Several petroglyphs in Sonora are described and illustrated infra in Chapter XX on Special Comparisons. The following copies of petroglyphs are presented here as specimens and are markedly different from those in the northwestern states of Mexico, which represent the Aztec culture.
The description of Fig. 98 is extracted from Viages de Guillelmo Dupaix (_a_):
[Illustration: FIG. 98.--Petroglyphs in Mexico.]
Going from the town of Tlalmanalco to that of Mecamecan, at a distance of a league to the east of the latter and in the confines of the estate of Señor Don José Tepatolco, is an isolated rock of granitic stone artificially cut into a conical form with a series of six steps cut in the solid rock itself on the eastern side, the summit forming a platform or horizontal section suitable for the purpose of observing the stars at all points of the compass. It is, therefore, most evident that this ancient monument or observatory was employed solely for astronomical observations, and it is further proved by various hieroglyphs cut in the south side of the cone; but the most interesting feature of this side is the figure of a man standing upright and in profile directing his gaze to the east with the arms raised, holding in the hands a tube or species of optical instrument. Beneath his feet is seen a carved frieze with six compartments or squares and other symbols of a celestial nature are engraved on their surfaces, evidently the product of observation and calculation. Some of them have connection with those found symmetrically arranged in circles on the ancient Mexican calendar, exposed in this capital to general admiration. In front of the observer is a rabbit seated and confronted by two parallel rows of numerical figures; lastly two other symbols relating to the same science are seen at the back.
Prof. Daniel G. Brinton (_a_), gives an account of the illustration here produced on Pl. XIV A, which may be thus condensed:
[Illustration: BUREAU OF ETHNOLOGY TENTH ANNUAL REPORT PL. XIV
The “Stone of the Giants” at Escamela near the city of Orizaba, Mexico, has been the subject of much discussion. Father Damaso Sotomayor sees in the inscribed figures a mystical allusion to the coming of Christ to the Gentiles and to the occurrences supposed in Hebrew myth to have taken place in the Garden of Eden. This stone was examined by Capt. Dupaix in the year 1808 and is figured in the illustrations to his voluminous narrative. The figure he gives [now presented as B on Pl. _XIV_] is, however, so erroneous that it yields but a faint idea of the real character and meaning of the drawing. It omits the ornament on the breast and also the lines along the right of the giant’s face, which as I shall show are distinctive traits. It gives him a girdle where none is delineated, and the relative size and proportions of all the three figures are quite distorted.