The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, March 18, 1898, Page 2

@% 0] o\@ © AR 70 < Y & v SKETCHES OF PREHISTORIC HIEROGLY I MEMBERS OF*CALL EXPEDITION AT TURQUOISE CAMP. FROM A PHOTOGRAPH. PREHISTORIC HIEROGLYPHICS AS THEY APPEAR ON THE ROCKS. FROM PHOTOGRAPHS TAKEN ESPECIALLY FOR THE CALL. yon walls that the turquoise mines ex- isted. And they extended over miles. | On any of the hillsides there can be found hundreds of abandoned pits. They show now as mere saucerlike holes, but there is no denying the fact that they were formerly worked as tur- se mines. To prove this it is only ary to dig into any of the pits 5 light numerous implements, This stone hammers and rude and also the hole in which the prehis- ill bring to worked. At present there are about a dozen prospectors working in these hills, and in every in- stance where they have opened one of these holes they have been rewarded by finding turquoise and implements. Very few of these -turquoise speci- mens have been taken to market, but those that have been have been de- clared to be of the finest quality. A few after being polished have been sold for as high as $100. Five and ten dollar stones can be found by the dozens. Turquoise is different from almost any other kind of mining because its products has no value until it has been through the process of cutting. This is owing to the fact that there is no way of telling how perfect a stone is when it comes from the ground. It may appear to be flawless, and yet when it is put on the lapidary's wheel it may go to pieces or prove to be full of flaws. But as there are thousands of acres covered with these stones there can be no doubt that many perfect ones will be found in time. And it may be that when some of the prospects are developed they will turn out stones as flne as any in the world, and worth thousands of dollars each. But the prospector who works a turquoise mine must take his chances. He may have a pint of the bright blue precious stones and they may be worth a fortune. And on the other hand they may not be worth 5 cents. But the men who are working down there to-day say they have, even with their undeveloped claims, done better than they could have done at gold mining. What the future of these mines may be can only be guessed at. There is no denying the fact that our aborigines took many fine stones out of them and the chances are many more will be taken out in the future. Following up one of the canyons be- side the turquoise beds the cliffs on both sides were carefully examined. On the lower hillsides and on the upper cliffs were thousands of the strangest kind of hieroglyphics, of which there is a description written by Dr. Eisen in another part of this paper. Any number of caves were found along the cliffs, many of which had hieroglyphics cut on the inside walls, It was impossible to go very deep into these caves, as they have been blown ful! of sand. They were also occupied torical miners | tory of the nativ | Coast. by wild beasts, as was plainly visible the tracks near the entrances. As ences of these caves having been bited at one time it was only ne- ssary to look at the soot on the roof. This extended back further than any- ¢ could crawl, showing plainly that had at one time been built back there. By digging in the soil and sand in the front of the cave several pieces of the rudest kind of pottery were brought to light, as well as a number spring at least a mile away. The Aztec of implements. The pottery is very likely the oldest on the North Ameri- can continent. At the highest points of the canyons they ended in extinct volcano craters. But even close up to these the caves could be found and the hieroglyphics were cut in the rock. At one place there is a passageway cut through a cliff, that leads to a water sign can here be found on both sides of the canyon, indicating the way to the spring. The finding of these evidences of a long vanished people close to the tur- e would seem to explain two First, where the ancient Az got all their turquoise charms; second- ly, where the inhabitants of the caves got their subsistence. It appears as if they traded their precious stones | with the tribes further south for food. As evidence of this no polished tur- Quoise has been found near the mines, while plenty of it has been found in Mexico, where natural turquoise is scarce. To thoroughly explore this region would be the labor of montns, but no doubt such work would amply repay for the trouble. There may be more wonders in the prehistoric turquoise mines than have ever been dreamed of. . The Prehistoric Turquoise Mines of California and the Ancient In- dian Workers. BY GUSTAV EISEN. It is safe to say that the discovery of prehistoric turquoise mines of Califor- nia and certain traces of the prehis- toric race of Indians which worked :se mines and traded with the wealth tracted from them forms the most im- portant discovery yet made in the his- races of the Pacific It brings us into close contact with a race of Indians vastly superior to those now existing on this coast, im- mensely more civilized than any of which we so far have had any knowl- edge, with exception of the Aztecs and the Mayas of Mexico and Central Amer- jca. The principal Indian relics on this coast consist, as we have long known, of shell mounds andof painted rocks. In a few places a few scratched or painted signs representing animals, men and conventional signs have been found in favorably situated rocks in the Sierra Nevada, but these have al- ways been of the crudest workmanship and of the most primitive composition, so primitive indeed that science has hardly thought them worthy of careful investigation. Every archaeologist will therefore hail with delight the discov- ery of remains of a superior civilization recorded by tens of thousands of in- seriptions in an almost perfect state of preservation. What makes this yet more interesting is the fact that these inscriptions are found in the immediate vicinity of extensive mines of precious stones, and that they are found only in the vicinity of these mines. A thor- ough examination of these relics would require many months of hard work and the expenditure of much money, for which time and opportunity have not vet been had, but the results aiready recorded after a preliminary investiga- tion by The Call expedition are suffi- cient to warrant the fulfillment of high expectations as regards the ultimate re- sults which may be had, when time and money are placed at the-disposal of sci- entific investigators. ‘What the Relics Consist of. The relics left of this prehistoric race of Indlans in California consist of five different items, each one of which is of great interest, but which when taken together may well be said to form an open page of the history of a now van- ished race which, when properly read and deciphered, will reveal to us the arts, life history and the semi-civiliza- tion of a race of which we until now have known almost nothing. These rel- ics which now confront us-are as fol- lows: Exterior mines of precious tur- quoise stones of very high quality; se- ries of highly complicated hieroglyphs, numbering tens of thousands and ex- tending for twenty. to thirty Jniles around the turquoise mines; hundreds of caves immediately below, or in, the rocks in which the glyphs are cut, and in which caves there is every reason to believe that the mine workers of this ancient race dwelt while they were working the mines; numerous stone im- plements of the best workmanship, used in the working of the mines, and which implements are now found not only scattered over the surface of the an- cient turquoise pits, but actually found in the mines, where they had been left by the miner, expecting to return and resume his werk, when the war, to which perhaps he was suddenly ealled, would be over; pieces of pottery with impressed, not painted, ornaments. There are also other traces of the an- cient people in this vicinity, such as ar-. tificial trails leading to the water holes and openings, one™of the trails being cut out in the hard, solid' rock of the cliff. The Turquoise Mines. The use of the precious stone tur- quoise was very extensive among the Aztecs and among the people which built the Casas Grandes of the Gila and o ofm. _ 48 Bhee MAYA HIEROGLYPHICS. By comparing the carved signs found at the prehistoric turquolse mines with these a most remarkable simllarity 1s. noticed. They are not exactly the same, but are near enough aclike to warrant the closest study and inves- tigation. Colorado River districts, but it has never been definitely settled how these stones were procured in such large quantities. The National Museum of Mexico possesses a number of very fine | specimens of turquoise stone ornaments | made by the Aztecs, some showing an exceedingly high grade of workman- ship and possessing even nowadays a great value. Similar ancient turquoise | ornaments, mostly in the form of amu- lets, beads and Inlaid work. may be | seen in our North American and Euro- pean museums and our California Academy of Sciences has also a few of them in its collection, these being prin- cipally inlald work. Turquoise mines of sufficient extent have not until now been known to ex- ist (smaller mines having been found | in New Mexico and Arizona) and the ery in connection with where | these ancient turquoise stones came from has not until now been satisfac- torily solved. The discovery of the tur- quoise mines is principally due to the Indians now living in the vicinity. They have known of the mines for centuries past, and as will be shown later on have preserved traditions connecting the