Artificial Deformation of the Skull
It was afterward found that the ancient Peruvians and Mexicans practised this art: several flattened Peruvian skulls are depicted in Morton's "Crania Americana." It is still in use among the Flat-head Indians of the north-western part of the United States.
Compare this with the illustration given on page 271, which represents a Peruvian flat-head, copied from Morton's "Ethnography and Archæology of the American Aborigines," 1846.
PERUVIAN SKULL.
It has been shown that this peculiar form of the head was present even in the fœtus of the Peruvian mummies.
242) that the Mound Builders and Peruvians of America, and the Neolithic people of France and the Canary Islands, had alike an extraordinary custom of boring a circular bole in the top of the skulls of their dead, so that the soul might readily pass in and out.
The Bronze Age in Europe
The Toltec root for water is Atl; the Peruvian word for copper is Anti (from which, probably, the Andes derived their name, as there was a province of Anti on their slopes): may it not be that the name of Atlantis is derived from these originals, and signified the copper island, or the copper mountains in the sea?
The Indentity of the Civilizations of the Old World and the New
Among both the Peruvians and Egyptians the walls receded inward, and the doors were narrower at, the top than at the threshold.
The Peruvians called gold the tears of the sun: it was sacred to, the sun, as silver was to the moon.
The Peruvians had public roads, one thousand five hundred to two thousand miles long, made so thoroughly as to elicit the astonishment of the Spaniards.
Humboldt pronounced these Peruvian roads "among the most useful and stupendous works ever executed by man." They built aqueducts for purposes of irrigation some of which were five hundred miles long.
Navigation.--Sailing vessels were known to the Peruvians and the Central Americans.
The Peruvians had such immense numbers of vessels and ornaments of gold that the Inca paid with them a ransom for himself to Pizarro of the value of fifteen million dollars.
The Peruvians believed in the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body, and they too preserved the bodies of their dead by embalming them.
The Peruvians, Mexicans, Central Americans, Egyptians, Phœnicians, and Hebrews each had a powerful hereditary priesthood.
The Phœnicians believed in an evil spirit called Zebub; the Peruvians had a devil called Cupay.
The Peruvians burnt incense in their temples.
The Peruvians, when they sacrificed animals, examined their entrails, and from these prognosticated the future.
The Peruvians believed that men were sometimes metamorphosed into stones.
Both had the institution of marriage, an important part of the ceremony consisting in the joining of hands; both recognized divorce, and the Peruvians and Mexicans established special courts to decide cases of this kind.
Both the Egyptians and the Peruvians held agricultural fairs; both took a census of the people.
The Peruvians renewed every year all the fires of the kingdom from the Temple of the Sun, the new fire being kindled from concave mirrors by the sun's rays.
The Peruvians had theatrical plays.
The Peruvians, Egyptians, and Chaldeans divided the year into twelve months, and the months into lesser divisions of weeks.
The Story of Atlantis
"The ancient Peruvians," says Short, "appear from numerous examples of hair found in their tombs to have been an auburn-haired race."
It may here be noted that while the Mexican empire was for centuries great and powerful in all that is usually regarded as power and greatness in our civilization of to-day, it never reached the height attained by the Peruvians about 14,000 years ago under their Inca sovereigns, for as regards the general well-being of the people, the justice and beneficence of the government, the equitable nature of the land tenure, and the pure and religious life of the inhabitants, the Peruvian empire of those days might be considered a traditional though faint echo of the golden age of the Toltecs on the mother-continent of Atlantis.
The Peruvian llamas of to-day are probably their descendants.
Reference has already been made, under the head of "Emigrations," to the system of land tenure which prevailed during that glorious period of Peruvian history when the Incas held sway about 14,000 years ago.
The Colonies of Atlantis
Aqueducts: The Peruvians built extensive aqueducts, with one stretching 450 miles, showcasing their advanced understanding of hydraulics and engineering.
There are numerous similarities between the Peruvian civilization and ancient European cultures:
Priestly Practices: Similar to Roman augurs, Peruvian priests divined the future by examining the entrails of sacrificed animals.
Architecture and Art: The resemblance between Peruvian and Pelasgian (ancient Greek) architecture is significant, with similar construction techniques and aesthetic styles.
