THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 67 
had doubtless been developed from the highland stock 
by selective breeding as agriculture worked its way 
down into the lowlands. Archaic art appears along 
the edges of the Mayan area in the state of Vera Cruz, 
Mexico, and in the Uloa Valley, Honduras. In both 
these regions are also found clay figurines that mark the 
transition in style between the archaic and the Mayan 
as well as finished examples of the latter. There can be 
no doubt, then, that the archaic art of Mexico marks an 
earlier horizon than the Mayan. Whether or not it was 
once laid entirely across the Mayan area cannot be 
decided on present data but it seems unlikely. We have 
already seen that this first art was distributed primarily — 
across arid and open territory. 
With their calendrical system already in working 
order the Mayas appear on the threshold of history 
about the beginning of the Christian Era according to a 
correlation with European chronology that will be ex- 
plained later. ‘The first great cities were Tikal in 
northern Guatemala and Copan in western Honduras, 
both of which had a long and glorious existence. Many 
others sprang into prominence at a somewhat later date; 
for example, Palenque, Yaxchilan or Menché, Piedras 
Negras, Seibal, Naranjo, and Quirigua. The most 
brilliant period was from 300 to 600 A. D., after which 
all these cities appear to have been abandoned to the 
forest that soon closed over them. ‘The population 
moved to northern Yucatan, where it no longer reacted 
strongly upon the other nations of Central America 
and where it enjoyed a second period of brilliancy 
several hundred years later. 
Architecture. The idea of a civic center is ad- 
mirably illustrated in Mayan cities, particularly those 
of the first brilliant period. The principal structures 
