INTRODUCTION. 3 



rendered them useless for study, that the explorations were undertaken, the results of 

 which are given in this publication. 



Stephens and Catherwood were the pioneers in this work, and their very accurate 

 and beautifully illustrated works will always remain of the greatest value to the 

 student of American Archaeology ; but the improvements made during the last fifty years 

 in the processes of moulding and photography now make it possible to produce copies of 

 Indian carvings even more exact than those traced by the skilful hand of Catherwood. 



In preparing this publication I am met at the outset with considerable difficulty 

 in determining in what order and what form the information and collections acquired 

 during my journeys can be rendered most intelligible and useful for study. 



The plan of operations adopted as far as possible in America was first to establish 

 the geographical position of a group of ruins, and make a survey of the site, then to 

 take careful measurements of the buildings, and to photograph such as were sufficiently 

 well preserved, and then, where possible, both to mould in paper or plaster and to 

 photograph the sculptured monuments and all the hieroglyphic inscriptions. The 

 method of further investigation which promises to give the best result is the careful 

 comparison of the monuments and the inscriptions of the same locality, one with 

 another, and then the further comparison of the different groups of monuments which 

 I have examined, or such as are described with sufficient accuracy by other travellers. 

 The plan, then, which it is proposed to follow in this publication, is to give a sketch 

 map of the site of a group of ruins showing the position of the buildings and monu- 

 ments, to be followed by detailed plans of the buildings, and photographs and drawings 

 of the monuments and inscriptions, accompanied by such short notes as may, during the 

 course of publication, give some additional interest to the illustrations ; but to defer a 

 fuller examination and comparison of the material presented until a sufficient number 

 of illustrations are before the reader to enable him to judge of the value of such 

 comments as may then be offered for his consideration. The work of making plaster 

 casts from the moulds taken in America is now in progress in England, and a consi- 

 derable number of these casts are already on exhibition at the South Kensington 

 Museum and the Archaeological Museum at Cambridge. Skilful artists are being 

 employed to make drawings of all the inscriptions (and in some instances of other 

 sculptures) from the plaster casts, with the aid, in most cases, of photographs of the 

 original sculpture. These drawings, which I have most carefully supervised, are not 

 intended to be exact copies of the carvings in their present mutilated and weather-worn 

 state, but representations of the inscriptions, restored, as far as with our present know- 

 ledge they safely can be, to their original condition. I know how liable such restoration 

 is to serious error, and feel the responsibility involved in undertaking it. But careful 

 comparison of one inscription with another has convinced me that many of the worn 



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