COMPARATIVE STUDIES IN THE FIELD 

 OF MAYA ANTIQUITIES" 



By p. SciIELLIIAS 



INTRODUCTION 



111 Central America aboriginal civilization reached its highest 

 develoi^ment among the Maya races. Its remains otfer material for 

 the scientific reconstruction of this old and interesting domain of 

 man's endeavor in the realms of thought and culture, and in the form 

 and extent in which they now lie before us they are of three kinds : 



1. Tlie architectural remains, the temples and palaces, with repre- 

 sentations ill relief and inscriptions. 



2. The Maya manuscripts. 



3. The smaller antiquities, which have received a material accession 

 in the Yucatan collection at (he Berlin Museum of Ethnology. 



As regards the value of these various kinds of antiquities to the 

 investigator, it must above all be remembered that we are dealing 

 here with a civilized people, whose earliest pliases of intellectual 

 activity and of thought had already found expression in a species of 

 literature and a distinct style of art. Such an incpiir}^ must be first 

 directed to the most perfect and best developed phenomena. If we 

 understand these, the interpretation of all subordinate and antecedent 

 phenomena follows as a matter of course. I believe, therefore, that 

 the chief stress should be laid upon deciphering the written charac- 

 ters, and that the solution of all questions sliould be sought for there 

 (see Die Mayahandschrift der Koniglichen Bibliothek in Dresden, 

 in the Zeitschrift fiir Ethnologic, 1886).'' The literary productions 

 contain the quintessence of the entire civilization ; the}^ are the key to 

 the comprehension of the whole. It has since been acknowledged in 

 various quarters that the mode of deciphering that I suggested was 



" Versleicliende Studien aiif dem Felde der Maya-AltertViiimer, Internationales Archiv 

 fiir F,tliii()j;raphic. v. ;5. Berlin, ISOO. 



'' Also my (iottergestalten dei- Mayaliandschriftcn. I'd od., Berlin, 1904 ; translated into 

 Knslish in Tapers of the Tcabody Museum, v. 4, n. 1, 1904. 



595 



