MORLEY] INTRODUCTION" TO STUDY OP MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 3 



haps the "Golden Age of the Maya"; at least it was the first great 

 epoch in their history, and so far as sculpture is concerned, the 

 one best comparable to the classic period of Greek art. While 

 sculpture among the Maya never again reached so high a degree of 

 perfection, architecture steadily developed, almost to the last. 

 Judging from the dates inscribed upon their monuments, all the 

 great cities of the south flomished during tliis period : Palenque and 

 Yaxchilan in what is now southern Mexico; Piedras Negras, Seibal, 

 Tikal, Naranjo, and Quirigua in the present Guatemala; and Copan 

 in the present Honduras. All these cities rose to greatness and sank 

 again into insignificance, if not indeed into obUvion, before the close 

 of this Golden Age. 



The causes which led to the decline of civUization in the south are 

 unknown. It has been conjectured that the Maya were driven from 

 their southern homes by stronger peoples pushing in from farther 

 south and from the west, or again, that the Maya civilization, having 

 run its natm'al com-se, collapsed through sheer lack of inherent power 

 to advance. Which, if either, of these hypotheses be true, matters 

 httle, since in any event one all-important fact remains: Just after 

 the close of Cycle 9 of Maya chronology, toward the end of the sLxth 

 century, there is a sudden and final cessation of dates in all the 

 southern cities, apparently indicating that they were abandoned 

 about this time. 



Still another condition doubtless hastened the general dechne if 

 indeed it did no more. There is strong documentary evidence ^ that 

 about the middle or close of the fifth century the southern part of 

 Yucatan was discovered and colonized. In the century following, 

 the southern cities one by one sank into decay; at least none of their 

 monuments bear later dates, and coincidently Chichen Itza, the first 

 great city of the north, was founded and rose to prominence. In 

 the absence of reliable contemporaneous records it is impossible to 

 estabUsh the absolute accuracy of any theory relating to times so 



1 This evidence is presented by The Books of Chilan Balam, " which were copied or compiled in Yucatan 

 by natives during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries, from much older manuscripts now 

 lost or destroyed. They are written in the Maya language in Latin characters, and treat, in part at least, 

 of the history of the country before the Spanish Conquest. Each town seems to have had its own book of 

 Chilan Balam, distinguished from others by the addition of the name of the place where it was written, as: 

 The Book of Chilan Balam of Mani, The Book of Chilan Balam of Tizimin, and so on. Although much of the 

 material presented in these manuscripts is apparently contradictory and obscure, their importance as original 

 historical sources can not be overestimated, since they constitute the only native accounts of the early 

 history of the Maya race which have survived the vandalism of the Spanish Conquerors. Of the sixteen 

 Books of Chilan Balam now extant, only three, those of the towns of Mani, Tizunin, and Chumayel, 

 contain historical matter. These have been translated into English, and published by Dr. D, G. Brinton 

 [1882 b] under the title of " The Maya Chronicles." This translation with a few corrections has been 

 freely consulted in the following discussion."— MoELEr, 1910 b: p. 193. 



Although The Books of Chilan Balam are m all probability authentic sources for the reconstruction of 

 Maya history, they can hardly be considered contemporaneous since, as above explained, they emanate 

 from post-Conquest times. The most that can be clauned for them in this connection is that the docu- 

 ments from which they were copied were probably aboriginal, and contemporaneous, or approximately 

 so, with the later periods of the history which they record. 



