134 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



architecture makes great advances. Rooms become 

 wider, walls thinner, and forms more refined and pleas- 

 ing. The calculations in the inscriptions deal more and 

 more with complicated astronomical subjects and 

 historical Initial Series dates become less and less 

 common but many dates of the calendar round and 

 period ending types are given. This brilliant epoch 

 seems to have come to an end through civil war, social 

 decadence, or perhaps an overwhelming epidemic. 

 There is evidence that yellow fever swept over Central 

 America before the coming of Europeans. The refer- 

 ences in the chronicles to this early period are very 

 brief. The settlement of Bacalar is recorded as well as 

 the discovery of Chichen Itza. An Initial Series in- 

 scription at the latter site aids in the correlation of the 

 ancient dates with European chronology. 



Transition Period 

 620 A.D. to 980 A.D. 

 The early Mayan cities were abandoned about 600 

 A.D. and a general shift towards the north took place. 

 Architecture was still kept up but pictorial sculpture 

 practically disappeared. Certain cities south of Uxmal 

 probably date from this transitional period, examples 

 being Hochob and Dsibilnocac. At Xcalumkin there is 

 an Initial Series date which belongs in the Transition 

 Period, but the reading is uncertain. The architectural 

 styles form the only evidence of artistic sequence availa- 

 ble, although if excavations were conducted it is possible 

 that pottery would also help. In the chronicles this 

 period falls, for the most part, after the first abandon- 

 ment of Chichen Itza and while the Mayas were hold- 

 ing the land of Chakanputun. This land may be the 

 central portion of the Yucatan peninsula. 



