Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/618

 THOMAS]

��MAUDSLAY'S ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK

��553

��the right bank of the river. The valley at the point where the ruins are found is about a mile and a half in width, margined on each side by a line of hills.

In following Mr Maudslay in his descriptions and numerous and splendid illustrations, photographic and drawn, it soon be- comes apparent to the reader who has studied the works relating to the archeology of Central America and Yucatan, that here we see the culmination of Mayan art and the most advanced step of Central American culture.

Although it will be necessary for the reader, in order to fully understand any description of the ruins, to have Mr Maudslay's plates, or those of the Peabody Museum, before him, yet a general idea of them may be obtained from the outline sketch of the ground plan here given (figure 15). The area inclosed in each of the outlines A t £, C t is elevated in the form of a terrace, from ten to

���Fig. 15 — Outline of the Copan ruins.

��twenty feet high, generally reached by steps from the front (facing portions) and sides (except the eastern side of A, the base of which is washed by the river). D and F are pyramids, and E an elongate ridge, probably the debris of ruined houses. It was

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