THE KANSAS CITY JOURNAL MONDAY, OCTOBER

12, 1896.
PREHISTORIC MAN.
THE HUMAN RACES AND ITS DISPERSIONS.
How Long Has the Earth Been Peopled and When
and Where Was the Beginning

The article, "A Prehistoric Battle," which appeared in April last, has called out many letters of inquiry.
Time would not allow individual answers, so this attempt must suffice for all Inquirers "up to date."
During the past ten years many phases of this subject have been discussed through the columns of the
Journal. But ln order to bring the facts before the minds of readers that they may the more fully
appreciate the subject, it will be necessary to use some of the data that have appeared during the past
years. The exact time and place of man's first appearance on the earth will probably never be known to
a certainty. So far as known, no recognized authority has ever attempted to give us any light on this part
of the subject. Individual writers frequently arrange a few isolated facts, or supposed facts, into a
sequence for the sole purpose of proving this or that theory. Nine-tent- of them have assumed that man
originated in Southern or Southwestern Asia. There is absolutely nothing to prove the assumption. It is
much more probable that man originated ln the present , North frigid zone. The earth first cooled within
this zone. Within It are found the remains of tropical plants and animals. The elephant, rhinoceros and
many other tropical animals were once abundant in Siberia, Lapland and Alaska. One thing is certain,
man retreated from the North as the ice of the glacial epoch gradually moved towards the South. It is
not necessary to go more than fourteen miles from Kansas City to prove this. In a bed of glacial drift near
Courtney, In this county Jackson are relics that show the handiwork of man. These relics are not
abundant, but several have been found near the middle of the deposit. Among these may" be
mentioned a rude, unpolished chert, or flint, pipe. If you were to find a mound of earth and also find an
old shoe or a fragment of pottery within or under it, you would be forced to conclude that man existed
before this mound was built. Here are relics of man within it. Now this is what we are forced to conclude
with regard to many of the glacial deposits found throughout the north half of the Northern
hemisphere. In the vicinity of Kansas City are numerous glacial deposits principally sand and, gravel.
What are the proofs that they are truly glacial? They contain granite, syenite, quartzite and many other
"mountain" rocks, that do not occur at Kansas City, nor within hundreds of miles of it Nearly every
deposit is rich in free gold, but the gold has been triturated so fine from its long Journey that it Is, not
practicable to mine it. The deposit mentioned above fourteen miles east of the city yields from $1.50 to
$2 per cubic yard. Some of the glacial deposits of Howard county seventy miles east of here yield twice
as much gold. During Governor Woodson's administration in the '70s our legislature appropriated
$3,000 which the geological survey used In testing these deposits for gold. Again, these deposits contain
an occasional piece of catlinite, the famous Indian pipe stone, which is found at only one place in the
world, and that Is several hundred miles north of Kansas City. In fact, there is ample proof that these
deposits are of glacial origin, and that man existed before these deposits were made and consequently
before the glacial epoch. When was the glacial epoch? The Southern hemisphere is now going through a
glacial' epoch. There have been many such epoch's. They alternate between the Northern and Southern
hemispheres. The precession of the equinoxes from year to year is such that one portion of the earth
either in the extreme north or south is gradually turned away from the sun and becomes glaciated. This
precession causes a cycle in 28,600 years and a grand cycle in from 286,000 to 411,000 years. During
one of these grand cycles there will be a glacial epoch or ice period In each hemisphere around its polar
region and extending from one-ha- lf to one-thi- rd of the distance from Its pole to the equator. The
deposits near Kansas City were no doubt made during the last glacial epoch in the Northern hemisphere.
According to the calculations of astron omersand they do not differ much the last glacial epoch In this
part of the world commenced about 241,000 years ago and ended about 81,000 years ago. Man has
lived, then. In this locality, not less than er of a million 250,000 years! In Switzerland and some other
parts of Europe he has lived equally as long. I have examined thousands of rude flint or chert knives
collected in Europe. Australia and throughout the United States. Strange to say, they show from eight to
ten characteristics in common. My friend, Mr. T.J.Tidswell, of Independence, Mo..dls-covere- d most of
these similarities. I have added two or three since he first called my 'attention to them nine years ago.
This discovery, and scores of others thaj might be correlated with It. prove the unity of the human race.
Under similar conditions man has produced like results from Siberia to Patagonia, and from Australia to
Alaska. The earliest races were no doubt nomadic and never became sufficiently centralized until after
the last glacial epoch to enable any of them to attain a very high, degree of civilization. t Prior to that
time, so far as discovered, they produced no polished tools nor Implements. They attempted nothing
that indicates a high order of intellect. Before the glacial epoch there does not seem to have been any
focal point at which the probably scattered tribes ever collected themselves. It is doubtful whether fire
had come into general use. From the condition of the bones of animals that have .been found ln close
proximity to human remains, and relics in some of the caves of Europe, It is inferred that al man ate
much animal food and that it was devoured in a raw state. After the ice age there seems to have been a
number of centers of civilization. It is probable that there have been dozens and scores of dispersing
points from which emigration has diverged and overrun a considerable portion of the habitable world.
