130 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [bull. GO 



for 400 years, some of the edifices, built of massive masonr}^, stand 

 almost complete to-day as noble monuments to the genius, skill, and 

 taste of the ambitious builders. 



The sculptor's art had reached a remarkable degree of perfection 

 notwithstanding the fact that so far as has been determined tools 

 of stone only were used in the work. Sculpture was employed ex- 

 tensively in the embellishment of buildings, with a freedom and 

 effectiveness truly surprising. Where suitable stone for carving 

 was not readily available, stucco was employed with excellent effect 

 in surfacing and ornamenting the buildings. These builders w^ere 

 masters of formal geometric design, but reveled especially in the 

 elaboration of life forms and fantastic creations of the imagination, 

 in which work there appear many suggestions of the virile art of 

 the Far East. Sculpture, aside from its architectural application, 

 is displayed in monolithic monuments of large size and great beauty, 

 as exemplified in the steloe and altars of Copan and Quirigua, and in 

 a multitude of minor works. 



The potter's art was cultivated with marked success technically 

 and esthetically. Among the exceptional products is a kind of 

 glazed hard-burnt ware of unicjue design closely imitating copper 

 or pewter in appearance, which is distributed, though sparsely, over 

 a wide area. In Guatemala are found vases with polychrome de- 

 signs of rare beauty embod3ang glyphic inscriptions. Perhaps the 

 most remarkable product so far collected is represented by a series 

 of artistically modeled and uniquely decorated vases, choice ex- 

 amples of which are preserved in the Peabody Museum. A number 

 of interesting examples of mural painting are preserved. 



The culminating achievement of the race is its highly developed 

 system of ideographic writing, which it is believed 

 Cxiypbic wiiiiu- was already beginning to embody certain phonetic 

 elements, presaging the development of a phonetic 

 system of writing. The glyphic inscriptions are represented by 

 numerous examples sculptured in stone, modeled in stucco, and 

 painted on walls, vases, sheets of parchment, and paper. The long 

 sheets of the latter were folded and bound into books after the ori- 

 ental fashion. Although these picture writings, in the absence of a 

 key, can not actually be read by our scholars, much has been deter- 

 mined with respect to their nature and application. It appears that 

 they are largely calendric. serving to record dates and events of im- 

 portance, and in setting forth and fixing the dates of the oft- 

 occurring observances of religion, which held a most important place 

 in the lives of the people. The exceptional advancement of the Maya 

 is indicated especially by their knowledge of astronomy and arith- 

 metic and by the development of a calendric sj^stem which compares 

 favorably with that of the Old World of corresponding centuries. 



