CLIMATIC CHANGES AND MAYA HISTORY. 229 



such places as Tikal, Copan, and Quirigua. Great temples were erected upon enormous 

 mounds, and public squares were adorned with stelse and altars. The earliest dated monu- 

 ment, according to Morley and Spinden, is Stela 3 at Tikal, to which Morley assigns the 

 date 214 a. d. The next is at Copan, whei'e Stela 15 was erected 37 j'ears later than the 

 Tikal stela. According to Bowditch, however, Quirigua is decidedly older than Copan. 

 He considers that Stela C at Quirigua dates from 75 b. c. and that Stela K, the last stela 

 at that place, bears the date 275 a. d. The monuments at Copan, on the other hand, are 

 held by him to range from Stela 9, 34 A. d., to Stela N, 231 a. d. When Hewett* began to 

 excavate at Quirigua, however, the first temple which he uncovered proved to have been 

 built five years after the erection of the last monument, and other temples may have been 

 erected still later. 



In all of these earlier sites the older monuments are crude and archaic, but the style 

 grows gradually better and apparently culminates at about the time of the erection of the 

 last monuments. During the later part of the period when these great cities flourished 

 in the south of Maya land, many others sprang up in the region farther north, for example, 

 Seibal, Yaxchilan, Piedras Negras, and Palenque. These apparently never reached quite 

 so high a stage of culture as the earlier cities. Their architecture may be more striking, 

 but the carving on the monuments is not so truly refined and skilful. They seem to indicate 

 that toward the close of the period of greatest Maya development there was a gradual 

 northward movement of civilization, accompanied by the beginnings of decline. 



Soon after 600 a. d. according to Morley and Spinden, or after 350 a. d. according to 

 Bowditch, the decHne of Maya civilization culminated in a serious collapse. The southern 

 cities were apparently completely deserted, for as yet we have no evidence of any long 

 occupation after the time of the latest dated inscriptions. Only in northern Yucatan does 

 any semblance of civilization appear to have remained. There Chichen Itza appears to 

 have been founded at about this time, or at least a certain amount of building was going 

 on there, since we have a lintel which bears a date which Morley interprets a=! 603 a d., 

 and which according to Bowditch's system would fall about 350 a. d. Yet even in the 

 north, Maya civilization seems to have been at an extremely low ebb, and there was ap- 

 parently little improvement until almost the beginning of the tenth centurj\ Doubtless 

 many buildings were erected in northern Yucatan during the intervening centuries, but 

 thej^ must have been comparatively unimportant, since scarcely a trace of them has been 

 found. This period may well be called the Dark Ages of Maya history, although a later 

 period, just before the Spanish Conquest, was perhaps equally dark. The Dark Ages were 

 followed by a marked revival. The date of this can not be determined from monuments, 

 but only from the traditional accounts, for the Mayas of the Renaissance, as we may call 

 this period, did not date their monuments and temples with the care used by their an- 

 cestors. Nevertheless, it seems fairly certain that the tenth and eleventh centuries were 

 the time of the erection of the truly remarkable series of great buildings whose ruins even 

 now excite our wonder in northern Yucatan. Chichen Itza was apparently re-established 

 at this time after a period of desertion. Uxmal and Mayapan were also built, and these 

 three cities formed a league. Many other towns, such as Kabah, Labna, Sayal, and Izamal, 

 seem also to have flourished, but we have no traditions of any except Izamal. The archi- 

 tectural remains of this period are to-day the most imposing ruins in any part of the Western 

 Hemisphere. Nevertheless, although they appear more impressive than those of earlier 

 times, they do not represent so high a type of architecture. Stelse and other carved monu- 

 ments, for example, are almost unknown, and easily prepared wooden lintels are substituted 

 for the more laboriously prepared stone type. New ideas are not so abundant as formerly, 

 and the general aspect is that of the revival of an earlier art without its originality. 



*Edgar L. Hewett, Two Seasons' Work in Guatemala, Proceedings of tlie Archieologieal Institute of America, June 

 1911, pp. 117-134. The Third Season'8 Work in Guatemala, ditto, June 1912, pp. 163-171. 



