SCIENCE 



NEW YORK, DECEMBER 30, 1893. 



VANDALISM AMONG THE ANTCQUITIE3 OF YUCATAN 

 AND CENTRAL AMERICA. 



BY M. H. SAVILLE, ASSISTANT IN PEABODT MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIV., 

 CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 



The ancient buildings and sculptures of Yucatan and Central 

 America have within a few years been much damaged and dis- 

 figured by the indifference of the natives of those countries, and 

 by the vanity of travellers, some of them unfortunately Ameri- 

 can, who paint their names in large characters on the sides of 

 the buildings and carve them on the sculptures. 



Briefly, I will enumerate a few instances that have come under 

 my personal observation. 



The magnificent "House of the Governor"' in Uxmal, probably 

 the grandest building now standing in Yucatan, is almost covered 

 with names on the front and on the cemented walls inside. These 

 Tiames are painted in black, blue, and red, and tbe letters are in 

 some cases twelve inches high, and here are to be seen the names 

 of men who are widely known in the scientific world. The 

 " House of the Dwarfs'' in the same city has suffered in a like 

 manner. Many of the sculptures which have fallen from the 

 buildings in Uxmal have been wilfully broken, and I noticed 

 particularly that two of the beautifully carved turtles from the 

 "House of the Turtles" had been broken apparently by a ma- 

 chete. 



The large face figured by Stephens in " Incidents of Travel in 

 Yucatan," Vol. II., p. 434, is in a mound in the backyard of a 

 shop in Izamal. This has been almost destroyed. The whole of 

 the face between the eyes and the lower part of the chin is gone, 

 and I was told that the stones thus obtained were used in repair- 

 ing a fence. On the other side of this mound is the bas-relief in 

 stucco discovered by Charney, and this is slowly crumbling 

 away. The steps leading up to the top of the Great Pyramid 

 are being thrown down; and many mounds in Yucatan are being 

 destroyed at the present time to furnish building material. In 

 fact, if a bee's nest should be found in one of the old buildings, 

 the Indians would tear down part of the structure to get at the 

 honey. 



In Copan, when the Peabody Museum Honduras Expedition 

 compared the condition of the '• Idols " to-day, with the photo- 

 graphs taken by Mr. A. P. Maudslay seven years ago, it was 

 found thatduringthat time some of the very finest sculptures had 

 been disfigured by blows from machetes and other instruments. 

 The Stela given as a frontispiece in Stephens's "Incidents of Travel 

 in Central America," Vol. I., has been much marred by some one 

 who has broken off several ornaments and a beautiful medaliou 

 face from the northern side. One of the faces and several noses 

 have been broken off from the sitting figures on the altar figured 

 by Stephens in tbt same volume, opposite page 143. On some of 

 the idols and altars names have been carved, notably on the back 

 of T;he Stela figured opposite page 1.58 in Stephens, and a large 

 fragment has been broken from the same Stela. While excavat- 

 ing in one of the chambers of the Main Structure we uncovered a 

 beautiful hieroglyphic step, but before we had time to secure a 

 photograph of it, some visitor improved the opportunity while no 

 one was about to break off one of the letters. 



In Quirigua a small statue, discovered by Maudslay and re- 

 moved by him to a small house near the rancho of Quirigua, had 

 tbe head and one of the arms broken from it during the interval 

 between two visits. This statue was of the highest importance, 

 as it very much resembled the celebrated " Chaac-mol "' now in 

 theMexican Museum, but discovered by Le Plongeon at Chichen 



Itza. One of the Stela; at Quirigua has had a name carved on it 

 quite recently ; but the sculptures of this place are in a much 

 better state of preservation than those of Copan owing to their 

 being at some distance from the road, and being covered with a 

 dense tropical growth; while those of Copan are within a mile of 

 the village, and there was formerly a road over the Plaza Grande 

 and among the idols. The burning of the bush, to clear the land 

 for milphas, has also injured many of the sculptures owing to the 

 cracking of the stones by the heat. 



While in Nicaragua I learned that the sculptures on the Islam! 

 of Zapatero in Lake Nicaragua have within a few years been 

 much broken and disfigured. These were described by Squier in 

 "Nicaragua, Its People, Scenery, Monuments, etc.," Vol. II. 



As the governments of Mexico and the Central American re- 

 publics ai'e making little or no effort to preserve or care for the 

 antiquities within their boundaries, it remains for the United 

 States to do something to preserve these vanishing memorials of 

 the past. The initiative has been taken by the Peabody Museum, 

 Cambridge, which has been granted, for ten years, the care of 

 the antiquities of Honduras A wall has been built enclosing 

 the principal remains in Copan, and a keeper been placed in 

 charge with strict orders to allow nothing to be destroyed or car- 

 ried away. Thus a strong effort is being made by the Peabody 

 Museum to protect the wonderful carvings in stone of the ancient 

 city of Copan. 



ANCIENT J.\P.\NESE CLOCKS 



BY FRANK D. SKEEL,, AM., MD., NEW YORK. 



The ancient Japanese, in common with most Oriental nations, 

 measured time by the position of the sun. Their day commenced 

 and ended with sunrise. As Japan lies between the thirtieth and 

 the forty-fifth parallels of latitude, the days and nights vary con- 

 siderably in length during the year. To fulfil the conditions of 

 their notation a timepiece must divide into equal parts the periods 

 of daylight and the periods of darkness To construct a time- 

 piece which will perform this erratic division of time is a me- 

 chanical problem of no mean order. This, the ancient Japanese 

 have accomplished in several very ingenious ways. 



Their clocks may be roughly divided into two general classes: — 



1. Those with a constant rate, in which the changing length of 

 the hours is indicated by the spacing of the numerals, which are 

 engraved on movable pieces of metal. 



2. Those with a varying rate, having the numerals equally 

 spaced, the length of the hour being regulated by the rate of the 

 clock. 



Under the first division there are two types, namely, clocks 

 with rectilinear dials, and clocks with circular dials. Clocks of 

 the former type are driven by a weight or a spring. Those of 

 the second type by weight only. The power is transmitted by a 

 cord or chain to which, in clocks with rectilinear dials, the index 

 is attached. The hour-signs are engraved on separate pieces of 

 metal, which slide in a vertical groove in the front of the case. 

 Parallel to this is a slit in the case, through which the hand is 

 attached to the cord. The hours of day and of night are indi- 

 cated by different characters. The spaces between these signs 

 are regulated by moving the pieces of metal bearing the hour- 

 signs nearer together or farther apart as occasion may require. 

 Some clocks of this type are provided with graduations and a 

 table by which the hour-signs may be properly adjusted in ac- 

 cordance with the season of the year. The hand moves down- 

 ward over the face of the dial as the clock runs down and resumes 

 its place at the top when it is wound. The escapement is the 

 verge, with crown-wheel, balance-wheel, and hairspring. The 

 driving-power is either a weight or a spring, as before stated. 



