In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

228 N o t e s o f M i d d l e A m e r i c a n A r c h a e o l o g y a n d E t h n o l o g y Carnegie Institution of Washington Division of Historical Research No. 59 November 5, 1945 mausolea in Central Veracruz Jose García Payón unpublished work “El Templo de las Caritas de la zona arqueologica de Zempoala” I said that Strebel’s lack of veracity in certain parts of his study is explicable if one takes into account the fact that he was never in Mexico, but obtained most of his information from the Mexican conchologist, Sra. Estefania Sales de Broner, who made numerous discoveries in the area between the Actopan and Nautla rivers. She also placed him in contact with Señores Ramon Fuentes and Mardonio Yañez, who supplied him with the information he required and at his written behest made several archaeological trips in that region, then largely uninhabited Later Dr. Strebel was efficiently aided by Dr. Rudolf Krause who came to Mexico to collaborate in this study, and who was a guest of Sra. Sales de Broner at her various haciendas in Veracruz. The Comisión Científica Exploradora de Zempoala de 1893 found numerous small constructions which they called boveditas on the hill named Maria Andrea near the sea, and in the direction of Laguna Verde. Francisco del Paso y Troncoso (1897:2:282– 283) describes them in the following words: “Todas tienen la apariencia de cases aztecas, estan edificadas con laminas de laja y blanqueadas con argamasa . . . todas tienen la particularidad comun de ester vueltas con las puertas hacia el mar, estando por este motivo orientadas hacia el Oriente. Estan cerradas por todos lados y solamente tienen una entrada . . . que las da la apariencia de nachos.” The author considers them to be prehispanic and supposes that there were idols in the niches. For some time I have been interested in some curious small structures, first reported by Isidro A. Gondra (1836). Sr. Gondra’s account was based on some clippings from newspapers of Veracruz which described the discovery of some pre-Colombian ruins in the Mizantla region, and on a verbal account by Sr. Mariano Jaimes who visited the nearby Ranchos de Monte Real that same year. In 1844 Col. Ignacio Iberri published in Museo Mexicano (3:21–24) a report on these ruins, together with a map. In 1864 Sr. Gondra, having obtained fuller details and utilizing the colonel’s report, published a second article (1836). He added the information that “el nicho era abovedado y en el hallaron escueletos humanos en postura agachada,” Various contradictions in these accounts caused much confusion as noted by Bancroft (1874–1876:4:449). In1889HermanStrebel(1885–1889:2:15–16)noted that in the middle of the virgin forest in the archaeological zone of Tacahuite, near Vega de la Torre, he found numerous structures of stone and mortar. They resembled houses, were a yard long at the base, had a step, a niche in the middle, and a sloping roof (Fig. 59.4b). He adds that below one of these structures were human remains. After discussing whether these buildings could be of Spanish origin, he concludes by supposing that they were chapels for saints or sepulchral monuments, and are in every way similar to those reported by Sr. Gondra at Monte Real. It is strange that these two students who wrote on the same subject, but twenty-five years apart, had not actually seen the structures they describe. In my Mausolea in Central Veracruz 229 He suggests that they were shrines where the rising sun, as it emerged from the sea, was worshipped, or where the remains of children sacrificed to the rain gods were placed (Galindo y Villa 1912). Dr. Walter Krickberg (1933) considered these reports to be too conflicting and vague to be utilized. During my last season’s work at Zempoala my attention was particularly attracted by a small circular construction with a rectangular front (Fig. 59.3a). There are remains of the upright surface on the north side. The whole is very similar to the Ehecatl building at that site. After a careful investigation I was able to corroborate that this was a tomb, for I found that the center was hollow, and originally had been covered with a floor. There were lateral walls covered with mortar. The remains of...

Share