The Ruins of Tuloom, Yucatan 



THE RECOKD OF A VISIT OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION CENTRAL 



AMERICAN EXPEDITION, IDKi, TO AN IMPORTANT BUT LITTLE 



KNOWN ANCIENT MAYA CITY. TULOOM HAS BEEN 



INACCESSIBLE SINCE 1848 BECAUSE OF 



INDIAN HOSTILITY 



By 8 Y L V A X U S (I R I S W O L D M O R L E Y 



Illustiatiims tvoiii ))hotogr;ii)lis and drawings by the Exjiedition 



THE ruins of Tuloom ^ on the 

 eastern coast of the peninsula 

 of Y^ucatan have long held a 

 peculiar interest, not to say alkire- 

 nient, for the student of Maya archaeol- 

 ogy. Perhaps no other city of this 

 great native American civilization, 

 which flourished during the first fif- 

 teen centuries of the Christian era in 

 Middle America, has been invested 

 with greater mystery, and has at the 

 same time been less known. Only 

 thrice since its discovery in 1843 has 

 this inaccessible spot been visited by 

 scientific parties, and only once — 

 namely, last year — has an expedition 

 succeeded in establishing itself there 

 for more than twenty-four hours. 



The first European notice of Tuloom 

 seems to be that in the itinerary of tlie 

 voyage of Juan de Grijalva to the coast 

 of Y^ucatan, in 1518, written by the 

 chaplain of the expedition, Padre Juan 

 Diaz. In this itinerary, which naively 

 refers to the "Island of Y^ucatan," men- 

 tion is made of a large city on the east 

 coast, w^hich can liardly have been other 

 than Tuloom : "We ran along the 

 coast a day and a night, and the next 

 day toward sunset, we perceived a city 



1 The spelling "Tuluum" is to be preferred on 

 etymological grounds, but "Tuloom" is the gener- 

 ally accepted spelling. Luum in Maya means 

 "land" or "earth" ; and tu. "in" or "to" with the 

 possessive pronoun of the tliird person. Tuluum 

 may mean "In his or its land," a not inappropriate 

 name for a coast city. 



or town so large that Seville would not 

 have appeared more considerable or 

 better. A very large tower [probably 

 the Castillo] was seen there, and on the 

 bank there was a crowd of Indians, who 

 carried two standards which they 

 raised and lowered to signal us to 

 land, but the commander did not 

 wish it."^ 



The first modern notice of the site 

 was that of the American traveler 

 Stephens in 1842, which, as far as gen- 

 eral knowledge was concerned, had all 

 the value of actual discovery. This in- 

 trepid explorer with his fidus Achates, 

 the English artist Catherwood, visited 

 Tuloom, coming thither in a small open 

 boat from the island of Cozumel. 



The results of his visit were given to 

 the world in his highly entertaining 

 Incidents of Travel in Yucatan,^ which 

 (together with the companion volume 

 Incidents of Travel in Central Amer- 

 ica, Chiapas and Yucatan) yet remains, 

 after the lapse of more than three- 

 quarters of a century, the classic on this 

 region. 



He published a map of the site, to- 

 gether with Catherwood's splendid 

 drawings of the principal buildings. 



2 Recueil de Pieces Relatives a la Conquete du 

 Mexique. Voyages, Relations et Memoires origi- 

 naux pour servir S, I'histoire de la decouverte de 

 I'Amerique. Vol. X, p. 11. H. Ternaux Compans. 



3 John Lloj d Stephens. Incidents of Travel in 

 Yucatan. Harper & Brothers, New York, 1843. 

 Chapters XXI and XXIL 



191 



