82 RESEARCH AT THE RUINS OF CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATAN. 



mate, the number of laborers employed in the excavations, as well as the 

 length of the annual field season, are all-important factors. The above esti- 

 mate of time is based on an annual field season of five months, and on a 

 working force of fifty laborers. 



In conclusion the writer believes that, as a result of the work outlined, it 

 will be possible not only to treat this particular site monographically, but 

 also to establish the larger part of the truth concerning the whole Maya 

 civilization. 



CONCLUSION. 



It is the writer's belief that no other archaeological field in the New 

 World offers such rich promise as the region occupied by the ancient Maya, 

 and, at the same time, no equally important field has been so inadequately 

 studied. An attempt has been made to show briefly in the preceding pages 

 that the Maya were the most highlj^ civilized aboriginal people in the two 

 Americas; that their recorded history covered a range exceeding a thousand 

 years before the Spanish Conquest; and, finally, that, notwithstanding its 

 archseological importance, this civilization has been the subject of very little 

 intensive study. The few exceptions noted, especially the work of Mr. A. P. 

 Maudslay and the Peabody Museum of Harvard University, are the more 

 conspicuous because they stand alone. It is generally recognized that the 

 most pressing need of Maj^a archaeology^ is intensive research at some repre- 

 sentative site through a period of j'ears. The site best fitted for such research 

 is, in the writer's opinion, the great ruin group of Chichen Itza in northern 

 Yucatan. The various reasons, practical as well as scientific, which have 

 led him to this conclusion, have been set forth at some length, and thej'' con- 

 stitute, it is believed, a strong argument for selecting Chichen Itza in prefer- 

 ence to any other Maya site. The character this investigation should assume, 

 together with its ultimate scope, has been described in detail with a brief 

 word respecting the nature of the results which may reasonably be expected. 

 Finally, the period of time that would be required to produce results worthy 

 of the endeavors of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has been judged 

 to be about twenty years. 