mines with prehistoric races which were not the ancestors of those now living there or of themselves. The mines are situated in the narrow des- ert district south of Death Valley, al- most at the point where the three States—California, Nevada and Ari- zona—join together, west of the Colo- rado River, but in the State of Cali- fornia. ‘This country, as is well known, forms an absolute desert, with little vegetation, scarcity of animal life, and with a greater scarcity of water. The elevation over the ocean reaches to | 12,000 feet, more or less, .in the higher | peaks, but the elevation of the mines | probably averages 3300 feet, more or | | of decomposition. ourselves the reason why we presume | le: The climate of the region is most rigorous in winter, with blasting winds Professor Eisen of the California prehistoric turquoise mines. importance. and blizzards, while in the summer it is correspondingly hot, the thermom- eter reaching 120 in the shade. The mines are scattered over an area of thirty to forty miles in diameter, but the principal mines, both as regards quality and quantity, are found over a territory not over fifteen miles long by three or four miles wide. It is a vol- canic region., characterized by ancient voleanic rocks of various kinds, among which are intermixed smaller projec- tions of decomposed granite, sandstone and porphyry. The district is overlaid to a great extent with trap or basalt rock in the shape of low and long ridges, stretching out from a central point, dominated by a number of ex- tinct voleanic craters of yetvery perfect form. From these volcanoes we can trace lava flows in almost’ every direc- tion, extending out for many miles. A peculiarity is that every individual voleano seems to be composed of dif- ferent rocks, both as regards quality and color. There is, however, a gen- eral absence of pumice stone and fine voleanic ashes, though there is an abundance of-coarse, rounded pebbles, which must have been thrown out of the voleanoes in very much the same shape as they are now. found. Among. these flows of lava and ba- galt are found smaller areas. of low, rounded hills, which appear to be almost exclusively composed of decom- posed porphyry and sandstone, tra- versed here and there with harder crystalline ledges, containing much silicates, tale, magnesia and quartzites. On the surface of these rounded hills the eye may detect numerous shallow more or less distinct pits of from fif- teen to thirty feet in diameter. These pits are the remains of the prehistoric turquoise mines. All around the pits the soil consists exclusively of decom- posed coarse sand and gravel among which we may pick up in a few min- utes handfuls of small turquoise stones of various shapes, sizes and colors. Wherever a harder quartzite ledge protrudes we can generally see traces of turquoise in the rocks. The tur- quoise is a blue or green stone which either occurs as a thin, flat vein in a harder matrix, or we find it as small kidney-shaped nodules, easily separ- ated from the softer rock in which they are found. There is a great variety of colors and forms. Some of the dis- -tricts show only turquoise veins, while a few miles away we find the stones in the form of, kidneys of various sizes from that of a pea to those of large beans. The turquoises are generally found in what is known among miners as pockets and small seams, principally as pockets. They occur in considera- ble quantities and a day's work of a miner results in a_hatful of stones of varying value. While there are now less than half a doz the claims, and that in a poor, unsys- tematic and slovenly manner, merely resembling prospecting, thousands of Indians must have in ancient times oc- cupied themselves with the work of bringing out the precious stones. Even they, with their limited tools, could never have carried on a scientific min- | ing, but they appear to have dug pits wherever they found traces of the tur- quoise on the surface. The present miners have merely dug out some of these old pits and perhaps in a few instances followed them up a few feet deeper. We saw some of these pits ten to fifteen feet deep, some perpen- dicular, others slanting, all quite nar- row, from four to six feet wide. Seve- ral of the pits show narrow seams of tale and white magnesia, like rock, so soft that it erumbles under the fin- gers, all showing a very high degree We may now ask that these pits were made by an an- cient race of Indians and not by the present Indians, or perchance by early te miners, or by the Mexicans. The ifficult and close at The annals of the State does not mention turquoise mining as be- ing one of the occupations of the In- dians or of the early Mexican settlers. Furthermore, the mines themselves bear every internal evidence of having been worked by, ient Indians and not by white