58 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. 64, gann] 



In addition to incense, the blood of fish, birds, and animals was 

 smeared over the images of the gods, as an offermg, together with 

 human blood obtained by cutting the ears, tongue, genitals, and other 

 parts of the body. The hearts of various animals, together with live 

 and dead animals (some cooked and some raw) and aU kinds of foods 

 and drinks in use among the people,^ were also employed as offerings 

 to the gods. In the hands of figurines upon the incense burners are 

 found, modeled in clay, fruit, flowers, eggs, cakes, birds, small animals, 

 and other objects, all evidently mtended for the same purpose. 



CHRONOLOGY 



Three distinct periods of Mayan civilization seem to be represented 

 in this area. The center of the earliest of these was along the Rio 

 Grande, in southern British Honduras, within 20 miles of the Guate- 

 mala frontier, where the Leyden Plate was discovered, upon which 

 is inscribed the earliest but one known Maya date — namely, Cycle 

 8, Katun 14, Tun 3, Uinal 1, Kin 12. If the massive stone-faced 

 pyramids and terraces of these ruins are contemporaneous with the 

 Leyden Plate, as seems possible, they must be reckoned among 

 the earliest monuments of the first, or southern Maya, civihzation. 

 The Benque Vie jo temple, in the extreme western part of British 

 Honduras, comes next in point of time. This was almost certamly 

 contemporaneous with its near neighbor, Naranjo, where the earhest 

 Initial Series found is 9.10.10.0.0, and the latest 9.19.10.0.0, giving 

 the city an age of at least 9 katuns, or 180 years. It will be seen that 

 the difference between the Leyden tablet date and the earliest re- 

 corded date at Naranjo is rather more than 16 katuns, or 320 years. 



The latest of all the sites is undoubtedly Santa Rita, which shows 

 strong Mexican influence; this belongs to the second era of Maya 

 civihzation, which reached its highest development in Yucatan and 

 the northern cities. Excluding the Tuluum Stela, the date upon 

 which, 9.6.10.0.0, is almost certainly not contemporaneous,^ the 

 only Initial Series deciphered with certanity in Yucatan up to the 

 present time is that at Chichen Itza, 10.2.9.1.9, nearly 3 katuns, or 

 60 years, later than the latest at Naranjo; but probably the Santa 

 Rita site is much later m date than this, and if we may judge by the 

 objects found in the mounds in the vicinity, some of which show 

 strong Spanish influence, it was occupied up to and beyond the 

 conquest. 



1 Mas de todas las cosas que aver podian que son aves del cielo, animales de la tierra, o pescados de la 

 agua, siempre les embadurnavan los rostros al demonio con la sangre dellos. Y otras cosas que tenian 

 ofrecian; a algunos animales les sacavan el corazon y lo otrecian, a otros enteros, unos vivos, otros muertos, 

 unos crudes, otros guisados, y hazian tambien grandes ofreudas de pan y vino, y de todas las maneras de 

 comidas, y bevidas que usavan.— Landa, op. cit., pp. 162-164. 



2 Recent examination of the Tuluum Stela has brought to light upon it, in two places, the glyph rep- 

 resenting the lahuntum, and the date 7 Ahau; now 7 Ahau occurs as alahuntun ending in 10.6.10.0.0 

 (approximately 695 A. D. of our era) which is almost certainly the contemporaneous date of the Stela. 



