Transcriber’s Note
A number of typographical errors have been maintainedin the current version of this book. They are markedand the corrected text is shown in the popup. A list of theseerrors is found at the end of this book.
ANCIENT AMERICA,
IN
NOTES ON AMERICAN ARCHÆOLOGY.
By JOHN D. BALDWIN, A.M.,
AUTHOR OF “PRE-HISTORIC NATIONS.”
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.
NEW YORK:
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS,
FRANKLIN SQUARE.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1871, by
John D. Baldwin,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington.
PREFACE.
The purpose of this volume is to give a summary of what is known ofAmerican Antiquities, with some thoughts and suggestions relative totheir significance. It aims at nothing more. No similar work, I believe,has been published in English or in any other language. What is known ofAmerican Archæology is recorded in a great many volumes, English,French, Spanish, and German, each work being confined to some particulardepartment of the subject, or containing only an intelligent traveler’sbrief sketches of what he saw as he went through some of the districtswhere the old ruins are found. Many of the more important of these worksare either in French or Spanish, or in great English quartos and folioswhich are not accessible to general readers, and not one of themattempts to give a comprehensive view of the whole subject.
Therefore I have prepared this work for publication, believing it willbe acceptable to many who are not now much acquainted with the remainsof Ancient America, and that some who read it may be induced to study[viii]the but as Ancient America covers all time previous to the discovery byColumbus, they may not be deemed out of place. Materials for the paperon “Antiquities of the Pacific Islands” came to me from the PacificWorld while I was preparing the others. The discovery of the Pacific is