10 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



It must depend also upon the significance of such needs in contrast to 

 the requirements of other researches conducted by the Institution, 

 which already indicate quite definitely that they are giving returns 

 of large value to science. 



During the season of 1924 the Tortugas Laboratory should be open 

 with provision for a number of interesting studies already proposed. 

 The remoteness of the station from centers of active research and 

 the diflSculty of holding the quarters available through the entire year 

 have constituted a considerable handicap in planning wider use of the 

 Laboratory. So far as it is possible, the facilities at our command 

 are being made fully available. 



In the course of the past ten years numerous exploration parties 

 sent out by the Institution have made studies of remains represent- 

 ing the ancient Maya civilization which extended from 

 ^"■ffitto^"*^^ southern Mexico through Guatemala. As this work 

 advanced it became clear that the initial reconnais- 

 sance should be followed by intensive research on important sites or 

 cities in which the principal phases of Maya culture could be investi- 

 gated to best advantage. 



In order to secure an understanding of the conditions under which 

 such work might be conducted, the President of the Institution visited 

 Yucatan early in the past year in company with General Wm. Barclay 

 Parsons, of the Board of Trustees, and S. G. Morley, Associate in 

 Middle American Archaeology in the Institution. Subsequently the 

 President and Dr. Morley visited the City of Mexico in order to 

 confer with officials of the Federal Government relative to these 

 investigations. As a result of these visits and conferences the Mexican 

 Government has courteously extended to the Institution the privilege 

 of entering upon a ten-year program of investigation in Yucatan, at 

 Chichen Itza, a large and important Maj'^a city with a history extend- 

 ing over at least a thousand years. The initial steps for carrying out 

 this study have already been taken by the Institution and active work 

 on the site is planned for January 1924. 



The plan of study of Chichen Itzd concerns the broader problem of 

 early American history as it can be interpreted through the Maya 

 civilization. Along with specifically archseological investigations 

 touching the history of engineering, architecture, art, and the strati- 

 graphic sequence of cultures, the researches will include a study of the 

 physical characters of the race and of the environment in which it 

 developed. In order to understand these people as they lived and to 

 secure information concerning their industries and their agriculture, 

 it is necessary to know the limitations imposed by geological, climato- 



