FIND BY BRITISH EXPLORERS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 August 1925, Page 4

FIND BY BRITISH EXPLORERS

(liv !•'. A. Milcholl-Hedges in the Daily Mail,") Id'BAAXTt'X. i British llondura-). In my last despatch I stated that we had cleared the jungle from where the "via sm-ra." pa-sing between great pyramids, rose to I lie top of a pyramidal struct tire !TJ feel long by ,'tli feel broad, and extending the other side down an imposing stone stairway. Beyond this we knew nothing, as we were met by the wall of t lie jungle. This we have now cleared, to timl that the stairway led to a vast courtyard. with on the cast side a wall terminating in more pyramids. Across the courtyard due north arises another huge stone stairway, which crosses a lo«. Ilat-toppcd pyramid, the exact replica of the previous one. We have uncovered fourteen more pyramids, and slune-fneed mounds. It is a stupendous sight. How the Maya were ever able to construct a huge city with gigantic odiliccs like Buhaantun fills on;' with wonderment. Many thousands must have been employed, and it most have taken years--probably centuries before it grow to the siy.e we have found i t. A PEBEEGT VAI'I.T. But the greatest mystery of all is how did they quarry their stone used for building? Metal was unknown to the Maya of this period. Their tools were flint and [inrusfone axes, chisels, and flint hammer stones. Yet with these crude and seemingly inefficient tools, from some unknown quarry they removed and shaped millions of beautifully cut blocks of stone with which they Guilt their pyramids, temples, and palaces. On the lolt-hand side of the “via sacra” we have excavated in a. mound and foil ml a cut-stone l>tt rial chamber : the flat top stones, rotten with age. 1m dfallon in. hut the walls are still in excellent preservation. Ten feet beneath the surface we reached the bottom, to find it is a perfect vault, with the flagstones of the floor so beautifully joined that not it crack can he seen. We have tupped this all round. It sounds hollow, so we shall remove the floor shortly, as although this chamber contained nothing, yet it is likely there' is a second one beneath, as the Maya arc known to have built their burial chambers in this fashion.

AW have also excavated Xo 2 Mound among the series which stretches from the river to the main citadel. Here we have again been rewarded by finding the heads of several small figurines. But we are baffled by the fact that one of these appears to belong to the first empire, or earliest Maya period, while others are undoubtedly post-conquest. JADE TX TEETH.

Among human teeth discovered is a front tooth with a quadrangular piece drilled from the cutting edge. It was a custom with the Maya to work a hole in two front teeth, which was filled with a piece of jade or obsidian, while the piece from the cutting edge was removed for ornamental purposes. The Maya always buried with their dead everything they possessed in life; hut in some instances they "killed” ti.e. broke) the objects interned with the body. , Therefore in many burial sites it is impossible to come across a single figurine or piece of pottery perfect. Strangely enough, one never finds the broken portions of the object recovered so that tliev may lit' joined together. They are always missing. and it would seem they arc not buried in the same spot. A few days ago we travelled up the river in ft dug-out three miles to the

west anti, taking our field-glasses, climbed the highest peak in the vicinity, thinking we might obtain, a glimpse of other buildings rising above the jungle. On roaemng the top. to our surprise we found more ruins, probably a temple, and two burial mounds. Wc searched the country carefully with our glasses from this eminence. TWO WHITE PINNACLES. As far as the eye could see stretched an unbroken wall of solid jungle, except in one place, ipiite fifteen mites to the north, where we could make out two glistening while pinnacles towering above the forest. It was impossible at that distance to make out whether they were buildings. V> e shall send out Indians to ettf it trail through and try to discover. There is no record of a white man having penetrated this region.