Evening Republican, Volume 14, Number 77, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 March 1910 — “FAKE” AZTEC RELICS GENUINE. [ARTICLE]

“FAKE” AZTEC RELICS GENUINE.

: ' I'M yi' 1 '"" 1 _ ■ - Indiana of Mexico City gave Been Selllnv Real Antique* to Toartat*. Tourists and curio buyers in Mexico City have for years been made to believe they were experiencing the exquisite sensation of being humbugged by fake Aztec idol collectors, when in reality they have been fooled all along with the genuine article. This discovery has been made by Prof. William Niven of Cuernavaca and Mexico City, who has given years to the study of the fossilized remains of the ancient inhabitants of Mexico, says an exchange. Mr. Niven has recently discovered the Indians at work in a treasure house of buried Mexican pottery, idols and similar remains some miles west of Mexico City, which they have been marketing on the streets of Mexico City for years. As it has been taken for granted that these objects were modern imitations and prices were cut down in accordance, the Indians have fallen In with the humor and found it more profitable and quicker to let the buyer dr his own sizing up of the antique value of the curio. However, Mr. Niven was surprised to find among the number of such objects purchased by himself several that bole

unmistakable signs of great age. Curious pieces of pottery purchased by him on the streets had become of great hardness, and to show a high degree of petrification that must have required, not centuries, but thousands of years. Questioning the venders he has been shown where they were dug. The place ia some miles west of Tacuba. The diggings show that the Indians have been exploiting the mounds for many years. Skulls have been found that possess peculiar anthropological value, showing a type of people entirely different in the structure and shape of- their skulls from any other before found. Mr. Niven believes that Ahe numerous heads and faces of burned clay represent family portraits and were employed for similar purposes for which photographs are now used.