346 



CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



is now the Department of Peten at the cities of Seibal, Flores, Tikal, 

 Ucanal, Benque Viejo, Nakum, and Naranjo. 



In the extreme south, at Copan and Quirigua, and in the west from 

 Palenque southeastward, including the long chain of cities on the 

 Usamacintla River (Piedras Negras, El Cayo, Yaxchilan, El Pabell6n, 

 Altar de Sacrificios, and Aguas Calientes) the practice of setting up 

 monuments appears to have ceased by the end of Cycle 10, i. e., 

 10.0.0.0.0; and the inference is reasonable that these centers had 

 either been abandoned outright, or at least had sunk to such a low level 

 of cultural activity as to be incapable of artistic and chronologic expres- 

 sion. Only in the northeastern part of Peten the hght of culture was 

 kept burning for a half century longer, to be extinguished finally by 

 the great exodus which put an end to the Old Empire about the begin- 

 ning of the seventh century A. D. 



The swiftness with which the closing catastrophe fell, whatever may 

 have been its nature, is apparent from the fact that not a single city 

 of the Old Empire has a date later than 10.2.0.0.0, although a number 

 of cities were surely occupied down to this time or twenty years prior 

 thereto. 



ARCHAIC PERIOD 



MIDDLE PERIOD 



GREAT PERIOD 



7IML 



COPAN 



PIED. NEG. 



NARANJO 



EL PAB. 



ALT DE SAC 



VAX HA 



YAXCHILAN 



PALENQUE 



TZENDALES 



ITSIUTE 



QUIRIGUA 



SEIBAL 



na'huu 

 honradez 



EL CAYO 

 LA MAR 

 AGUAS CAL. 

 CANCUEN 

 IXHUN 

 rLORES 

 UCANAL 

 BEN VIEJO 

 QUEN SANTO 

 CHI. ITZA 



•+* 



FlO. 4. — Diagram showing distribution of the new chronological material gathered by The Carnegie Institution 

 Expedition in 1915. New dates are in outline, previously known dates in solid black. 



