354 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1949 
Close to the border, in Chiapas, are Yaxchilan, Palenque, as well as 
Bonampak, whose remarkable mural paintings have been recorded by 
Sr. Antonio Tejeda F. and the Mexican artist Villagra. According to 
the evidence now available, the brilliant Classic Maya civilization 
had its origin in north-central Peten and spread outward from that 
center. 
in spite of the extreme difficulty of travel in its dense tropical jungles, 
the archeology of Peten is better known than that of any other part 
of Guatemala. This is of course due to the presence there of the 
above-mentioned and many other Classic Maya sites whose spectacular 
ruined temples and wealth of hieroglyphically inscribed stelae have, 
until very recently, almost monopolized the attention of students. 
More excavation has also been carried on there—particularly at 
Piedras Negras and Uaxactun—than in all the rest of the Republic. 
Nevertheless, a vast amount remains to be done. Many important 
cities doubtless still await discovery in the vast forests; others, already 
located, have only superficially been studied. Work anywhere in 
Peten would be valuable, but certain specific investigations are ur- 
gently needed. The search for and exploitation of Archaic and pre- 
Archaic remains has already been mentioned. Among the Classic 
sites, Altar de Sacrificios, a very large and evidently long-occupied 
city, especially calls for attention because of its situation at the junc- 
tion of the Pasion and Salinas Rivers, which makes it probable that 
it received trade from north-central Peten, from the Usumacinta 
cities, and, via the Salinas drainage, from the highlands. Excavations 
at Altar de Sacrificios should yield much-needed information as to 
cultural and chronological relations between the various lowland 
Classic centers and between them and various centers in Quiche, 
Huehuetenango, and Alta Verapaz. Another strategic point is Lake 
Peten where, at Tayasal, are Classic ruins and where, presumably on 
the present site of modern Flores, the Itza remained independent and 
practiced the ancient Maya culture until the end of the seventeenth 
century. 
It is to be hoped that Tikal may some day be cleared and main- 
tained as a national park. This city, as has been said, was the greatest 
of all Maya cities. Its scores and scores of structures of all sorts, 
many in remarkably good preservation, are dominated by steep and 
towering pyramids, each crowned by a tall roof-combed temple. If 
sufficient vegetation were removed to render the buildings visible— 
they are now literally buried in dense bush—and if a landing field 
were provided, Tikal would become one of the world’s most famous 
monuments of antiquity. And judging by the wealth of fine specimens 
found at nearby Uaxactun, which was really little more than a suburb, 
the material to be recovered from tombs and caches of Tikal would be 
