The University of Chicago DEPARTMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY BULLETIN I Notes on Mexican Archæology By FREDERICK STARR CHICAGO The University of Chicago Press 1894 Library NOTES ON MEXICAN ARCHÆOLOGY. For my recent trip to Mexico no definite scientific work had been planned. The trip was one of recreation. Opportunity presented itself, however, to do two or three bits of work which it may be worth while to make known. THE PAINTED HOUSE AT SAN JUAN DE TEOTIHUACAN. Within sight of the station, between it and the old church of San Juan adjoining the land on which is the hut of the Indian, José Maria Barius, we found excavations in progress which have uncovered the ruins of an interesting and ancient house. Barius is a dealer in curiosities, which he picks up in the neighborhood, and a maker of modern pottery, imitating ancient pieces. He is a man of unusual intelligence, and well informed in regard to the whole district. It was he who was conducting the excavations, and so far as I could learn he was doing it as a matter of personal interest and not for any scientific organization or society. The house uncovered he called the casa pintada-" the painted house." Charnay, when pursuing his investigations at San Juan, uncovered a house of several rooms, the walls of which were plastered plainly; Batres, who is the Conservator of Mexican Antiquities appointed by the government, later uncovered a house of several rooms, the walls of which were painted with curious and interesting designs. These he has described and figured in a government report. The house uncovered by Barius, to which we here refer, is more interesting and, in the character of its decorations, more important than either of these earlier discoveries. We visited the locality on several occasions and watched the progress of the excavation. As the Indian seemed to be doing the work unpaid, apparently in hope of discovering relics of mercantile importance, the work was slow and desultory. NUV 3 0 1987 74. Book score 424054 |