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Show 'l HISTORIC FIB III I ra conoid j Salt Lake Tribune: One May last, ; month, two miners, while driving a I drift in one of the canyons of Upper Cottonwood, broke into a small cave I of peculiar appearance. Upon closer J examination, the supposed cave was 1 seen to open into a caved passageway, and, after three days' work spent in removing debris, a complex series of j subterranean passages and chambers ,f were exposed. From the number and length of- the workings explored to date, they must have been mined upon ji an extensive scale and throughout a considerable period of time. It will j take some time to thoroughly explore '! these labyrinthic passages, and It Is ) expected that they will disclose arch- t eological data of great value. It was at first thought that ono of l'l the famed lost Spanish mines had I been rediscovered, but later explora- tions have failed to show any trace of Spanish relics. Instead, a large ;? numDer 01 1uu1a.11 luuib ana unpie-j unpie-j ments of flint and stone, as well as of beaten iron and copper, have been -j found, in addition to a remarkable col-; col-; lection of decorated potteries. f, Marble Tablet Found. i The walls of many of the tunnels '; and chambers are decorated with j sculptured reliefs and hieroglyphio Inscriptions, but by far the most in ' terestlng relic found so far is a smooth discolored marble tablet which 3 staod at the entrance of one of the .,! larger chambers. It is completely f covered with remarkable sculptured reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions, and is reproduced in the accompanying accompany-ing plate. The site of this discovery is for the present, being jealously , guarded, and it undoubtedly marks one of the most important archeologi-cal archeologi-cal discovery is all the more remark-' remark-' able in that heretofore no hieroglyhpio inscriptions have been found north of Mexico.- Workings Are Antique. Everything points to the great anil an-il tiquity of these workings and their contents. The Inscriptions are un-I un-I colored and appear to have been in-3 in-3 clsed and picked into the receiving ) stone by quartz and flint implements, 'sj some of which have been preserved. A noteworthy feature of the marble I tablets is the combination of picto- graphs and alphabetic writing. As pictographs are generally conceded - to have preceded and to have origin-y origin-y ated the graphic systems, this tablet ; would appear to date from a period , of v transition from the pictographic to the hieroglyphic art. As noted above I none of the records ever found north of Mexico have contained hierogly-i hierogly-i phlcs. This tablet, therefore, may chronicle an amalgamation of inscriptive inscrip-tive expression between North Ameri-i Ameri-i can and Mexican tribes; or it mayj record the progress of civilization of! an American tribe, rrobably the Utes, although it is possible that other tribes may have come from great dis-' ; tances to obtain the highly prized red metal. 1 Native Copper Abounds. An interesting mineraloglcal feature to be noted is that throughout these : ancient workings, which are at no great distance below the surface, na-J i t-ive conper abounds, in some places! being scattered through the vein rock in small fragments, in others occur- J Ing as chunks of metallic copper, 1 weighing from a pound or two up to SO or 100 pounds. Ordinarily, such a : discovery of copper would create con- siderable excitement, but the wall writings and relics are of such absorb-,; absorb-,; ing Interest, that the copper has been, for a time, relegated to the back- !. ground. It is puzzling how these In- ; dians, with their primitive tools, were able to break up and extract the ex- 2 ceedingly tough chunks of copper. A ) . number of copper implements and ornaments, hammered and incised, have been gathered, as well as diggers, scrapers, arrow heads, and pounding stones. Pottery Being Studied. Various receptacles for food and drink, as well as for earth and ore were uncovered, they being all made of pottery and decorated with geometric geomet-ric figures or with pictographs or hienoglyhpies. This pottery is now being carefully studied, as It is ornamented orna-mented with sympols and characters which may aid in the deciphering ot the stone records. The light grey or black coloring of all the pottery, as well as its crude form, would tend to Indicate its very early origin. In fact, everything connected with the find evidences great antiquity, and the mine apparently was worked at least many centuries before the appearance of the Spaniards In this region. So far, no key to the decipherment is known, but the various inscriptions are being carefully scrutinized and compared, in the hopes that one may be detected. In this search, collabor. atlon Is invited, and should this picture pic-ture reach the eye of anyone familiar with Indian symbols and records, the investigators would be pleased to have their opinions and suggestions regarding its translation. It has long been known that Utah i3 a veritable treasure house of archeo-logical archeo-logical records, but it Is claimed by scientists who have examined this Btone, that it is the most important archeologlcal find ever chronicled in Utah's history. Owing to the intense interest manifested In these discoveries, discover-ies, it was thought best to keep their location Becret, at least until such time as they could be thoroughly explored ex-plored and proper precautions taken to adequately protect them. It is hoped to haye further news of interest within the next day or two as the explorations are being pursued with great avidity. . nn |