Field Notebook: Mexico 1906
Page 41
Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library. Contributed by Yale Peabody Museum of Natural History. | www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
"Roundly hills, through the ruins runs a small dirty mountain stream. The workmanship preserved in the ruins shows that these people knew how to do things. One thinks their tools were of stone and if this is true then art is all the more wonderful. The stone joints are all close but not necessarily regular. On the sides of the huge blocks at the bottom are large holes evidently used to place levers thus to move the stones in place. Because of this they needed their axes to handle the material. In the centre of the temples are large rooms bounded by an outer fringe of smaller rooms. All are ornamented by the mosaic of stones and other figures. The cross + is present in several designs. The large pieces are not laid in plaster but behind and between are piles of small little rocks and apparently uncemented sand or adobe. It is remarkable to note how accurately the figures cut the stones. The tool marks look more like scratching as if the stones had been rubbed into form. Prof. Schenck said a work was reserved