men, as we find in them the very implements of stone used in chipping the rock, while we find no- where any implements or parts of im- plements of modern make. There is also ancther reason why we suppose these mines to have furnished much, if not most of the turquoises used by the Mexican or Aztec Indians, and that is that worked turquoises found in these countries show a very great similarity in shape and color to those GUSTAV EISEN. Academy of Sciences accompanied The Call Expedition to the He declares their discovery to be of the greatest archaeological n miners working | S GATHERED OVER | | AN AREA OF DOZENS OF SQUARE MILES. CLIFF DECORATED WITH HIEROGLYPHICS. These peculiar characters can be found all along a rocky wall that is at least fifteen miles long. blackened by smoke, and they were protected at the entrance by a wall of loose rocks. These rocks were nowhere in the shape of regular walls made of matched brick, but simply consisted of rough basalt stones piled one on top of the other without cenient or mortar. Undoubtedly time and ele- ments have combined to change the original shape of these walls, but enough was left to enable us to see that they were raised for purposes of protection against elements and ene- mies. As the present Indlans do not dwell In caves, we must naturally con- sider that their original inhabitants were the- workers of the turquoise mines, mining being the only industry by which a race could sustain itself on this inhospitable desert. The Implements With Which the Turquoise Mines Were Worked. As already stated, one of the most found In the now rediscovered mines. |important reasons for believing that the As the Aztecs possessed no turquoise | mines were alone worked by a prehis- mines in their own country, they must | toric race is the finding of numerous have procured them from the north, and everything points to the presump- | tion that they got their largest supply from these California mines. The Caves. ‘Where did the Indians who worked these mines live? While it is not im- possible and perhaps rather probable that they, as do their descendants, the present Mexican Indians, dwelt in huts made of rushes and Yucca palms, it may also be considered as certain that much of the population lived in caves. Such caves are now seen all along the “malpal” ledges, and it is safe to say that they might be counted by the hun- dreds. We had merely time to exam- ine a few of them. To explore them thoroughly must be left to the future, and there is every prospect that ob- Jects of great archaeological interest will be found in the caves, the floors of which are new covered by several feet of thin impalpable dust. The caves examined and photographed are from four to six feet high at the entrance, from which they slope downward and inward. Some possessed two or three openings or passages penetrating the interior of the cliff to unknown depth. They had all been so filled up with soft dust that further progress was prevent- ed, but we could see that they at least extended from ten to twenty feet into the mountain, probably more. That they had once been inhabited is shown by the following facts: They were stone implements in the pits. These tools are all made of very hard lava and basalt, and mostly of very fine workmanship. We found three kinds of tools, the majority being stone ham- mers made of basalt rock. The stone hammers are of various sizes, from six to eight inches long, beautifully smooth and rounded, each with a wide central groove extending across three sides of the hammer. Besides these hammers, we found alse axes of various kinds of rock. These exes are of different sizes, from six incHes square and upward. They taper toward the edges, and are furnished with a groove running all arcund the center for the secure hold- ing of the handle. One of these axes was of gigantic size, about three feet long, and so heavy that both hands were required to handle it.. While some of the tools are yet in the best state of preservation and of fine workmanship, others are much chipped and battered or even broken up, showing that they have been in actual use. Pottery. ) In the immediate vicinity of some of the springs and the caves fragments of pottery were found. These were of con- siderable size, but so broken up that no idea could be had of the shape of the vessels. None of the pieces were painted, and many of them showed no ornamentation of any kind. Some pleces, however, were most Interesting- ly ornamented by deep impressions rep- resenting long parallel lines alternating with short, straight, parallel bars of even size, running in a slanting posi- tion against the longer lines. The time at our disposal for explcration was too short to allow of excavations for more perfectly preserved pottery; the indica- tions are that such pottery will be found