302 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
Pacific coast. In Peten, also, Archaic remains have been found: the 
Mamom phase and the somewhat younger Chicanel of Uaxactun. 
These are of special interest because before their discovery it was 
generally believed that advanced culture had developed in the high- 
lands and had not worked its way into the lowland jungles until a 
relatively late date. Now, however, it appears that Mamom may be 
even older than anything so far known in the highlands, for the closest 
resemblances between the Peten Archaic and that of the highlands 
are on the Chicanel, rather than the Mamom horizon. ‘This raises the 
possibility that the beginnings of higher civilization may have to be 
sought in Peten. This will be no easy task because of the difficulty of 
getting about in that area and the practical impossibility of locating, 
in the dense tropical undergrowth, any archeological site not marked 
by mounds or stone structures, which, in all probability, were not 
erected by the first agriculturists. The Mamom and Chicanel 
deposits at Uaxactun would, for example, never have come to light 
had attention not been called to the site by the presence of its Classic 
Maya buildings. 
Nothing earlier than Mamom apparently exists at Uaxactun but 
even more ancient remains may well exist at some of the many other 
ruined cities of Peten and no excavation at any one of them should 
be considered complete until pits have been sunk to bedrock in plazas 
and other places where possibly early refuse might have accumu- 
lated. It is difficult to choose any specific district for investigations 
looking to the discovery of lowland pre-Archaic, but one would sup- 
pose that the shores of the many lakes of Peten and the banks of 
such great rivers as the Usumacinta and Pasion would be promising 
locations. 
To return to the Archaic proper, far too little is known of Mira- 
flores or Salcaja; and Mamom and Chicanel are represented by 
materials from but a single site. More data are needed, both in 
the way of specimens and in the matter of distribution. As to the 
archeology of great stretches of country we are entirely ignorant. 
It is nevertheless becoming increasingly clear that the Archaic cultures 
were considerably more advanced than was formerly supposed. The 
people of that time were skilled potters and stone workers, they had 
already developed social and economic systems under which it was 
possible to carry out great communal undertakings. As evidence of 
this are a number of very large mounds at Kaminaljuyu that are 
certainly of Miraflores date and one on Finca Arizona near Puerto 
San Jose in the summit of which were found Miraflores tombs. Tem- 
ple E-VII-sub at Uaxactun is believed to be a Chicanel structure. 
We must also believe that the remarkable hieroglyphic and calendrical 
systems of the Maya were evolved during the Archaic, for when the 
oldest dated stelae were erected at the beginning of the Classic Period, 