The Pyramid, the cross and the Garden of Eden
It was the symbol of symbols, the mystical Tau, 'the bidden wisdom,' not only of the ancient Egyptians but also of the Chaldeans, Phœnicians, Mexicans, Peruvians, and of every other ancient people commemorated in history, in either hemisphere, and is formed very similarly to our letter T, with a roundlet, or oval, placed immediately above it.
"That Sabian worship once extensively prevailed in the New World is a well-authenticated fact; it is yet practised to some extent by the wandering tribes on the Northern continent, and was the national religion of the Peruvians at the time of the Conquest.
Those accompaniments, however, are disposed without any particular regard to order, but the four arms of the cross, nevertheless, severally and accurately point to the cardinal quarters, The same regularity is observable on a much smaller but not less curious monument, which was discovered some time since in an ancient Peruvian huaca or catacomb--namely, a syrinx or pandean pipe, cut out of a solid mass of lapis ollaris, the sides of which are profusely ornamented, not only with Maltese crosses, but also with other symbols very similar in style to those inscribed on the obelisks of Egypt and on the monoliths of this country.
Artificial Deformation of the Skull
Ancient Peruvians and Mexicans: Many flattened Peruvian skulls are depicted in Morton's "Crania Americana." This practice continues among the Flat-head Indians of the north-western United States.
Peruvian Skulls: Shockingly distorted Peruvian skulls suggest intentional deformation for aesthetic or cultural reasons.
American Evidences of Intercourse with Europe or Atlantis
The ancient Peruvians displayed a range of complexions, with mummies showing light brown hair and fine texture.
Some Peruvian mummies had white skin and auburn hair, similar to European traits.
Turanian, in Ancient Chaldaea.
Peruvian Religion: Simple, joyous sun-worship.
It will be remembered that among the Peruvians the religious cult was a simple but extremely beautiful form of Sun-worship, or rather worship of the Spirit of the Sun ; its tenets were few and clear, and its chief characteristic was its all-pervading spirit of joyousness.
Atlantean Peruvian Civilization
Peruvians excelled in scientific agriculture, using detailed soil analysis and innovative farming techniques.
The Peruvian religion was centered around the worship of the Sun, viewed as the source of all life and power.
It is, then, with this Peruvian revival that we are now concerned.
Our Peruvian had the high cheek-bones and the general shape of face which we associate with the highest type of the Red Indian, and yet he had modifications in its contour which made him almost more Aryan than Atlantean; his expression differed fundamentally from that of most modern Red Men, for it was usually frank, joyous, and mild, and in the higher classes keen intellect and great benevolence frequently showed themselves.
Any one who had so failed would have been regarded as an uncivilised being, unworthy of the high privilege of citizenship in this great Empire of 'The Children of the Sun,' as these early Peruvians called themselves; he would have been looked upon with something of the same horror and pity as was an excommunicated person in mediaeval Europe.
The Peruvian held that the civilised man differed from the savage principally in that he understood and intelligently fulfilled his duties towards the State of which he formed a unit; if a man did not fulfil those duties he at once became a danger to the State, he showed himself unworthy to participate in its benefits, and he was consequently expelled from it, and left to live among the barbarous tribes on the fringes of the Empire.
Indeed, it is perhaps characteristic of the attitude of the Peruvians in this matter that the very word by which these tribes were designated in their language means, when literally translated, 'the lawless ones'.
So excellently suited to the country was this unique arrangement, that the far inferior race which, thousands of years later, conquered and enslaved the degenerate descendants of our Peruvians, endeavoured to carry it on as well as they could, and the admiration of the Spanish invaders was excited by such relics of it as were still in working order at the time of their arrival.
sal as was the undertaking, it was faithfully carried out in spite of all difficulties ; though perhaps even the mighty power of the Peruvian Monarch could not have achieved it, but for the method of concentrating food which was one of the discoveries of his chemists — a method which will be mentioned later.
There is abundant evidence to show that those from whom they inherited their traditions must have been either capable of direct scientific observation, or else in possession of clairvoyant powers which rendered such observation needless ; but neither of these advantages appertained to the Peruvians at the date of our examination of them.
Whales
Scientists have uncovered the fossilized remains of a prehistoric whale, named Perucetus colossus, in a Peruvian desert, which might have been the heaviest animal ever, potentially outweighing even the massive blue whale.
The Chronicle of Akakor
According to the Peruvian archaeologist Daniel Ruiz, the mysterious city of ruins, Machu Picchu, in the high Andes, was founded prior to the worldwide catastrophe that is described as the Flood in the Bible.