civilization of extreme antiquity in Panama was another proof of how little we really know of these early American races.

One of the main objects of my recent expedition was to compare certain remains of Peru and Bolivia with those of the Coclé culture of Panama. Much time was spent at Ollantaytambo, Machu-Picchu, Pisac, Viracocha, Rumiccola, Marcapata and Tiahuánaco.

The latter ruins, which are probably the oldest known in South America, are so strikingly like the Panama remains in many features that I feel convinced that they were the work of the same race or of races very closely related. The rows of huge, roughly-hewn stone columns are identical in arrangement and form.

SO too, are the alternate rows of stone images or idols, as well as the monolithic corner stones of the immense rectangular areas apparently used as temples. Certain figures and forms on ceramics and sculptures from the two localities are identical, and it seems scarcely reasonable to assume that two distinct races thousands of miles apart should have by chance developed so many features so amazingly similar. In many respects, however, Tiahuanaco is totally different from anything yet found in Panama. In the latter country, as far as is known, there are none of the massive buildings composed of stupendous blocks of stone, some weighing over 100 tons, which are such a prominent feature of Tiahuanaco. Neither are there any of the monolithic square gateways or portals, nor the mathematically cut geometrical sculptures. But all of these might be due to environment or a higher development of the same culture.

Perhaps my most interesting find at Tiahuanaco was the discovery of two huge stone wheels, each over six feet in diameter and about 18 inches in thickness, and with centers pierced for axles. Hitherto it has always been thought that the wheel was unknown to American aborigines, and its absence has often been used as an argument in favor of the extreme antiquity of the races and as against their Asiatic origin. But if the stone wheels of Tiahuanaco were actually used as such, it disproves this assumption and also solves the mystery as to how these prehistoric people transported immense masses of stone for such long distances. Slung to axles between these huge wheels, whose thickness would prevent them from sinking into sand or earth, enormous blocks of stone could be transported for miles with little difficulty. It may be argued that these wheels are not of prehistoric workmanship but are of Spanish origin and were used as mill wheels or arastras, but the evidence against this is very strong. I could find no records or traditions of Spanish mill-wheels used in the vicinity and I can hardly see why there should have been, as there is nothing, and as far as is known there never was anything, to be ground in the district about Tiahuanaco.

MOREOVER, it would have required a vast amount of labor for no reason whatever to have carried these huge stone disks up the hill to the ruins where they lie, one of them buried under the gigantic masses of fallen masonry.

Finally, they appear to be of the same type of workmanship as the other cut stone work. Strangely enough, two similar stone wheels were found buried in the earth while excavating the Coclé ruins in Panama. At the time I dismissed these as being Spanish arastras, although there seemed no reason for a mill ever having been used in the arid non-mineralized district. But in view of those at Tiahuanaco I feel convinced that the stone disks at Coclé were also used as wheels for transporting the stone monoliths of the prehistoric race.

Unfortunately Tiahuanaco, which is one of the most interesting and scientifically valuable ruins in South America, has been woefully and inexcusably destroyed by vandals, natives and government contractors. Tons of carved sculptures, images, columns and stonework were broken up to be used as filling for the railway bed. Innumerable portions of the finest worked and carved stone have been used by the natives for building their own miserable houses, and some of the most valuable portions and finest statues have been used as building material for the ugly Spanish church in the village. In addition, treasure seekers, souvenir hunters and vandals have dug, broken and destroyed on every side.

Still a vast amount of material remains intact and the largest ruins have never been thoroughly examined nor excavated. When the buildings were built the massive blocks of stone were all locked together by means of huge metal staples and bolts let into the stones. The beautifully cut grooves and holes which held these staples are still everywhere visible, but not a staple can be found in any of the blocks above the surface of the earth.

AN interesting discovery was that some if not all of these metal fastenings were of silver, for a native I met had one in his possession. No doubt the first Spaniards to find the ruins looted them of all the precious metal but the chances are that many of the blocks hidden beneath the accumulated debris of thousands of years still bear the massive silver staples that served to bind the stones together in the past.

