MOKDBT] IN-TRODTJCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 15 



ment rested on the principle of hereditary succession. The accounts 

 of native as well as of Spanish writers leave the impression that a 

 system not unlike a modified form of feudahsm prevailed. 



In attempting to gain an approximate understanding of the form 

 of government which existed in the southern part of the Maya terri- 

 ritory it is necessary in the absence of all documentary information 

 to interpret the southern chronology, architecture, and sculpture — 

 practically all that remains of the older culture — in the light of the 

 known conditions in the north. The chronology of the several 

 southern cities (see pi. 2) indicates that many of them were con- 

 temporaneous, and that a few, namely, Tikal, Naranjo, Palenque, 

 and Copan were occupied approximately 200 years, a much longer 

 period than any of the others.^ These four would seem to have been 

 centers of population for a long time, and at least three of them, 

 Tikal, Palenque, and Copan, attained considerable size. Indeed they 

 may well have been, like Chichen Itza, Uxmal, and jSIayapan, at a 

 later epoch in the north, the seats of halach uincd, or overlords, to 

 whom ail the surrounding chiefs were tributary. Geographically 

 considered, the country was well apportioned among these cities: 

 Tikal dominating the north, Palenque, the west, and Copan, the south. 



The architecture, sculpture, and hieroglyphic writing of all the 

 southern centers is practically identical, even to the borrowing of 

 unessential details, a condition which indicates a homogeneity only 

 to be accounted for by long-continued and frequent intercourse. 

 This characteristic of the culture, together with the location and 

 contemporaneity of its largest centers, suggests that priguially the 

 southern territory was divided into several extensive jjplitical divi- 

 sions, all in close intercourse with one another, and possibly united 

 in a league similar to that which later united the principal cities of 

 the north. The unmistakable priestly or reUgious character of the 

 sculptures in the southern area clearly indicates the peaceful temper 

 of the people, and the conspicuous absence of warlike subjects pouits 

 strongly to the fact that the government was a theocracy, the highest 

 official in the priesthood being at the same time, by virtue of his 

 sacerdotal rank, the highest civil authority. Whether the principle 

 of hereditary succession determined or even influenced the selection 

 of rulers in the south is impossible to say. However, since the highest 

 offices, both executive and priestly, in the north were thus filled, it 

 may be assumed that similar conditions prevailed in the south, par- 

 ticularly as the northern civilization was but an outgrowth of the 



I As the result of a trip to the Maya field in the winter of 1914, the writer made important discoveries in 

 the chronology of Tikal, Naranjo, Piedras Negras, Altar de Sacrificios, Quirigua, and Seibal. The occu- 

 pancy of Tikal and Seibal was found to have extended to 10.2.0.0.0; of Piedras Negras to 9.18.5.0.0; 

 of Naranjo to 9.19.10.0.0; and of Altar de Sacrificios to 9.14.0.0.0. (This new material is not embodied 

 in pi. 2.) 



