THE PROBLEMS OF ARCHEOLOGY 533 



Landa, the oldest chronicler of Yucatan, we had learned to know 

 the hieroglyphics of the twenty signs for days and the eighteen 

 for the so-called months, or periods of twenty days (uinal). The 

 further example, given by Landa, of a real hieroglyphic character 

 by which Brasseur de Bourbourg and others believed they could 

 read the hieroglyphic texts, has proved to be a mystification, or 

 an attempt made in later and Christian times, from which nothing 

 was to be gained for the understanding of the old texts. More 

 recently, Schultz-Sellack and De Rosny identified the hieroglyphs 

 of the signs of the zodiac. Forstemann, with the insight of genius, 

 got hold of the numeral system and the characters used for it in 

 the Maya manuscripts, and gave us the hieroglyph of Venus; and 

 Schellhas established a number of the hieroglyphs of the gods. 

 I have myself shown the essential identity of the day-signs used 

 by the Maya and in Mexico, the hieroglyphic designations of the 

 colors and other elements, as well as a number of further hiero- 

 glyphs of the gods and the symbols which accompany them. But 

 that we are able to-day to recognize at the head of the hieroglyphic 

 columns the numeral products which give the distance of the fol- 

 lowing date from the original initial date demonstrated by Forste- 

 mann, four ahau, eight cumku, and that in consequence we are 

 able to fix the chronological order of the whole series of monu- 

 ments: this has been rendered possible by the labors of Alfred 

 P. Maudslay, through the synopsis of the "initial series" which 

 he has given on a page of his splendid book on the monuments 

 of Copan in Honduras. 



But archeology is especially needed to fill out the gaps left by 

 historical tradition. The early historians, especially the conquer- 

 ing Spaniards, occupied themselves principally with the tribe 

 which at the time of the conquest held the headship. Of the other 

 tribes, their past, their frequently quite distinct material and so- 

 cial civilization, only comparatively scanty accounts have been 

 preserved. The filling-out of these gaps is only to be hoped from 

 archeology, which has already made very promising beginnings. 

 In the central portion of the state of Vera Cruz the excavations 

 of Dr. Hermann Strebel have permitted us to recognize two en- 

 tirely distinct civilizations, one of which, the Cerro Montoso type, 

 is indisputably allied to the artistic style of the highland Mexi- 

 cans of the Cholula district, while the other, the Ranchito de las 

 Animas type, shows, both in material and technique and in orna- 

 mentation, a totally distinct form, betraying a specially aborig- 

 inal element. Archeology thus confirms the assertions of history 

 in regard to the extension of the highland race of Chichimos, a race 

 of Mexican speech, into the coast-strip inhabited by the Totonacs. 

 In like manner, further north, my wife and I found a settlement 



