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American Archaeological Researches. No. 1.

The Serpent Symbol, and the Worship of the Reciprocal Principles of Nature in America

E. G. Squier, A. M.

New York, April, 1851.

The following numbers of this series are prepared, or far advanced in preparation

1. The Archeology and Ethnology of Central America. Illustrated.
2. The Mexican Calendar. Illustrated.
3. The Mythological System of the Ancient Mexicans. Illustrated.
4. The Semi-civilized Nations of New Mexico.

CONTENTS.

• Chapter I. Introductory Observations.
• Chapter II. The Doctrine of Reciprocal Principles in America.
• Chapter III. The Sacred "High Places" or Teocalli of America; Their Purposes and the Primitive Ideas They Illustrate.
• Chapter IV Sun or Fire Worship in America.
• Chapter V. Ancient Serpentine Earth-works of the United States
• Chapter VI "The Mundane Egg." The Serpent Symbol in Old and New Worlds.
• Chapter VII The great Incarnation of God, Mediator between God and Man, and Teacher of Men.
• Chapter VIII The Serpent Symbols in the Temples of Central America.
• Chapter IX. Sculptures of the Serpent in Mexico, Central America and from the Mounds.
• Chapter X. Serpentine Stuctures in the Old World.
• Chapter XI. The Serpent Symbol in the Old World.
• Chapter XII. Concluding and General Observations

List of Engravings

Lingham and Yoni of Hindustan, Pyramidial Struotures at Uxmal, Example of Pyramid Struotures in Mexico. Example of Pyramidal Structures, in Mexico, in square Ancient Works, Lafayette County, Miss. Temple Mound, Marietta, Ohio, Temple Mound, Lovedale, Ky. "Chunk Yards° of the Creeks. Subterranean. Sepulchral Chamber at Mitlan, Mexico. Section of the same, Section of another Subterranean Sepulchral Chamber Plan & section of Sepulchral Chamber at Chila, Mexico. Section of Pyramid at same place. Seotion of the Great Pyramid of Gizeh, Egypt, Section of the Pyramid of Sakkar, Egypt, Plan of Temple-tomb at Mount Alvan Mexico. Section of same Ancient Mexican, MSS. showing Ideas of Heaven. Symbolical pyramidal at Oaxaca, Mexico. Stone Pedestal at Uxmal. Mexican Sign of the Year, Mexican method of lighting New Fire, Great Pyramidal Temple at Suku, Java, Astronomical Serpent from Mexican, MSS, at Dresden. Great Serpentine Earth Work, Adams county, Ohio. Section of same. Great Serpent Effigy in Iowa Mounds arranged in Serpentine Form, lowa. Great Serpentine Earth Work, St. Peter's Ricer, lowa. Remarkable Circle and Pentagun, Prairie du Chien Ancient Symbolical Earth Work, Kickapoo River, lowa

Ancient work, Pike courrty, Ohio, Teamtlil, the princicipal Deity of Mexico, Cihuacohuatl, his consort, principal Goddess of Mexico. Cinteotl, the Mexican Goddess Of Fecundity 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43. Hieroglyphical Serpents of Egypt. Tezcatlipoca in his descent on Mount Tezcatepec Head, Distinctive Crown, Amphisbaena of Tezcaflipoca. Bas-relief from the Temple of Xochicalco. Double-headed Serpent from the Mexican Ritual. Sculptured head of Serpent from, ruins, Chichen-itza. Temple Of Quetzalcoatl, from a Mexican MS. Stone Ring, with Serpents from Chichen-itza. Cohuatl sign of the fifth day of Meican month. Serpent carved in BasaIt, in the University Of Mexico. Feathered Serpents from Mexico. Serpent carved in Porphyry, from Chochimilco, Mexico. Serpent carved in Basalt, from Quauhquechula, Mexico. Serpent found at Tepeyaca, Mexico, Painted Serpent on the rocks near Managua, Nicaragua. Sculptured Serpent from the Mounds. Sculptured Serpent and Egg, from Copan. Sculpture at Uxmal. Serpent swallowing a human Figure, from Mexico. Great Serpentine Structure, Abury, England, Parallelitha at Mervale and Moreton, England. Serpentine Stone Temple, Stanton Drew, England. Ancient work in Kentucky, opposite Portsmoutb, Ohio. The Egyptian Hierogram of Serpents, Globe & Wings. Serpents, Globe, and Wings& Nakshi Rustam, Persia. Ornament, Globe, and wings, from Ocosingo, Mexico.

