THE TEMPLE OF INSCRIPTIONS AT 

 PALENQUE" 



Bt E. Forstemann 



We have perforce confined our efforts from the beginning of Maya 

 I'esearch chiefly to the manuscripts, in the interpretation of which 

 considerable progress has already been made. The time has now come 

 to take the first steps toward a decipherment of the Maya inscriptions. 

 Available copies of the inscriptions were until recently too inaccurate 

 to offer an incentive to thorough study. My treatise, Die Kreiizin- 

 schrift von Palenque, published in Globus, volume 72, pages 45 to 49, 

 might therefore be called premature, since my only guide, at least, 

 for the left side of the inscription, was the drawing by Catherwood 

 in Stephens's book of travels. This drawing is admirably executed^ 

 it is true, but it is inadequate for accurate research. I use the Avord 

 "■ premature ", hoAvever, only in reference to a few details upon which 

 fuller light has now been shed ; I certainly comprehended correctly 

 the main point, namely, the fact that the inscriptions consist essen- 

 tially of a framework of dates and the intervening periods. 



Considerable progress has recently been made in the critical exami- 

 nation of the inscriptions, since we noAv have facsimiles of them which 

 are as accurate as the condition of the originals permits. In par- 

 ticular the great Biologia Centrali-Americana, by Godman and Sal- 

 vin, has materially assisted us in this wnth the section edited by 

 Maudslay under the title Archeology, and each new number of this 

 work as it appears is an additional station on the road of science. 



Of the plates to this work, the free use of which has been made 

 possible to me by the courteous permission of Mr Maudslay himself, 

 I wish to call attention to the three designated as plates lx to lxii. 

 They are from the Temple of Inscriptions at Palenque. Plates t.x and 

 LXII are of the same dimensions, each having '20 vertical cohunns 

 and 12 horizontal rows, while plate lxi has only 14 vertical columns 

 and 10 horizontal rows. Hence there are on these plates 240-f 140-f- 

 240—620 glyphs, of which, however, those in the first D columns of 

 plate LX are mostly destroyed. There is no doubt that plate lx is 



" Aus dem Inschriftentempel von Palenque, Globus, v. 75, n. .5. 1899. 



575 



