Page:Mexican Archæology.djvu/209

 

OW that a sketch has been given of the beliefs and mode of life of the Ancient Mexicans, it is necessary to deal in some measure with the remains of their culture scattered over the country. As far as architecture is concerned, the greater proportion of ruined buildings must be considered to have been either temples or structures associated in some way with religion, and perhaps government. The Mexicans gave of their best to the gods, and though the corvée system enabled large numbers of men to be employed at one time on works of considerable magnitude, the rulers seem to have spent more care on the buildings erected for the service of their deities than on their own habitations. The peculiar feature of Mexican architecture lies in the fact that every building of importance was erected upon a substructure, terrace or truncated pyramid, which, though essentially secondary in importance to the building or buildings with which it was crowned, yet represented a vast amount of labour, many hundred times greater than that expended on the superstructure. This feature has been unfortunate, in a sense, for Mexican archæology, since the pyramidal mounds, once the superimposed buildings have disappeared, present a superficial analogy to the pyramids of Egypt. There can however be no real comparison, the Egyptian pyramid represented a building in itself, while the Mexican was in essence a mere accessory. The foundation-mounds must be distinguished from the mounds of the northern Pueblo region, which are formed for the most part of the debris