only when the caves are ex- plored. The Hieroglyphics. The most interesting feature in con- nection with the turquoise mines isthat they are always accompanied by pic- ture writing or hierogiyphics. Wher- ever one of these turquoise mines is found we can be sure to find hierogly- phics in the rocks surrounding them. The Indians who worked the mines must have been the same ones who cut the glyphs in the rocks. The hierogiyphics are found only on the bluffs of basalt rock which abound in the vicinity of the mines. This rock is the hardest one to be found in"that country, but its smooth surface offers unusual advantage for the cutting of glyphs and pictures. The glyphs oec- cur from ten to fifteen together on the same stone, but generally only two or three are found together and frequently only one on each basalt block. Most of the glyphs are cut on isolated blocks, which have fallen from the cliff above; sometimes they are found on the flat wall of the cliff. They are found along a stretch of country fifteen or twenty miles long and must be counted by the tens of thousands. In some places al- most every block in the debris beiow the cliff carries a glyph. On some blocks which stand uprignt we founad a glyph on each face, showing that the blocks had not been disturbed since they were cut. The glyphs are cut or picked in the rock by some hard in- strument, most likely stone hammers. As regards the nature of the glyphs in general, they are much more compli- cated than any so far found in Cali- fornia er in any other State north of Mexico. They show a mixture of dis- tinet types. One, the rarest type, rep- resents figures composed of simple lines, curves and dots; figures resem- bling suns, stars, crosses, anchors, bars, ete. To this group must be counted rough representations of ani- mals and men, but of the former very few were found, such as snake, owl, turtle, rabbit, lizard and man. One pic- ture represents a warrior with a large feathered cap standing on another warrior who has fallen, a figure re- minding one greatly of Aztec plcture writing. A wavy line stood for water, and in one place we found on two op- posite sides of a bend in the eliff signs indicating the direction in which water was to be found some miles away. But by far the most interesting form of hieroglyph was the shield type. Some of these were three to four feet high and of most complicated de- sign. The illustration represents three of these. This type is composed of a shield-like outline, inside of which we find lines and circles and cross hatch- ing, in such a way as to leave no doubt in my mind that every line was intend- ed to be of importance. In the Aztec picture writing there is nothing of a similar character, except coat of arms shields, which stood for and indicated certain villages, cities or chiefs. But a closer resemblance is, strange to say, found in the hieroglyphics of the Mayas of Yucatan. There we find some of the glyphs in the form of shields, to which often is attached a wing very strikingly similar to the one seen in one of the glyphs found by us. This similarity in some of the glyphs is so marvelous that it entirely baf- fles us to explain it, except as coinci- dence. At least it cannot now be dem- onstrated that these glyphs had an ac- tual relationship with those of the Maya giyphs. If they had we would ex- pect to find among them the simpler numerals of the Mayas, which were composed of dots and bars, the dot standing for one, the bar for two, etc. But so interesting are these our new- found glyphs, that they should be re- corded at once, and decidedly recorded in the way they follow each other on the rocks, and not noted down hap- hazard, as it is more than probable that if they could be read successively and deciphered they would tell an in- teresting tale of the prehistoric raee who worked the mines and who sculp- tured the glyphs on the rocks and blocks in the vicinity. The Legend of the Turquoise Mines and Theiv Prehistoric Workers. It would be strange indeed if no le- gend should exist among the Indians now and then roaming over the desert, legends connecting these turquoise mines with the ancient inhabitants ‘who worked them. One such legend really does exist and, strange to say, it does not in the least conflict with anything we found in connection with the turquoise mines and the hiero- glyphics on the rocks, but rather con- firms the story told by them. The le- gend moreover helps to explain how these numerous workers of the mines could live in this inhospitable region of blizzards, sand and scorching sun, where water is the greatest luxury and where even no edible root or vegetable does grow at the present time. It is almost absolutely certain that even in ancient times, when these mines were worked and when the hieroglyphics were cut, the climate was the same