THE AKCIIAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



THE ARCHAIC SYSTEM. 



It is to Palenque, Copau, Quirigua, Menche, Tikal, and other cities yet to be 

 unearthed in that great center of highest, if not. original, Maya civilization that we 

 must look for data to solve the problem of prehistoric native culture. From that 

 field has already come the best and most reliable material the student has to work 

 upon. M. Desire Charnay, under commission from the French Government, performed 

 noteworthy service in procuring photographs and molds of inscriptions from some of 

 the cities mentioned ; but his performance has been far surpassed, both in range and 

 accuracy, bv that of Mr. Alfred P. Maudslay of London. By his unaided individual 

 effort Mr. Maudslay has laid students of Maya archaeology under the deepest possible 

 obligation. Too much credit cannot be awarded him for the zeal and thoroughness 

 with which lie has pursued his explorations, or for the skill and care he has exhibited 

 in the publication of the results. Thus, through the enthusiasm and painstaking of a 

 private gentleman, the material for study from that field already exceeds in value the 

 combined collections from all other sources, and it is devoutly to be hoped that in the 

 near future it will be steadily augmented by extensive systematic excavation under the 

 patronage of government or scientific bodies. 



Such organized and exhaustive exploration is the more to be desired for the reason 

 that all the inscriptions so far brought to light are of a purely chronological character, 

 destitute of any real historical importance. They are merely public calendars, as it 

 were, showing that at specified dates certain periods of their scheme would begin or 

 end, or that a correspondence would occur between two or more of their different 

 plans for computing time. Aside from the circumstance that the initial date in most 

 instances undoubtedly marks the time at which the temple, stela, or altar to which it 

 belongs was erected, I do not believe there is the record of a single historical event in 

 all the inscriptions at present in our possession. That a people as cultured as they 

 should have had no historical records at all would be a presumption too absurd for 

 credence, even without the direct testimony of the early Spanish authorities to the 

 contrary. The actual question is whether any of them will ever be discovered. If 

 they were inscribed upon paper or parchment and buried with their priestly owners, 

 as we are told, there is very little hope that any vestige of them remains, unless there 

 may have been some instance of almost miraculous preservation. Still, that remote 

 chance is worth a vast amount of search. But a better hope, whose possible realization 

 lies solely in the same line of research, is that in crypts or tombs or other unexplored 

 receptacles may be collected historical tablets of durable material — stone, stucco, baked 

 clay, or even metal — which patient excavation will yet unearth. 



But, though deeds and occurrences that give pomp and circumstance to history are 



