A VANISHED CIVILISATION

Hokitika Guardian, 26 February 1927, Page 4

A VANISHED CIVILISATION

10 for u number of years it has hcei j known that in the jungles of Yucatai ro and Honduras are the traces of a onci '* l mighty I>nt long vanished civilisation namely, that of the -Mayas. Hut then uas no systematic attempt to investi “■ State until filKi. and operation: A' c “re hampered by the war. Since then U j however, great progress has been math j although much has still to he done. al | prominent part in the work lias hcei or taken hv Dr Thomas Gann, who Inn already written several hooks on tin ’ e subject, and whose “Ancient C'itie: '° and Savage Tribes ” embodies tlu 10 fruits ol the most recent research. IC Ibe Maya civilisation, which passer ~ fc through five phases, dates from about 1 000 ILL. It. seems to have reached its 1 zenith during the first 500 years of the S Kristian era. although it lingered on SS "for another 1.000 years. At the time ie when the Western Roman Empire was falling to pieces, a magnificent Ameri--1 can Empire was at the height of its glory in the south-western marches of th<' modern Mexico. This region, now overgrown with dense tropical forest, 1 had been cleared and put under intenc sive cultivation. Great cities flourished ’ on every side. Lofty pyramids, s temples, and splendid palaces of cut stone, spacious plazas ami courts filled. 1 with elaborately-carved monuments of strange yet imposing dignity, marketplaces, terraces, causeways, were to he counted not by ten or scores, but by hundreds and thousands. It is not improbable, indeed, that this was one of the most thickly-populated areas of its size in the world during the first five centuries of our era. The Maya civilisation, with tlie cruelty characteristic of other American cultures, such as the Incan and the Aztec, indulged in human sacrifice. Rut in many respects it was most enlightened. It excelled in architecture and astronomy. The acropolis of the great city of Copaii. for example, is a I city in itself, an immense complicated j mass of courts, corridors, and stairnays which, during the 400 years’ occupancy of the city, was continually enlarged and built upon until the original structure was 114 feet below the level of the top. The buildings, when complete. were signed by the architect, who dipped his hand in reel paint and i left the imprint on the wall. So clear i are the convolutions of the fingers that : if the signatories were to come to life j again they would easily be identified. The astronomer-priests evolved a sc-ien- ( tific calendar, in which the equinoxes t were the crucial dates. Their system of reckoning has been elucidated and the inscriptions on the stelas or pillars read. Thus the date one on of them corresponds to September 6, .192 A.D, J

and there are many others which can he translated with absolute certainty.

On hilltops outside C'opnn monoliths are arranged in such a way as to form a gigantic- sun-dial, four and a half miles in diameter. While the Mayan mathematical notaion has yielded its secret, the writing remains a mystery. The monuments bear, in addition to the inscription j

which signifies the date of erection, innumerable hieroglyphs which have not yet been deciphered. No doubt they relate to wars, dynastic changes, and other important incidents, but we cannot tell. That is the irritating thing about these ancient cities. They give so much yet withhold so much more. “ Although we have the perfect skeleton of Maya history for almost 2000 years, we are unable to clothe the bare bones of dates with the living flesh of historical events. It is very much as if a history of England from the Roman invasion were inscribed on a series of monoliths, the dates written in modern English, the historical events in early Anglo-Saxon, and presented to a model schoolboy to study.” So these mighty ruins lie silent and abandoned, tenanted only by the beasts of the jungle. Gone is the proud race which once inhabited them; forgotten is even the tradition of their greatness.