Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks.

  • Mariano Eduardo de Rivero y Ustariz
Date:
1854
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Peruvian antiquities / by Mariano Edward Rivero and John James von Tschudi ; translated by Francis L. Hawks. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    at the present day, do in the construction of small vaults in the smelting ovens; that is, by filling the space with mate- rials forming a convexity, and arching them afterward with lime and stone. In some of the larger edifices you meet also with vestiges of arches, but it is certain that their application was quite limited.* The internal architecture of the palaces offers more com- plication of detail and more interest. Some large saloons and a multitude of small apartments occupied the space of the building: they communicated among themselves by in- termediate doors, but the majority of them had but one door opening into the court surrounding the edifice. The walls were sometimes carved, presenting architectural ornaments very well executed, and a number of large niches, and small boards in the form of shelves. In the most sumptuous palaces the walls were covered with small plates of gold and silver, and even the floors of some of the principal rooms * Stephens, in his travels in Yucatan in 1843, says, speaking of the arch of San Francisco of Merida: ‘But this convent contains one memorial far more interesting than any connected with its own ruin, one that carries the beholder back through centuries of time, and tells the story of a greater and a sadder fall. “ In one of the lower cloisters going out from the north, and under the principal dormitory, are two parallel corridors. The outer one faces the principal patio, and this corridor has that peculiar arch so often referred to in my previous volumes, two sides rising to meet each other, and covered, when within about a foot of forming an apex, by a flat layer of stones. There can be no mistake about the character of this arch; it cannot for a moment be supposed that the Spaniards constructed any thing so different from their known rules of architecture ; and beyond doubt, it formed part of one of those mysterious buildings which have given rise to so much speculation, the construction of which has been ascribed to the most ancient people in the old world, and to races lost, perished and un- known.” We have copied this extract as confirmatory proof of our statement that the Indians were not ignorant of the mode of constructing the arch. [It would rather seem to prove the reverse.—Translator.]
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