In the district about Tiahuanaco, as in most of the trans-Andean and Andean regions of Bolivia, the Indians of the present day are Aimaras, whereas in Peru they are Quichuas. In both cases the races are divided into many subtribes with quite distinctive habits, cultures, arts and physical characters. Such are the Collas of the Aimararace who inhabit the bleak mountain area on the eastern side of Lake Titicaca. Of all the Aimara tribes the Collas have been the least influenced by the white man's civilization and they still retain many of their own customs and arts. A very large collection was obtained from the Collas as well as from the Yungas, a tribe of totally distinct stock inhabiting the mild, fertile trans-Andean valleys between the mountains and the tropical forested area.

IN the Yungas district, even when beyond the outlying settlements and roads, traveling is by no means difficult, dangerous nor unpleasant. The country is delightful, the climate that of perpetual spring, and the Indians are clean, friendly and hospitable, with an abundance of cattle, sheep, poultry and vegetables.

But I have never experienced greater discomforts, nor have I suffered more from cold, than when in the district of the Collas. Here, at an altitude of from fourteen to fifteen thousand feet, one is constantly exposed to chill, biting winds blowing across more than 100 miles of perpetually ice-clad mountain peaks averaging over 20,000 feet in height. Blizzards are frequent, freezing rain falls without warning, sleet and hail come in blinding squalls, and even when the sun shines the temperature is scarcely above the freezing point.

The only accommodations are the miserable, filthy, vermin-infested hovels of the Indians—tiny, window-less huts of piled-up stones thatched with grass and inhabited by anywhere from three to six Indians and as many burros, pigs, fowls and flea-ridden curs. The only food obtainable from these Indians is crushed maize, a little hard wheat, frozen potatoes and occasional eggs or fowls. Sometimes one may secure air-dried strips of llama or bull meat which is as hard, rancid and tough as rawhide. Or if one happens to be near a lake or stream, wild ducks and snipe sometimes may be secured.

The only fuel is llama dung, and as water boils at a low temperature it is next to impossible to cook anything by boiling. To boil or roast food over a llama dung fire renders it inedible even to the Indians.

One cannot enquire too closely as to the ingredients of some of the weird dishes offered by the well-meaning Collas. On one occasion, after dining on a sort of stew which tasted unusually good, I learned that it was made of unborn llamas, while another time I made a good meal on cows' udders.

BUT despite all this, despite the bitter cold, the hardships, the lack of all comforts in this bleak land, it possesses its good points. The scenery is inexpressibly grand and magnificent, especially at sunset when the endless ranges of the highest Andes gleam in scarlet and purple and the vast glaciers are transformed to sheets of rose and gold. The Indians in their gaudy ponchos and bright colored mantas are colorful and picturesque. A herd of wild vicunas, the fleetest-footed, most graceful creatures on earth, is a sight worth going far to see and there is much in the way of wild life to interest the naturalist at every turn. Majestic condors wheel constantly above the snow-capped peaks or perch on lofty pinnacles, viscachas gaze at the traveler from the mounds above their burrows: finches, larks, pipits and scores of other birds twitter and trill even at the verges of the snow fields, and big partridge-like gallinaceous birds whirr up from among the lava-strewn slopes. Best of all perhaps, there are no insect pests. Neither flies, ticks, gnats nor mosquitoes exist in this cold, rarefied atmosphere, but personally, were I compelled to choose, I would take the steaming tropical jungles—rapids, ants, ticks and all, in preference to these bleak, wind-swept, frost-bitten heights.

The Oldest City in the World -1932

From New York Herald Tribune Magazine, Mrs. William Brown Meloney, Editor -
Section XI Twenty Pages -
Sunday, July 31, 1932

Digitized by Doug Frizzle September 2010

The Gateway of the Sun at Tiahuanaco, the World's Largest Piece of Prehistoric Monolithic Sculpture

From a Painting by A. Hyatt Verrill

The Oldest City in the World

By A. Hyatt Verrill

Author of "Old Civilizations of the New World," "The American Indian," "Thirty Years in the Jungle," Etc.

TIAHUANACO, Bolivia, the oldest city in America and perhaps in the entire world, is situated on the trans-Andean plain, 12,000 feet above the sea-literally on the roof of the world. Here, ten miles from Lake Titicaca, are the astonishing ruins of a city populous in the days of Moses, old before the fall of Babylon and ancient at the time of the fall of Rome.

