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Show 22o BASIS OP AMERICAN HISTORY [ iSoo great niches of the canon walls, with the overhanging cliflfs to give protection and incidentally to preserve the ruins. JThere is good evidence that they are no older in type than the Pueblo houses of to- day, and that they were contemporaneous with the villages built on the flats. It is also thought by some writers that the peculiar elevated sites were not chosen primarily for purposes of defence, but simply as affording favorable lookout places during the seasons when the fields were in cultivation. Doubtless both considerations contributed to the choice of site. ^ - The massive architectural remains of Mexico and Central America can only be mentioned. They unquestionably mark the apex of Indian development, and their magnificence has led to very wrong ideas as to the general level of culture to which the Aztec and their neighbors had attained. Some of these Central American structures were of enormous size, a thousand feet or more in ground diameter and as much as two hundred feet high. They were built of large blocks of stone, laid in mortar, and finished in various ways. It is a remarkable fact that with this skill in construction the principle of the arch was never used. There can be no doubt that in the local form of Indian houses, the continent over, social organization had a determining influence. 1 The type of construction may have been the result of physical en- 1 Morgan, Houses and House Life. |