Preface

I HAVE been for some years engaged upon a work of comprehensive design, in which I propose to bring together, under a single view, all such leading and well authenticated facts as may be accessible, relating to the aboriginal monuments of the American continent, which shall serve to illustrate not only their character and origin, but also the ancient and as yet unwritten history of the New World, and the relation which its aboriginal inhabitants sustained to the great primitive families of the other Continent. A work of this scope and magnitude, it can readily be understood by every one at all acquainted with the subject, must require many years to its completion, especially when, as in my own case, it can only be prosecuted in the intervals of other and more practical duties. Pending, therefore, the submission of this work to the public judgment, I have thought it not improbable that service might be done to the cause of science, by the publication of some of its parts,-if not by adding directly to the stock of new facts and demonstrated results, at least by directing the attention of investigators to subjects hitherto but little considered, but possessed of high interest, and having an important hearing on the grand Archeological and Ethnological problems connected with the history of man in America. In separating these parts from their original connections, where they sustained an intimate relation to other and mutually illustrative chapters, they have necessarily assumed a somewhat '' fragmentary character, with frequent abrupt transitions, some repetitions, and numerous references to foregoing facts and deductions. Circumstances have prevented me from reconstructing them; the only mode in which these defects might be remedied, and in these respects I must crave the indulgence of the critical reader.

The points which I have attempted in some degree to illustrate in the following pages, are the essential identity of some of the elementary religious conceptions of the primitive nations of the Old and New Worlds, and the similarity in their modes of expressing them, or rather the similarity in their symbolical systems, of which I regard the machinery of creation, the multiplication of gods, and the investing of them with attributes, as parts. Upon some of these points the aboriginal monuments of the continent are eminently suggestive; and, as illustrated by the recorded conceptions, known doctrines and rites, and trasmitted traditions of the ancient inhabitants, in many respects, conclusive. Upon these unimpeachable witnesses I have for the most part relied, in arriving at the hypothetical conclusions put forward in these chapters.

It has been remarked by the illustrious Humboldt, that in investigating these subjects, "we shall be surprised to find, towards the end of the fifteenth century, in a world which we call new, those ancient institutions, those religious notions, and that style of building which seem in Asia to indicate the dawn of civilization. The conclusion from thus discovery would naturally be, that these institutions, notions, and monuments, are founded in an original connection, especially as such a conclusion is in strict harmony with popular prejudices. But file philosophical mind will hesitate in accepting it, without inquiring how far similar conditions, and like constitutions, mental, moral, and physical, may serve to approximate institutions, religions, and monuments to a common or cognate type. The opinions of former scholars cannot be taken as conclusive in this inquiry; for at no previous period of file world's history have the materials for prosecuting it been so abundant as now.

The great collateral questions of natural science which have been settled within a few years, the knowledge which maritime and land discoveries have given to us of nearly every nation and people on earth, of their religions, institutions, history, habits, and customs, enabling us to institute comparisons between them all, and to weigh the relations which they sustain toeach other, these are advantages which students have not hitherto enjoyed, and for the want of which no ability could adequately compensate. For no sciences are so eminently inductive as Archaeology and Ethnology, or the sciences of Man and Nations ; none which require so extensive a range of facts to their elucidation.

In pursuing my investigations, I have sought only to arrive at truth, however much it may conflict with preconceived notions, or what are often called " established opinions." I have no system to sustain, no creed to defend; but entertain as many hypotheses as there are possibilities, and claim to be ready to reject or accept according to the weight of evidence and the tendency of facts. In this spirit, I neither fear nor deprecate criticism, but on the contrary, desire it; and so far from regarding him with hostility, who shall, in a proper t' temper, point out what is false in fact or erroneous in deduction, shall esteem the act as a service, and one imposing an obligation deserving of acknowledgment. I reserve to myself, moreover, the privilege of revising, altering, and if need be, of wholly rejecting, whatever may be advanced in this or succeeding volumes; and shall value nothing which may be published, except in so far as it shall meet the rigid requirements of philosophy and truth.