68 RESEARCH AT THE RUINS OF CHICHEN ITZA, YUCATAN. 



PREVIOUS WORK IN THE MAYA FIELD. 



The archaeological importance of the Maya field was first made known 

 by John L. Stephens, who visited the Central American republics in 1839 

 and 1840, on a special mission from the United States Government. His 

 charming book entitled "Incidents of Travel in Central America, Chiapas and 

 Yucatan" still remains, after the lapse of 75 years, a standard authority on 

 the subject; and, indeed, so far as the purposes of general description are 

 concerned, this book and its sequel, "Incidents of Travel in Yucatan," have 

 never been superseded. 



Following the preliminary work of Stephens, there was a hiatus of nearly 

 fifty years before a real scientific study of this region was undertaken. In the 

 decade 1881-1891, Mr. A. P. Maudslay visited the principal ruin groups pre- 

 viously mentioned, and, through an arrangement with the editors of "The 

 Biologia Centrali Americana," published a superb set of photographs, maps, 

 plans, and drawings of monuments and buildings at these sites. This work is 

 of such a high character that it easily ranks as the greatest single contribution 

 to the study of Maya archaeology. It consists of four volumes of text and 

 some 400 plates. Mr. Maudslay's work, however, was largely of a preliminary 

 character. He did little excavating, but devoted the greater part of his time 

 to surveying and mapping the sites visited, and photographing and making 

 molds of various sculptures. The wealth of material for the study of JNIaya 

 sculpture, architecture, and hierogljq^hic writing, which his work made 

 accessible, gave a tremendous stimulus to Maya archaeology and awakened 

 an interest which is still maintained. 



In 1888 the Peabody Museum of Harvard University entered the Maya 

 field. The first work undertaken bj^ this institution was the exploration of 

 the ruins of Labna in northern Yucatan (Plate 12); this was continued in 

 the two years following and several other sites in the vicinity were explored. 



In 1891 a more ambitious project was inaugurated, namely, the excava- 

 tion of the large ruined city of Copan, in the western part of Honduras. This 

 work was carried on for four years, and during its course much valuable 

 material was obtained. Unfortunately, its discontinuation became necessary 

 in 1895, bringing to a close the most important research ever made in the 

 Maya area and, with one exception, the only intensive study of a large repre- 

 sentative site^ that has yet been undertaken. 



After the discontinuance of the Copan project, the Peabody Museum 

 returned to exploratory work. In 1896 and 1897 the valley of the Uloa 

 River was visited and important collections of pottery were made." In 1899 

 Mr.Teobert Maler,of JNIerida, Y'ucatan,was sent to the Department of Peten, 

 northern Guatemala, where for the next five j'ears he made extensive explora- 

 tions, which, however, were largely prehminary in character. jNIr. jMaler made 



•The results of the various expeditions to Copan were published in "Memoirs of Peabody Museum of 

 American Archa;olog>' and Ethnology," Harv-ard University, vol. i (Nos. 1, 5, and 6), Cambridge, 1896-1902. 

 2 Memoirs of Peabody Museum of American Archajology and Ethnology, Harvard University, vol. i. No. 4. 



