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SMITHSONIAN M [SCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS 



VOL. 6 1 



*^ 



Peruvian and Bolivian " sun-circles," elsewhere mentioned, are 

 structurally comparable with stone circles in Taumalipas and Vera 

 Cruz, except that they approach the circular rather than rectangular 

 forms. 



As Egypt is the native land of the Old World obelisk and colossus, 

 so Central America is the home of the colossi and commemorative 



monoliths of the New. The 

 American counterpart of 

 Egyptian obelisks are the 

 so-called stel?e of Tikal, 

 Ouirigua, Ocosingo, Copan, 

 and the ruins of the valley 

 of the Ucimacintla, in Hon- 

 duras. 



According to Mr. C. P. 

 Bowditch * : 



" Monoliths are scattered all 

 over the northern and eastern 

 slopes of the Cordilleras as 

 they run through the State of 

 Chiapas in Mexico, and 

 through the Republic of Guate- 

 mala into Honduras .... and 

 in the whole extent of the pen- 

 insula of Yucatan The 



monoliths may be roughly di- 

 vided into two kinds, accord- 

 ing to their shape. One kind 

 (called stela, plural stelae) is 

 tall, measuring in one case 28 

 feet in height, while they are 

 not over 4 feet in width or 

 depth. The others are low and 

 take various forms, being 

 square, oblong, or round as a 

 rule, though some are carved 

 in the shape of an uncouth 

 animal." 

 Elsewhere Mr. Bowditch, regarding monoliths, calendaric or 

 hieratic in character, quotes Landa, who states " that there were found 

 in Mayapan seven or eight stones ten feet in length, unworked and 

 with several rows of these (hieroglyphic) characters, and that the 

 .Mayas were accustomed to raise stones like these every 20 years." 

 He likewise quotes Cogolludo, who says " that the Mayas counted the 



Fig. 



-Stela B, Copan, Honduras, from 

 Maudsley. 





1 C. P. Bowditch, The Numeration, Calendar Systems and Astronomical 

 Knowledge of the Mayas, Cambridge, 1910, p. 6. 



