142 



THE REASON FOR THE PREPONDERANCE OF 

 DATES IN THE NINTH CYCLE. 



cSDGs3GfiiL 



The numerical preponderance of stelae, altars, and mural inscriptions dated at some 

 point in the 9th cycle of the 54th great cycle, would seem to indicate that this 9th 

 cycle was the period of the most high and palmy state of the Archaic Maya empire. 

 But I think this apparent superiority is deceptive and misleading. Not in regard to 

 that period having been an exceedingly flourishing one, but in respect to its having 

 surpassed in glory either previous or subsequent eras in their history. There is a 

 particular reason why there should be more evidence of activity and grandeur during 

 that cycle than throughout all the rest of their cycles of which we have any 

 knowledge. 



The disposition to observe anniversaries, jubilees, centenniums, and other notable 

 periods of recurrence, is one of the strongest and most prevalent instincts of mankind. 

 It is fostered in the child by the annual observance of its birthday, and strengthened 

 in the adult by the celebration of social, religious, and national anniversaries. When 

 the occasion has the magnitude of a jubilee or centennium, a whole nation becomes 

 agitated over the event and expends its energy in the erection of statues, monuments, 

 and other memorial designs to commemorate the occasion. I venture to assert that 

 during the recent jubilee year of the reign of Queen Victoria more statues and 

 memorials were raised in England than will be erected there in the next hundred 

 years, unless some other equally notable event occurs ; and that not for another century 

 will America be thrown into the same feverish state of activity and display she has 

 just gone through in her series of centennial celebrations. Yet both England and 

 America were just as great and flourishing in the years that preceded those showy 

 commemorative ones, and will, it is to be hoped, be even greater and more flourishing 

 for untold years to come. Future archaeologists, however, may be deceived by the 

 preponderating number of monuments erected during those two eventful 3-ears, and 

 declare that at those periods, respectively, England and America attained the summit 

 of its glory. 