An expedition of the American Museum of Natural History now at Tiahuanaco—the first in thirty years that has received permission from the Bolivian government to excavate at these ancient ruins—has been on the ground for several months and will soon return to New York. Dispatches have announced many important discoveries. Among the noteworthy finds reported are a number of stone images or idols, one more than twenty feet in length; quantities of beautiful though broken pottery, and sculptured stones covered with strange hieroglyphs, or symbols.

When the Inca dynasty was founded, fully 1,000 years ago, this most ancient of cities had been a deserted ruin for so long that the Indians had no legends or traditions as to its origin or its former inhabitants. So the Incas called it Tiahuanaco—"The Place of the Dead"—and let it go at that.

No one can say with certainty when the city was built. But Dr. Rudolph Muller, the eminent German scientist and astronomer, computes its age as between 10,000 and 14,000 years! This he bases upon very careful astronomical observations to determine the extent to which the axis of the earth has shifted since the city was built. The sun-dial arrangement, used by the Tiahuanacans for determining solstices and other dates was the basis for his calculations. Using a formula adopted by the French Society of astronomers, Dr. Muller gave the city's age as 14,500 years. Unable to credit this almost inconceivable lapse of time, he tried another formula, and obtained 10,500 years as the age of Tiahuanaco. Even this would make it the oldest known city on earth, a city antedating by centuries Ur and Ish and the Pyramids. Yet even then, in that dim and remote era of the world's history the people who built this great city beyond the Andes' summit were a highly civilized race, possessing an advanced knowledge of astronomy and mathematics, having a written or at least an inscribed language, and with engineering and architectural abilities which never have been equaled.

Not only is Tiahuanaco the oldest city in America if not in the world—it is also the world's most mysterious city. For no archeologist can hazard a guess as to the identity of the race that built it, why it was deserted, how the people accomplished titanic feats which have no parallel anywhere, whence they came or whither they went or why it should have been built on the lofty plain where its amazing ruins now stand.

It is one of the true wonders of the world; a city absolutely unique. Nowhere on earth is there anything that resembles it in architecture, sculpture or culture. There are no known traces of an earlier culture from which Tiahuanaco might have been developed; no signs of a decadence. Judged only by what is known of Tiahuanaco it might well have been created by one of Aladdin's jinn and inhabited by giants, or brought bodily from some other planet.

Imagine a vast city covering more than a square mile, with immense edifices built of blocks of stone weighing hundreds of tons each and fastened in place not with cement or mortar, but with huge staples and bolts of solid silver!

A city with a stone-faced pyramid 200 feet in height and 700 feet square, towering above the magnificent temples and palaces, with a great stone stairway leading to the summit, where was a huge stone reservoir!

A city with a temple, with a stone-paved court 500 feet square, surrounded by hundreds of great stone columns twenty feet in height, with sculptured stone idols twenty to sixty feet in height, and with a titanic stone gateway hewn from a single block of rock!

Perhaps of all the remains of this once great city, this "Gateway of the Sun," as it is called, is the most famed and the most striking. Hewn from a mass of hard arsenite rock fifteen feet in length, eleven feet in height and nearly three feet in thickness, this marvelous specimen of stone cutting is the largest known example of prehistoric monolithic sculpture in the world. But it is fully as remarkable for the sculptures that cover it as it is for its size. Occupying the entire surface of one side above the doorway is a facade of 112 symbolic figures surrounding a great central figure of the "Condorgod" or so-called Sun God, all in bas-relief and embellished with intricate ornamental designs.

The other side of the huge gateway is even more amazing as an example of stone cutting. Here the ornamentation takes the form of severe moldings in geometrical designs framing six deep niches. Four of these are on the upper portion of the gateway, two on each side; and below these, one on each side of the portal, are larger niches. Not only are these rectangular recesses cut to a depth of several inches, but they are so accurately and mathematically executed that not even by using a steel square, micrometer dividers and a millimeter scale could I find a deviation of more than one-fiftieth of an inch in their angles, lines or surfaces!

