ARCHEOLOGY. 



Morley, Sylvanus G., Santa Fe, New Mexico. Research Associate in American 

 Archeology. (For previous report see Year Book No. 13.) 



In December 1914 Mr. Morley submitted a report to the President 

 suggesting the advisabihty of further field work at certain centers of 

 the Maya civilization, notably La Honradez and Cancuen in northern 

 Guatemala and Copan in western Honduras, before the publication of 

 his report on the Maya hieroglyphic inscriptions then in course of 

 preparation. This report having been approved, he came to Washing- 

 ton in January to arrange the details of the trip and to secure the 

 necessary outfit therefor. It was planned that he should visit the three 

 sites mentioned (and such others as he deemed pertinent to the object of 

 the research) ; and that he should secure whatever additional data might 

 be necessary for a complete presentation of their hieroglyphic texts. 



In execution of this plan, Mr. Morley sailed from New Orleans for 

 Belize, British Honduras, early in February, accompanied by Mr. J. P. 

 Adams as assistant. 



The itinerary followed is shown in plate 3. It divides conveniently 

 into three parts, the objective in each case being one of the three sites 

 mentioned above. 



The first trip from Behze to the ruins of La Honradez and return 

 took three weeks. The route lay at first up the Belize River to El 

 Cayo, and thence northwestward through the dense tropical forests 

 of northern Guatemala to La Honradez. The country is virtually a 

 trackless jungle, the only inhabitants being a few mahogany cutters 

 and chicle bleeders. The operations of the former are confined 

 exclusively to the inomediate vicinities of the few navigable streams, 

 but the latter have traversed the bush hinterland in every direction 

 in search of chicle, the principal ingredient of chewing-gum. Indeed, 

 it is chiefly due to the activities of the chiclero that new archeological 

 sites are discovered from time to time and that the intensive study of 

 the antiquities of the region is made possible. 



The second trip, to the ruins of Copan in the western part of Hon- 

 duras, lay in a different direction. On March 15 the expedition sailed 

 from Belize for Puerto Barrios, Guatemala, thence by rail inland to 

 Zacapa, thence by mule-train two days' journey eastward to Copan. 

 (See plate 3.) This region is entirely different in character from the 

 densely forested, gently rolhng plains of northern Guatemala. It is 

 traversed by ranges of high mountains, whose steeply sloping sides and 

 the valleys at their feet are all cleared and under cultivation, chiefly 

 in coffee. Much tobacco is also grown, the Copan Valley, in which the 

 ruins are located, being particularly famed for the superior quaUty of 

 its leaf, said to equal that of the finest Havana tobacco. This site 



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