Brinton.] ^<4 [Oct. 6, 



Quite different is the opinion of more recent and able archae- 

 ologists. 



In a work published in 1880 the historian of Mexico, Manuel 

 Orozco y Berra, stated that, " without an^^ doubt," the Calendar 

 of the Zapotecs of Oaxaca was the oi'iginal on which were based 

 and from which were developed all the other Calendars of Mex- 

 ico and Central America which had as their fundamental rela- 

 tions the period^ of 13 and 20 da^-s. He founded this conclusion, 

 not on linguistic grounds, but on the moi'e ancient and primitive 

 character of the Calendar as preserved by the Zapotecs.* 



In 1890, consequently ten j-ears later, Dr. E. Seler expressed 

 a similar belief that the Zapotecs were the probable inventors of 

 the Calendar, his reasons being chiefl}^ linguistic and archaeolog- 

 ical, f 



I frankl}' acknowledge that after carefullj- weighing all the 

 evidence brought forward b}' these writers, and much more 

 from m}^ own researches, I have been unable to reach an}^ defi- 

 nite decision on this question ; though from various minor indi- 

 cations I think the probability is in favor of the opinion that it 

 was the invention of that ancient branch of the Mayan stock 

 who inhabited the present States of Chiapas and Tabasco, and 

 left still visible proofs of their remarkable culture in the ruins 

 of Ocozingo and Palenque. 



In the relics from these ancient cities we find a development 

 of art unequaled elsewhere on the American continent ; and to 

 this region the admirable analj'sis of Ma^'an antiquities by Dr. 

 Schellhas inevitably points, J as the scene of the definite begin- 

 nings of that stock's remarkable cultural evolution. 



I have discovered no conclusive or even weightj'^ evidence 

 that we should look to the Zapotecs as the discoverers of the 

 Calendar system ; but I am far from den^^ing the possibility 

 that it may hereafter be adduced. It must be borne in mind, 

 however, that we lack the material for studying the Calendar as 



* Orozco y Berra, Bisloria Antigua dc Mexico, Tomo ii, cap. 1 (Mexico, 1880). M. Eugene 

 Boban. in his Catalogue de la Collection Goupil (Paris, 1892), quotes and directs attention 

 to Orozco's opinion. 



fin the Zcitschrift fiir Elhnologie (Berlin, 1891), and in the Cornpte Sendu of the seventh 

 Congress of Americanists, p. 7;!.3 (Berlin, 1890). I have not observed that he refers to the 

 priority of Orozco y Berra in defending this opinion. 



tSee his article, " Vergleichende Studien anf dem Felde der Maya-AltcrthUmer," in 

 the Internationales Archivfiir Ethnographic, Bd. iii, 1890. 



