
is} 
404 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
blance whatsoever to that of the Maya, either of the Old or New Empire, 
or even to those more culturally distant Maya, such as the Quiché, Cak- 
chiquel, Tzutuhil, Tzotzil, Tzendal, Chontal, and Mame, to mention only 
the more important tribes, inhabiting the highlands of southeastern Mexico 
and southern and western Guatemala, for the distribution and linguistic 
affiliations of which see Appendix XII and figure 91. 


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6.2.4.17 







98° "96° 
Fic. 64.—Map showing provenance of earliest Maya inscriptions and probable line of migration of the Maya 
into their historical habitat. 
The Huasteca have no hieroglyphic writing, no highly developed cal- 
endar system based upon a 260-day Sacred Year and a 365-day solar year, 
and no chronology recorded in terms of a vigesimal system of numeration, 
the first two elements of which (the 260 and 365-day years), spread from 
the Maya to the several Zapotec, Miztec, Nahua and Totonac tribes of 
southern Mexico and Central America about the close of the Old Empire 
(10.2.0.0.0).'_ Their material culture, architecture, sculpture, and ceramic art, 
etc., show no resemblances to the corresponding phases of the Maya civiliza- 
tion, and, indeed, so dissimilar are the two cultures in all things, save only 

‘ Brinton says in this connection (1893, p. 260): “There is no direct evidence that it [the hieroglyphic-writing 
and calendar] had extended to the Huastecas, of Maya lineage on the Rio Panuco, but it was in vogue among the 
Totonacos, their neighbors to the south on the Gulf of Mexico.” 
