Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/619

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��J 554 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., i, 1899

\ on these three chief terrace groups that most of the structures

j were built. It is true that the ground between these two ter-

t raced areas (regarding B and C as one), and to the west and

\ south of A, and even to the north of B f C f is dotted with re-

j mains, but they are of comparatively small size, consisting chiefly

\ of detached small or moderate-sized pyramids, buildings, mono-

liths, etc.

The large terrace, A, was evidently the heart of the sacred city, the area on which the chief labor of the native builders and artists was bestowed. As we follow Mr Maudslay while he slowly and laboriously plows his way into the bowels of the ^ forest-covered mounds, viewing in his excellent photographs the

I sights he beheld as the covering of earth and debris was removed,

it is difficult to realize the fact that all this is the work of native ? American artists, and not the crumbling temples and palaces of

J the Orient.

t As typical of the art displayed in the works at this place, Mr

Maudslay's discoveries in one of the so-called temples may briefly be noticed.

In Part I of the plates relating to Copan, following the maps, \ plans, sections, and photographs of the group and separate ruins,

Mr Maudslay begins the detailed illustrations with the temple numbered 11, located on the northwest corner of terrace A, the chief point of interest being the inner doorway. In his explana- tory notes, he says : "To the south of the Great Plaza [the open space between the terraces A and B-C in our figure] there arises [going southward] a broad stairway, which, as it ascends the slope, divides into three separate flights of [stone] steps, each narrowing toward the top. The spaces between the steps ap- peared to have been highly ornamented, and the carving (Plate IX b) had probably fallen from that position. The steps on the right and left lead to level terraces, and the center flight must have led to the temple (No. 11) which stood at a still greater elevation. This building presented the appearance of a formless

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