as now, neither better nor worse. Thk wild animals on the desert are so few that they could not possibly sustain any considerable population of, say even a few hundred Indians. The least rare animals are thé chuckawalla, a large edible lizard; the desert turtle, the cottontail rabbit and the jack- rabbit. As the water is everywhere so scarce that no corn could be raised in the vicinity of the mines, the laborers must have procured food from more distant places. The legend in a man- ner confirms this and makes it proba- ble that the turguoise stones were not dug for use as ornaments by the work- ers themselves, but were used as ob- jects of trade with different nations. The following legend gvas told us by an Indian, known as dian Johnny, son of Tecopah, the chief of the Piutes. His father, the chief, who died at an advanced age last year, told the legend to his son just as he had got it from his father. The legend bears much evidence of being based on facts. Thousands of years ago, says Indian Johnny, these plains and hills were the dwelling grounds of the desert Mo- haves, of which now only a few are left. At that time there came suddenly a tribe of Indians from the West or South in search of precious stones. They fell in with the desert Mohaves and made friends with them. They found out about these mines, znd they worked them and teok out af great quantity of stones. These Indians from the South were different from the Mo- haves and from any other Indians liv- ing In this country. They were much fairer, their skin as well as their hair was lighter. They were also civilized and knew of a gr things which no other India then nor now. They knew how to wok mines, and they also knew how tov They made the writing in these rocks, and they soon teached the how to do as they did. The Indians were no fighters, a lived in peace with the des But the Piutes, to which did not like the Mohaves things. When the Piute Mohaves began to cut signs in the rocks and work mines, they said that they were crazy, and deciced to make war on them. This they did, and the for- eign Indians and the greater part of the Mohaves were exterminated. Since that time, which must have been 1000 years ago, these min worked by any. one. Chief Tecopah and Johnny. The Plausibility of the Legend. It must be confessed that this legemd is plausible. We know that the Aztecs as well as the Casa Grande Indians pos- sessed many turquoise ornaments. We also know that the Aztecs during their highest power sent out expeditions In order to get gold, and my esteemed Mexican friend, Don Benigno Garcia, has repeatedly told me that there was very good reason fo believe that th Aztec expeditions for gold were princ pally directed to the Altar district in Sonora, on the Guif of California. We also know that there was and is yet a race of comparatively fair and red- haired Indians in Southern Sonora and Northern Sinaloa. These Indians are the Mayos (not Mayas, which latter are a different race in Yueatan), the only w Tt his Indian son, fair Indians of which we know any} thing definite. It is therefore mos plausible and proballe that in prehis. toric times a tribe of Mayo Indians may have crossed the Gulf of California and wandered toward the north searching for turquoise mines, the existence of which was perhaps known to them. They fell in with the Mohaves, found the mines, worked them and established a trade in tdrquose stoned with the Southern Indians in Mexico, Arizona and Cclorado. Such trade exchange alone would enable these Indians to live and subsist for any length of time in such an inhospitable country as the desert where the mines are. That this trade must have been principally, if not exclusively, with the Mexican races may be concluded from the fact that so far no turquoise mines have been found in old Mexico. Of course, the Aztecs procured also some of their tur- quoises from some New Mexican mines, and possibly also from some in Ari- zona. In old Mexico the Aztecs valued the turquoise more than gold, and some large fine stones were said to be worth more than a load of gold each. The turquoise was also the emblem of Mon- tezuma, and so sacred was it considered that after the death of Montezuma no stones were allowed to be taken from a mine which was known to have fur- nished stones to him. e — More Trouble for Mrs. Bell. The troubles of Mrs. Bell, whose allowance of $1500 a month was cu:f%';'fi by Judge Coffey several days ago to $100 a month, are now be; s Tt Sult ginning to accumu. for meats delivered by F. groceries delivered by Sovner. - 2 © ———— e To Cure a Cold in One Day Take Laxative Bromo Quinine Tablets. Al druggists refund the money If i* fails to curs. %o "“The genuine has L B. Q. oo vach taplet » El ‘was commenced t F. M. Thal, assignee of the’ clatme. o ios and Joseph Seyner, to recover $5 o,