Ancient America, in Notes on American ArchaeologyBaldwin, John D. (John Denison)
History
Ancient America, in Notes on American Archaeology
Baldwin, John D. (John Denison)
America -- Antiquities; America -- Discovery and exploration -- Pre-Columbian; Indians -- Antiquities
The most important of those remaining was named “Casa del Gobernador” by
the Spaniards. It is 320 feet long, and was built of hewn stone laid in
mortar or cement. The faces of the walls are smooth up to the cornice.
Then follows, on all the four sides, “one solid mass of rich,
complicated, and elaborately sculptured ornaments, forming a sort of
arabesque.” Figure 36 gives a view of the south end of this edifice, but
no engraving can show all the details of the ornamentation.
[Illustration: Fig. 36.--Casa del Gobernador, Uxmal.]
This building has eleven doorways in front, and one at each end, all
having wooden lintels, which have fallen. The two principal rooms are 60
feet long, and from 11 to 13 feet wide. This structure is long and
narrow The arrangement and number of the rooms are shown in the
following ground plan of the building (Figure 37):
[Illustration: Fig. 37.--Ground Plan of Casa del Gobernador]
[Illustration: Fig. 38.--Double-headed Figure, Casa del Gobernador.]
[Illustration: Fig. 39.--Decorations over Doorway, Casa del
Gobernador.]
It stands on the summit of one of the grandest of the terraced
foundations. This foundation, like all the others, is pyramidal. It has
three terraces. The lowest is 3 feet high, 15 wide, and 575 long; the
second is 20 feet high, 275 wide, and 545 long; the third, 19 feet high,
30 wide, and 360 long. Structures formerly existed on the second
terrace, remains of which are visible. At the northwest corner one of
them still shows its dilapidated walls, portions of them being
sufficiently complete to show what they were. This edifice was 94 feet
long and 34 wide. It seems to have been finely finished in a style more
simple than that of the great “casa” on the upper terrace. The figures
of turtles sculptured along the upper edge of the cornice have given it
the current designation, “House of the Turtles.” Sculptured monuments
have been found buried in the soil of the second terrace. The opening of
a small, low mound situated on it brought to view the double-headed
figure shown in No. 38. Figure 39 shows part of the sculptured
decoration over the centre doorway of Casa del Gobernador.
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