After correlating all data that have been made public to the present time, the conclusion Is unavoidable
that the oldest civilization was in Yucatan and Central America. Future discoveries may change this
conclusion. It seems that Egypt was first peopled by immigrants from Yucatan. Space will allow only a
few facts that clearly indicate the truth of this assertion. First The pyramids of Yucatan are some of them
much larger than any found ln. Egypt that of Cheops not excepted. Second The pyramids of Egypt bear
structural evidences of having been modeled on those of Yucatan notably, of the one at Coloma, which
covers twenty-thre- e acres. Third The early Egyptians and the Mayas of Yucatan; had the same system
of reckoning time, but the Mayas developed a system that was far superior and which antedates that of
Egypt. Fourth The Mayas manufactured a cement that was of the same material as that, of ancient
Egypt. Fifth The architecture of Yucatan Is of the same general type as that of ancient Egypt, but it is
finer and seems to have been the model that the Egyptians attempted to imitate. Sixth The art of both
countries, as displayed in their ceramics and architecture, is of the same type or school that of Yucatan
being much more highly developed. Other facts could be easily given, but let these for the present
suffice. As the race dispersed from Yucatan, many arts were lost, and finally civilization became
practically a thing of the past.' The Mayas being sun worshipers as were nearly or quite all of the most
ancient races much attention was given to astronomy. This science was highly developed. They left a
splendid literature, most of which was destroyed by the Spaniards at the time of and immediately after
the conquest of 1510-152-L But much remains today. From what survives, we learn that these ancient
people based their historical epochs on astronomical phenomena. A certain thing occurred so many
days before or after a total eclipse of the sun, which was on a given day, year and hour. ' Astronomers of
y can calculate these eclipses and verify these historical data. They say that these eclipses occurred on--
the days and hours mentioned and that they were visible in Yucatan! Now, there is a connected, written
history of the country that reaches back about 9,700 years. Back of this ore many Interesting traditions,
and some glimpses of a splendid mythology. According to one of these traditions, a portion of the Mayas
about 40,000 years ago rebelled against the ruling king, and finally withdrew to the north. This branch
seems to have passed along the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and to have reached Louisiana and the
lower Mississippi valley, between 30,000 and 33.-0- 00 years ago. Space will allow but little ln the way of
proof of this last assertion. A few years ago some cassions were sunk for bridge piers, on Bayou la
Fourche. Louisiana. At a depth of about sixty-two feet, some graves were uncovered. They had been
made on the sandy beach of the Gulf of Mexico and had been covered with oyster shells. The present
coast is about 110 miles from that point. The average thickness of the fresh water mud, so far as
surveyed, it’s not less than forty feet from this point to the Gulf coast. Taking the average amount of
solid matter mud that has annually passed down the Mississippi" river to form these delta and Gulf plain
and we have a measuring unit. United States government observations made dally since 1S72 If I
remember correctly gives the annual amount at 57,872,000 cubic yards per year. By this unit, these
graves are at least 29,000 years old. From the Lower Mississippi these people spread over much of the
central portions of the North American continent, especially throughout the valleys of the Ohio and
Mississippi and the Lake region. They seem to have been the original "mound-builders- ." Many
thousands of years after they left Yucatan there was another great efflux of people from Yucatan that
passed north through the center of the continent. From, these last descended the Toltecs, Aztecs and
their modern successors, the Pueblos, Zunis, Moquis, etc. This last wave rolled on towards the north
until It met the reflux wave from the mound-builder" settlements further north, and then a terrible war
was waged. At some future time, perhaps, I shall discuss this war and the evidences of it still in
existence. I hope to be able to call attention to many of the achievements of the ancient Aztecs and their
contemporaries who constituted the principal element in the wave of emigration last above mentioned.
For many of the facts pertaining to the Mayas of Yucatan I am indebted to Flongon, who has lived and
observed in that country most of the time since 1874. So far as many of the relics and other data are
concerned, I have observed them for myself. The facts are, there are literature, arts and sciences that
have left their evidences in North America that are more ancient and more worthy of careful study than
any of that afforded by either ancient Greece or Rome. The time will come when a classical education
will include this study. The late discoveries of the clay tablets under the foundations of Ninevah prove
that In our study of history we have commenced a long way from the beginning. These tablets are in the
possession if I remember correctly of the University of Pennsylvania. They give dates that reach back
between 9.000 and 10,000 years. Hundreds- of these tablets were found and brought to America since
the beginning of the current year. EDWIN WALTERS