elic exhibits the image of a
monstrous face surrounded by a band with subdivisions containing various
signs. The plaque was looked upon by its owner as a Calendar, but Sir
Clements Markham, after studying its subdivisions with a view of
ascertaining their agreement with the twelve divisions of the Peruvian
year, preferred to let his notes on the subject remain unpublished, not
having come to a satisfactory conclusion on the subject. I am permitted,
however, to state that Sir Clements Markham specially noted the
resemblance of a sign, which is represented on the cheeks of the central
figure and recurs four times on the encircling band, to the well-known
Maya glyph ahau=chief, lord.

[Illustration.]

Figure 50.

It is, indeed, a cursive representation of a human head and moreover
resembles those figured on the garment of a gigantic red sandstone statue
found at Ak-Kapana and figured in Stuebel and Uhle's Tiahuanaco. On this
garment the heads alternate with squares and form a close design. This
resemblance between the conventional faces on this archaic statue and
those on the gold plaque has made me attach more importance to the latter
and at all events regard it as preserving ancient native symbolism. In
connection with these I wish to point out that the plaque itself offers a
certain resemblance to well-known Mexican calendars, the centre of which
usually exhibits a face which is surrounded by a band with day or month
signs. It is remarkable that above each eye there are four dots,
especially as the Quechua word for eye=naui is homonymous with the Nahuatl
numeral four=nahui, and this is so constantly associated with an eye in
the Mexican sign Nahui ollin=four movements (_cf._ fig. 2). As strange a
coincidence as this is furnished by the mark on the forehead of the image,
not because the latter resembles the sect mark of the Vishnu worshippers,
but because it offers a marked analogy to the Mexican Acatl sign which is
frequently carved or painted as a cane standing in a square receptacle
with recurved ends. I am strongly tempted to interpret this symbol
according to the native mode of thought, as signifying the centre, the
union of the Above and Below and to regard the upper part of the face
itself as a representation of the Above, the heaven, with its two eyes
(the Moon and Sun), whilst the lower part and teeth, as in Mexico,
signified the Below, the earth a