Capitol of a rectangular column — lower chamber of the Temple 

 of the Jaguars. The design shows a grotesque face surrounded by 

 three hiunan figures. The man at the top bears a head-dress of 

 leaves and flowers and holds flowering branches in his hand 



Sculptured column. Temple of the Tables. The 

 use of squaro and round columns at Chichen Itza, 

 transforming the outer room of the temple into an 

 open portico, is a great advance over the simple 

 doorways of the earlier Maya buildings 



30 



Mexico under his stand- 

 ard. These men have 

 Nahua names. In all 

 probability the con- 

 quered city was given 

 over to them as the 

 spoils of war at the 

 end of the long contest. 

 After this however, 

 there seems to have 

 been little in the way 

 of peace. Civil wars 

 rent the land and while 

 we cannot put an exact 

 date on the final fall and 

 abandonment of Chi- 

 chen Itza and Uxmal it 

 is probable that these 

 events occurred somewhere in the four- 

 teenth centur}'. Mayapan, the last city 

 to survive, fell in 1442, almost exactly a 

 hundred years before the Spaniards made 

 their first permanent settlement at 

 Merida. 



When we try to arrange the buildings 

 of Chichen Itza in their proper order of 

 erection, it is remarkable that so many 

 of the finest structures clearly belong 

 to this last short period when the city 

 was in the hands of foreign rulers from 

 the distant Mexican highlands. It is 

 unlikely that a single structure of the 

 first occupation of Chichen Itza will be 

 found in a good state of preservation. 

 The stone with the early date that has 

 already received comment is a lintel 

 that was probably taken from an old 

 l)uilding and is reused in a later one. 

 There are, however, a number of struc- 

 tures that probably date from the second 

 occupation when Chichen Itza was a 

 purely Maya center. The Akat'cib 

 and the Casa Colorada are Maya struc- 

 tures without a trace of foreign influence. 

 Most of the Monjas Group is also Maya 

 without modification. The Castillo, the 

 Temple of the High Priest's Grave, the 