To the ordinary visitor the most interesting and astonishing feature of the ruins is the gigantic size of the stones used in the construction of the buildings. There are flights of stairs with each step a single squared cut stone twenty feet in length, ten feet in width and three feet in thickness, flanked by ornately sculptured stone monoliths fifteen feet in height, which serve as newel posts. Yet these huge masses of cut stone are puny things compared to the stupendous slabs that once formed the walls of buildings—slabs larger than any others known in prehistoric architecture.

Blocks weighing sixty to eighty tons each are so numerous they scarcely attract notice; many weigh more than 200 tons each! And all as accurately and smoothly cut, trued, squared and carved as if sawed and planed by the most modern machinery—though for that matter no modern machine is capable of duplicating the work performed by the unknown ancient inhabitants of Tiahuanaco. Moreover, many of these stupendous slabs of hard arsenite rock are elaborately sculptured. Everywhere are geometrical designs cut deeply into the rock or left in bold relief—moldings, squares, rectangles, crosses and Greek key designs.

Often, too, these are cut far into the stone in a series of concentric steps to a foot or more in depth, the deepest portion being only a few inches square. And in many places there are identical patterns in high relief and evidently designed to fit into the recessed cuttings, thus locking the stones together, and so accurately cut that there is less than a millimeter variation in angles or size in a feat of mortising that few modern artisans could duplicate in wood, to say nothing of stone.

In other cases the titanic slabs were designed to serve as tiling for floors. About the edges of these numerous niches were cut, like seats, deeply into the stone, and intended, no doubt, as resting places for idols or statues.

Everywhere along the edges of these enormous stone slabs are numerous deep T-shaped recesses, frequently with the cross of the T extending through the stone as a perforation. In many places two or more of these cuts still remain in line so that their purpose is obvious, for, as I have said, the blocks were originally held in place by immense metal staples or keys. Until quite recently it has always been thought that these keys were of copper or bronze, but as several have been found which are of silver it is safe to assume that all were of the same metal.

This explains why the great structures, built of blocks of stone which should have endured forever, have fallen apart and are shapeless ruins today. Had the stones been fastened in place by means of bronze or copper staples the Spaniards doubtless would have passed them by and the buildings of Tiahuanaco, its palaces and its temples might be standing intact in all their impressive size and marvelous architectural details today. But the conquering Dons, coming upon the ancient deserted city by the lake, saw in the great silver staples only so much wealth. Each of the silver fastenings weighed many pounds and there were hundreds—thousands—of them—a fortune in silver holding the stones in position. Ruthlessly the avaricious conquerors wrenched and pried them loose, leaving the massive walls ready to topple and fall at the first earthquake or to collapse under the wear and tear of the elements through the centuries to follow.

Indeed, vandalism has played a far greater part in the destruction of this ancient city than have earthquakes, storms or the passage of countless thousands of years.

Not only did the Spanish soldiers rip the silver fastenings from the walls of the imposing buildings; the fanatical priests who accompanied them wrought even greater destruction. To their minds the utter annihilation of everything hinting of paganism or idolatry was a sacred duty. Much as we may regret and decry their misguided ideas, we cannot but admire their thoroughness.

Wherever they found a sculpture, a statue, an image, a temple, an altar or anything else connected in any way with the religion of the natives they literally tore it to pieces; and here at Tiahuanaco were stone idols, figures, statues and sculptures by the thousand, even though the people who had raised and worshiped them had vanished ages before and no living inhabitant remained to be converted to Christianity.

What a glorious orgy of holy destruction the padres must have had! It is recorded that in one spot they found an image carved from a single block of stone that measured sixty feet in length and fourteen feet in diameter. By the united labors of thirty men the huge monolith was reduced to fragments in the course of three days. Truly a triumph in the field of destruction—but what an irreparable loss it was to history and to science!

Why the padres ceased their destructive campaign before every idol, image and sculpture was eliminated is something of a mystery. Perhaps the conquerors were impatient to march and seek greater riches than Tiahuanaco offered in the form of silver staples and could not wait for their priests to break up the remaining idols. Possibly they were appalled at the number of stone images and realized the hopelessness of their task. At all events, they moved on, leaving the massive structures of a forgotten race to their fate and leaving scores of great stone idols undisturbed.

