Mabch 17, 1911] 



SCIENCE 



401 



investigators, historians or general writers 

 — considered worth while to note down. 

 Nor can the archeologist investigate the 

 entire cultural work of a race or people. 

 He can only depend upon the little that 

 good fortune has saved from general de- 

 struction, caused by the violence of man, 

 by his negligence and the destructive agen- 

 cies of time, climate and vegetation. The 

 more is it important for the scientists to 

 collect all the evidence, important as well 

 as that of seeming insignificance, to keep 

 account of the notes that refer to the evi- 

 dence, to its origin, etc., and to utilize 

 thoroughly the written documents, the de- 

 scriptions of historians and of the contem- 

 poraries of those times, in order to obtain 

 from these documents aU possible help for 

 the interpretation of the history of the 

 people. 



Useful documents are not lacking in this 

 country — that is, in the region with which 

 historians have particularly occupied them- 

 selves — in this valley, in the environment 

 of the capital and among the Tlatepotzcas 

 (people that live beyond the mountains), 

 in Cholula, Tlaxcala and its dependencies, 

 the home of the nation or nations that were 

 leaders in this country. Beyond the limits 

 of the central region, in the provinces, the 

 reports and documents are very scarce. 

 There is no Sahagun for Michoacan and 

 the northeast, nor for the Otomis, near 

 neighbors of the Mexicans of the central 

 region; nor for the gulf coast, nor for the 

 great and rich provinces of the Zapotecas 

 and Mixtecas; and the same is true of the 

 region of the isthmus and the different 

 parts of the people of the Maya family. 

 Regarding all these large provinces we 

 have not more than scattered notes, and 

 few incoherent accounts. Here archeology 

 is the only means that can furnish the data, 

 or any data necessary for the reconstruc- 

 tion of the history of these ancient people 



and the characteristics of their civiliza- 

 tions. 



The International School, in its arche- 

 ological department, will, in the first place, 

 study the monuments that are in existence 

 and that are accessible, making comparir 

 sons and trying to interpret them by means 

 of the old trustworthy accounts, and by 

 means of what may be gleaned from the 

 paintings, the contemporaries of pagan 

 times, or of those made not long after the 

 Conquest. 



The Maya monuments are a problem in 

 themselves. As this people had developed 

 the art of writing to a higher degree than 

 any other people on this continent, having 

 originated very nearly a true hieroglyphic 

 writing, and as at the same time they used 

 these characters and signs frequently in 

 their books as well as in their architecture, 

 the Maya monuments should teach us more 

 than those that are found in other parts. 

 Unfortunately, in that region an authori- 

 tative interpretation is lacking entirely. 

 Some of the characters have been de- 

 ciphered, much more remains to be de- 

 ciphered. The International School will 

 also apply its efiiiorts to this important but 

 difficult branch of the investigation. 



The principal work with which the In- 

 ternational School will occupy itself will 

 be the search for new material, choosing 

 appropriate places for which the authori- 

 ties in whose charge the preservation of the 

 monuments of the country is placed, wiU. 

 give the needed authority; discovering, 

 measuring and studying what is found, 

 looking for and bringing together detached 

 pieces, taking photographs and drawings 

 of entire monuments, of special details, 

 opening burials and securing the contents 

 for the museum of the nation. 



The school will make efforts to fill in the 

 fragmentary picture of our knowledge in 

 order to give us a better idea of the differ- 



