Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/624

 thomas] MAUDSLAY'S ARCHEOLOGICAL WORK 559

erected after building in the former regions had ceased. By means of his interpretation of the inscribed glyphs, Mr Good- man estimates the lapse of time between the earliest and latest inscriptions of the " archaic " monuments at 8,383 years, the latest dating back from the present time not less than 2,300 years. This estimate will certainly afford ample time for the builders and artists, especially when we take into consideration the necessary assumption that at the date of the earliest inscrip- tion the Mayas had already reached that stage of culture manifested by their works — that stage from which apparently but little advance was made in the 8,000 years that followed. Yet, strange as it may seem, according to the theory advanced, this culture did not find its way into the peninsula until the close of this period. " We go back," says Mr Goodman, " ten thou- sand years and find them [the Mayas] then civilized. What other tens of thousand years may it have taken them to reach that stage ? From the time of the abrupt termination of their inscriptions [which he places at 2,348 years preceding 1895], when all suddenly became a blank, to that remote first date, the appar- ent gradations in the growth of their civilizations are so gradual as to foreshadow a necessity for their 280,800 recorded years to reach the point of its commencement. Manifestly, we shall have to let out the strap that confines our notion of history." l The last statement is undoubtedly correct if we accept his theory ; and certainly there can be, on this hypothesis, no complaint as to want of time.

Although we must differ in toto with Mr Goodman in regard to the age of the works, we are inclined to agree with him in reference to the cause of the apparently sudden stop in the development of culture among these nations ; that while it may have been due in part to the invasion of savage hordes, the chief cause was domestic war. It is true, as above stated, that at neither Copan nor Palenque are there any indications of war or

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