Archeology, Anthropology, etc. 65 



and it closes with a discussion of religions and sacrifices, lists with figures of the 

 gods and their symbols, and a conclusion as to the source of the earliest culture, 

 which seems to have been in Elam, just east of Babylonia, on the Persian Gulf. The 

 main body of the work is devoted to the study of these seals as classified by nation- 

 ality, period, and subject. Almost every page has several illustrations, so that the 

 student of history, civilization, and art has here a body of material and conclu- 

 sions not hitherto accessible to scholars. 



The present volume consists of about 450 quarto pages with over 1,500 drawings, 

 and may be described as an investigation of the earliest art of Babylonia and its 

 later ramifications, showing the sources of that stream of culture which finally 

 overflowed in Greek art and civilization. From that period of perhaps 4000 B. C, 

 long before the use of iron, if not before that of bronze, the course of art and 

 culture and religion is followed as it spreads over Persia on the east and as far as 

 the Mediterranean Sea and Cyprus on the west, including Assyria, the Hittite 

 Empire of Asia Minor, Syria, and Phoenicia. Thus the investigation reaches down 

 to about 600 B. C., when the seal cylinder gave way to seals of other sorts, owing 

 to the growing disuse of clay tablets for writing and the substitution of the simpler 

 cone seal and scaraboid in place of the cylinder. 



No. 108. VAN DEMAN, ESTHER B. The Atrium Vcstce. Octavo, xii-j-47 pages, 



17 plates. Published 1909. Price $1.50. 



This is a careful study of one of the many interesting problems which arise in 

 the study of Roman topography and Roman architecture. The magnificent House 

 of the Vestals was not the work of one period, but was enlarged and beautified 

 during successive epochs, the later builders doing their work in such a way as to fit 

 it, as far as possible, into that of their predecessors, thus producing the impression 

 of a uniform structure. In this monograph the House of the Vestals is considered 

 not as an isolated problem, but in connection with a thorough study of Roman 

 brickwork, and the author has reconstructed the history of the building for the first 

 and second centuries, A. D. 



No. 200. W. H. R. RIVERS, A. E. JENKS, and S. G. MORLEY. Reports upon tht 

 Present Condition and Future Needs of the Science of Anthropology. 

 Quarto, 91 pages, 14 plates. Published 1913. Price $2.00. 



The above volume consists of three elaborate reports upon the present status of 

 the science of Anthropology : one concerning Anthropological Research outside 

 America, by Dr. \V. H. R. Rivers, of Cambridge University; one on the status of 

 this science in the western hemisphere and the Pacific Islands, by Dr. Albert E. 

 Jenks, of the University of Minnesota; and one on the possibilities of archcological 

 research at the ruins of Chichen Itza, Yucatan, by Mr. Sylvanus G. Morley. 



No. 219. MORLEY, SYLVANUS GRISWOLD. The Maya Inscriptions. The Inscriptions 

 of Copan, Honduras. Quarto, 34 plates. In press. 



This volume deals with the hieroglyphic inscriptions of the ancient Maya civili- 

 zation of southern Mexico and northern Central America, and is especially de- 

 voted to a consideration of the inscriptions of Copan, Honduras, one of the largest 

 and oldest centers of the Old Empire. This city flourished during the first five 

 centuries of the Christian Era and is particularly noteworthy for the large number 

 of its hieroglyphic monuments. The texts are presented upon a variety of media: 

 stelae, altars, door-jambs, facades, steps, and stairways. They vary in length from 

 2 glyphs to over 2,000. In fact the longest inscription in the Maya writing is 

 found here the Hieroglyphic Stairway on the western slope of Mound 26, which 

 contains upwards of 2,500 glyphs. Of the 81 texts under observation, which include 

 all now known, 22 were found to belong to The Archaic Period (i. e., from the 

 earliest times down to 9.10.0.0.0, approximately to 360 A. D.) ; 17 to The Middle 

 Period (i. e., from 9.10.0.0.0 to 9.15.0.0.0, approximately 360 to 460 A. D.) ; 

 and 42 to The Great Period (i. e., from 9.15.0.0.0 to 10.2.0.0.0, approximately 

 460 to 600 A. D.). There are many drawings and photographs of heretofore 

 unknown or undescribed inscriptions, and these include a large amount of "new 

 material" here made accessible to students of the Maya hieroglyphic writing for 

 the first time. 



