Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/623

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��558 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [n. s., I. 1899

��f drawings were given to the public that the ornamentation and

X\ inscriptions could be studied critically. While we must bestow

\ on the Peabody Museum the praise for giving, by photographic

illustration, the best general representation of the ruins and the clearest description of the substructures yet produced, we must T. look to Maudslay for the particulars, such as the ornamentation,

3 and above all for the inscriptions.

It is only by means of the Peabody Museum photographic illustrations that those who cannot visit the locality may obtain an idea of the immense amount of labor that must have been expended on the various structures there. From these it would seem that, in addition to the stone in the ruined structures cov- ered by the mounds, almost the entire surface of the terraces, pyramids, and slopes had been covered by wrought stones, many
 * . of them figured. The slopes or rises to the terraces, and even

\ parts of the pyramid slopes, consisted of stone steps, the faces

f* of many of which were covered with carved figures including the

J human form, skulls, heads, hieroglyphics, etc., and where not

t occupied by steps the spaces were covered by wrought stone

<> often ornamented.

•* When we consider that all this work must have been done

i
 * without the aid of beasts of burden, wheeled vehicles, machinery,

I or iron implements, time enters into the problem as an all-


 * ' important factor. The multiplication of hands may account for

' the quarrying, transportation, and laying of the unornamented

stone ; but we cannot suppose a like multiplication of artists pos- sible, hence the necessity of a sufficient time element. If we could adopt the theory advanced by Mr J. T. Goodman in his monograph on The Archaic Maya Inscriptions, which forms one of the volumes of Mr Maudslay *s series, we would have no trouble on the time score.

This author distinguishes the monuments of Palenque, Copan, and Quirigua as " archaic " when compared with those of the peninsula of Yucatan, the structures of the latter region being

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