22() MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA 



their new one in northern Oaxaea. Cortez in 1526 

 found these Indians in Yucatan. 



A Gross-Sectiox of New World History. 



This survey of ancient history in Mexico and Central 

 America discloses a condition which doubtless holds 

 true of the archaeological record in other parts of the 

 world. The earliest sedentary culture was by far the 

 most homogeneous and widespread. This means it 

 modified slowly and lasted for ages. At the same time, 

 owing to the connection of the archaic complex with 

 agriculture, the initial spread may have been rapid. 

 The plants domesticated by the American Indians were 

 developed far beyond the wild types, much farther in- 

 deed, than the domestic plants of the Old World. This 

 development must have extended over many centuries. 

 The first horizon of agriculture was based on plants of 

 an arid highland environment . The second horizon of 

 agriculture was based on these same plants after they 

 had been slowly modified to fit a humid lowland en- 

 vironment, as well as on certain new plants of humid 

 lowland origin. 



The Mayan civilization was specialized to the wet 

 lowlands of the tropic zone and while the influence 

 exerted by this dominant culture of the New World 

 was felt over a great area, the exact characters were not 

 reproduced elsewhere. Trade relations can be traced 

 from Yucatan to Colombia on the one hand and on the 

 other to New Mexico. The cycle of the Mayan civiliza- 

 tion was comparatively short and the cycles of the result- 

 ant civilizations were even shorter. All New World 

 history must be referred ultimately to the horizons of 

 culture described above, and in its early time-relations 

 to the standard chronology of the Mayas which takes 

 us surelv and safelv back to the time of Christ. 



