ARCHEOLOGY. 



17 



among which are the sun god and tlie god of 

 t, are found in the jiaintii | 



The Hill Caves of Yucatan. The results of 

 only partly completed explorations of the hill caves 

 of Yucatan l>y Henry ('. MiTcer, as suininarized by 

 him at the close of his published volume on the 

 subject, point to the conclusions "that no earlier 

 inhabitant had preceded the building of the 

 ruined cities" there: "that the people in the 

 ad reached the country in geologically 

 : and that " ;>K-. sub- 



stantially the ancestors of the present Maya '' 

 Indians, had not developed their culture in 

 Yucatan, but had brought it with them from 

 somewhere 



Survey of C'opan. A preliminary account of 

 the ruins of Copan. Honduras, from the field note? 

 of Marshall H. Saville. John S. Owens, and << 

 Byron Gordon, lias been published by the Peabody 

 urn of American Arclut-ology and Ethnology. 

 The work has been carried on in co-operation with 

 Mr. Alfred P. Maudsley. of London, who had al- 

 ready made extensive explorations at Copan and 

 begun the publication of his results, and his no- 

 menclature has been adopted. The present publi- 

 cation is intended to give only a general descrip- 

 tion of the ruins and a summary of the work of the 

 .d museum expeditions to Honduras from 1S91 

 to lMi~>. It is to be followed by special papers re- 

 lating to discoveries made during the explorations. 

 The heavy forest which covered the Copan valley 

 when Stevens visited it in is:]f has been removed, a 

 colony of Germans having occupied the district for 



outline map of all the ruin.-. Kach group of struc- 

 tures is in this way assigned t<i its pmp,-r pL. 

 the map. which will therefore represent with I 



TEETH ORNAMENTED WITH JADEITE, FOUND IX COPAN. 



a time about thirty years ago. The museum is 

 seeking means to preserve the works from further 

 injury, and for this purpose a stone wall has been 

 built around the principal group. In carrying on 

 the operations in the field, the plan is. pursued of 



AI.TAR IN COPAN. 



dividing the area on which any ivmains are found 

 into square sections. Before a detailed examina- 

 tion is begun on anv particular group of ruins or 

 locality it is carefully surveyed and traced on an 

 VOL. xxxvi. A 



TERRA OOTTA VASE FROM A TOMB IN COPAN. 



lute exactness the whole site of the city, with the 

 shape and character of its structures as well as the 

 natural topography of the valley. If the group 

 consists of buildings, they are entirely cleared of 

 f/n-7/r/.s and then carefully measured and drawn 

 upon an enlarged plan of its corresponding section. 

 Wherever sculptured monuments or hieroglyphic- 

 inscriptions are found they are both photographed 

 and molded in paper or plaster, to be reproduced 

 in the museum at Cambridge for further investiga- 

 tion and study. Various evidences were found in 

 seme of the ruins which seem to point to several 

 successive periods of occupation. Scattered re- 

 mains were found for 8 or 9 miles up the Copan 

 river, many of which are stone foundations without 

 any trace of superstructure. It is supposed that 

 wooden houses that have disappeared formerly stood 

 upon these. No regular burial places were found, 

 but a number of isolated tombs were explored. Some 

 of these were found under 

 the steps of what seemed to 

 be ruined houses. Skele- 

 tons, generally much de- 

 cayed, pieces of pottery, ar- 

 ticles of jadeite. etc., were 

 found in some of these 

 tomb-. In i>nr several teeth 

 of a skeleton had been inlaid 

 with little circular bits of 

 jadeite slightly rounded and 

 highly polished. In this 

 tomb were found a 

 earthen ves-el- of different 

 shapes and sixes. iu 

 them decorated with figures 

 in different colors. ( >; 

 re | resented the head of a wolf, 

 modeled with great accuracy 

 and "exhibiting an extraordinary 

 degree of artistic merit." \Vith 

 were found a number of shell 

 ornaments and jadeite heads, a pottery 

 whistle, bone needles, the upper jaw- 

 bone of a peccary, the radius of a deer, 

 and the upper portions of 2 skulls of peccaries, one 

 of which, very well pr-t-rved. " is beautifully carved 

 on the outside with figures of men and animals and 

 symbolical characters." The ruins have been given 



