Remarkable Ancient Sculptures from North-West America.1

Abstract

MR. JAMES TERRY has just published descriptions and photographs of some of the most remarkable works of prehistoric man yet discovered on the American continent. The title of his paper is sufficiently startling, but it is fully borne out by the beautiful full-size and half-size photographic prints with which it is illustrated. They represent three rude, yet bold, characteristic, and even life-like sculptures of simian heads, executed in basalt. One of these belongs to the author, one to Mr. T. Condon, and the third to Prof. O. C. Marsh, who referred to it, in his address “On Vertebrate Life in America” in the following terms:—“On the Columbia River I have found evidence of the former existence of inhabitants much superior to the Indians at present there, and of which no tradition remains. Among many stone carvings which I saw, there were a number of heads which so strongly resembled those of apes that the likeness at once suggests itself. Whence came these sculptures and by whom were they made?” Unfortunately we have no detailed information as to the conditions under which these specimens were found, except that “they would be classed as ‘surface finds, ’ from the fact that the shifting sand-dunes, which were largely utilized for burial purposes, are continually bringing them to the surface and exposing them.” This gives no indication of their antiquity, but is quite compatible with any age which their other characteristics may suggest.