4 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [boll. 57 



remote as those here under consideration ; but it seems not improbable 

 that alter the discover}^ of Yucatan and the subsequent opening up 

 of that vast region, the southern cities commenced to decUne. As 

 the new countiy waxed the old waned, so that by the end of the sixth 

 centmy the rise of the one and the fall of the other had occurred. 



The occupation and colonization of Yucatan marked the dawn of 

 a new era for the Maya although their Renaissance did not take place 

 at once. Under pressure of the new environment, at best a parched 

 and waterless land, the Maya civihzation doubtless underwent im- 

 portant modification.* The period of colonization, with the strenu- 

 ous labor by which it was marked, was not conducive to progress in 

 the arts. At first the struggle for bare existence must have absorbed 

 in a large measure the energies of all, and not until their foothold was 

 secure could much time have been available for the cultivation of the 

 gentler pursuits. Then, too, at first there seems to have been a feeling 

 of um-est in thcfnew land, a shifting of homes and a testing of localities, 

 all of which retarded the development of architectm-e, sculpture, and 

 other arts. Bakhalal (see pi. 1), the fu'st settlement in the north, was 

 occupied for only 60 years. Chichen Itza, the next location, although 

 occupied for more than a century, was finally abandoned and the search 

 for a new home resumed. Moving westward from Chichen Itza, Cha- 

 kanputun was seized and occupied at the beginning of the eighth cen- 

 tury. Here the Maya are said to have Uved for 260 years, until the 

 destruction of Chakanputun by fire about 960 A. D. again set them 

 wandering. By this time, however, some four centuries had elapsed 

 since the first colonization of the coimtry, and they doubtless felt 

 themselves fully competent to cope with any problems arising from 

 their envhonment. Once more their energies had begun to find outlet 

 m artistic expression. The Transitional Period was at an end, and 

 The Maya Renaissance, if the term may be used, was fully under way. 



The opening of the eleventh century witnessed important and far- 

 reaching political changes in Yucatan. After the destruction of 

 Chakanputun the hoi^zon of Maya activity expanded. Some of the 

 fugitives from Chakanputun reoccupied Cliichen Itza while others 

 estabUshed themselves at a new site caUed Mayapan. About tliis 

 time also the city of Uxmal seems to have been founded. In the 

 year 1000 these three cities — Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and Mayapan — 

 formed a confederacy,^ in which each was to share equally in the 

 government of the country. Under the peaceful conditions which 



'As will appear later, on the calendric side the old system of counting time and of recording events gave 

 place to a more abbreviated though less accurate chronology. In architecture and art also the change of 

 environment made itself felt, and in other linos as well the new land cast a strong influence over Maya 

 thought and achievement. In his work entitled "A Study of Maya Art, its Subject Matter and Historical 

 Development" (1913), to which students are referred for further information, Dr. H. J. Spinden has 

 treated this subject extensively. 



2 The confederation of these three Maya cities may have served as a model for the three Nahua cities, 

 Tenochtitlan, Tezcuco, and Tlacopan, when they entered into a similar alliance some four centuries later. 