But the destruction of Tiahuanaco and its wonders did not end there. Through the four centuries that have passed since then wanton vandalism and destruction have been almost continuous. Every Indian farmer in the vicinity found the ruined city a source of stone for erecting walls about his fields. The slovenly little Indian village near the ruins has its streets paved with fragments of sculptured stones from the ancient city, and many a thatched Indian hut has an ornate, magnificently carved stone doorway filched bodily from the ruins in front of the little church—itself built of stone-work from the ruins—are the heads and shoulders of two colossal stone statues. Possibly they were decapitated by the priests in the days of the conquest, but more probably, finding entire images too large to be moved, the builders of the church knocked the heads from their bodies.

Even the few great stone monuments still standing among the ruins have been wantonly defaced and partly destroyed by soldiers who have used these priceless archeological treasures as targets, for rifle practice.

Finally, and playing greater havoc with the ancient city than the rapacious Dons, the zealous padres, the ignorant Indian farmers, the villagers and the soldiery combined, came the railway.

Straight through the marvelous city the tracks were laid. Ruthlessly buildings, monuments, sculptured columns and idols were throw down and incalculable treasures in pottery and other relics ground to bits by the hungry maws of steam shovels. Then, as a fitting culmination to all this, over 500 trainloads of sculptures, stonework, monoliths and stairways were broken up and crushed to be used in making fills and ballast for the roadbed!

In its heyday—even at the time of the conquest, when it had been deserted for untold centuries—Tiahuanaco must have been a most imposing, most beautiful and an enormous city. The existing ruins show that it covered an area more than a mile square, with paved streets, long rows of great columns, colossal statues and monuments, magnificent temples and palaces and its great stone-faced pyramid rising high above the plain, But today little remains except in three widely separated areas—the Kalasasaya, or Temple of the Sun, with its rows of stone columns and its impressive, marvelous monolithic gateway and gigantic stairway, the Tunca-Punca, or Palace of the Ten Doors, where the largest slabs of stone are lying where they fell after the Dons had pried the silver staples free, and the Akapana or Fortress, the great artificial hill from which the stone facing, the long flight of stone steps leading to the summit, the great stone reservoir, the stone conduit to the base and the monuments that crowned it were crated away, broken up and used in ballasting the railway.

And of all the hundreds—probably thousands—of gigantic stone statues or idols that once stood about Tiahuanaco only one remains, scarred and defaced by bullets, chipped by vandals and curio seekers, but still erect, gazing with sphinx-like, enigmatical face toward the rising sun. If only he could speak what an amazing story he might tell!

Could he but relate all that has passed beneath his sightless eyes the mysteries of Tiahuanaco would be the explained, the myriad puzzles of the past would be solved. We would then know how the inhabitants of the ancient city performed their amazing feats of stone cutting without—as far as is known—the use of steel tools; feats beyond our present comprehension, for no bronze tool ever found would cut hard rock, and no expert stone worker of today will believe for an instant that the accurately and mathematically and perfectly cut Tiahuanaco work was accomplished by the use of stone implements.

Even if the full story of Tiahuanaco is forever sealed behind the stone features of the solitary image much new light will doubtless be thrown upon it when a full report of the museum’s expedition is made public. One noteworthy discovery made was the image of a man with heavily bearded face.

Herein, perhaps, lies the key that may eventually solve all the riddles of Tiahuanaco and other ancient civilizations of America, for the bearded figure is doubtless a statue of the Bearded God— the Feathered Serpent of the Aztecs, the Kulkulcan of the Mayans and the Wira Kocha, or Bearded One, the supreme deity of the pre-Incans. This was the legendary bearded white man who, according to tradition, came from the “Land of the Rising Sun,” who taught the people their religions, their arts, their sciences and their civilizations, and then vanished after prophesying the downfall of their civilizations and the coming of the Spaniards.

Who can say how much of this ancient tradition is legend and how much is truth?

However that may be, the Bearded God is as great a mystery as is Tiahuanaco, the oldest, most puzzling of the ancient American civilizations.