THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 69 



had doubtless been developed from the highland stock 

 by selective breeding as agriculture worked its way 

 down into the lowlands. Archaic art appear- along 

 the edges of the Mayan area in the state of Vera Cruz, 



Mexico, and in the Tloa Valley, Honduras. In both 

 these regions are also found clay figurines that mark the 

 transition in style between the archaic and the 4 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 ( iuatemala 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 Menche, 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 year- 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 



