COPAN. G5 



THE EXPEDITION OF 1894. 



In the year 1891 (mainly, I believe, through the public-spirited enterprise of 

 Mr. Charles P. Bowditch) an arrangement was come to by which the Peabody Museum 

 of American Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University acquired the care 

 of the antiquities of the Republic of Honduras for a period of ten years, with 

 the right of exploring ruins and taking away one-half of the objects found in the 

 excavations. 



The first use made of this concession was to equip an expedition, which left 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts, in the autumn cf 1891, to carry on the exploration of the 

 ruins of Copan. A second expedition, despatched in the following year, was marked 

 by the lamentable death of the leader, Mr. John G. Owens, who died of fever, and 

 lies buried at the ruins beside one of the great monoliths in the Plaza. 



During the winter of 1S93-94 I travelled in Guatemala in company with my wife*; 

 and as the authorities of the Peabody Museum, owing to Mr. Owen's death, were not 

 prepared to send out their annual expedition, I visited Copan as the representative of 

 the Museum, and we remained camped in the ruins from the 1st to the 21st March, 

 1894. 



A record of the excellent work done by the American expeditions will be found in 

 the Memoirs of the Peabody Museum f. One piece of work done by the Americans 

 cannot be too highly commended : it is the erection of a substantial stone wall 

 completely enclosing the principal group of ruined buildings. 



In the Editorial Note to the first of the Peabody Museum Memoirs, Professor 

 Putnam says: — "As Mr. Maudslay had given names, with reference by letters and 

 figures, to the various portions of the Ruins and to prominent sculptures, the same 

 designations are given in this report and the accompanying plan. Additional features 

 have been indicated by continuing in sequence the letters and figures, thus avoiding 

 duplication and confusion." 



In dealing with those monuments not already numbered or lettered by me on 

 Plate I., or on the sketch-map on page 15, I have followed the letters and figures 

 given in the Peabody Museum Memoirs. 



In 1894 I was able to complete the moulds of inscriptions which were omitted from 



* See ' A Glimpse at Guatemala, and some Notes on the Anciont Monuments of Central America,' by Anne 

 Cary Maudslay and Alfred Pereivul Maudslay. 4to. John Murray, London, 1899. 



t Memoirs of the Peabody Museum.— Vol. I. No. 1 : Prehistoric Puins of Copan, Honduras. A Preli- 

 minary Eeport of the Explorations by the Museum, 1891-95. 48 pages : large map; illustrations in text; 

 8 plates. 1896. No. 6: The Hieroglyphic Stairway ; Ruins of Copan. By George Byron Gordon. 38 pages; 

 26 illustrations in text ; 18 plates. 1892. 



biol. centr.-amer., Archseol., August 1902. I 



