406 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
present habitat at an equally early date. And in conclusion, the writer 
believes the most probable place of origin for the Maya civilization is some- 
where on the Gulf Coast-plain of Mexico between 18° and 22° north latitude. 
Indeed, in a later publication (1905) Sapper himself would seem to have 
reached a similar conclusion: 
“On the other hand it is very difficult to distinguish the causes of the great 
distance separating the Huasteca from the Mayas with whom they belong ethno- 
logically. And this difficulty has increased since I succeeded in finding in the vil- 
lage of Chicomucelo in Chiapas, near the Guatemalan frontier, a language which 
is very like the Huastec and is in striking contrast to the other members of the Maya 
stock of languages. Before we knew of the Chicomucelteca, we could assume that 
in the original immigration of the Maya nations from the north, a part remained 
behind in the Huasteca, and there the language developed in a peculiar way, because 
the connection with its kindred was interrupted. But how came the Chicomu- 
celteca in their present home, forming a linguistic island in the midst of Maya 
peoples? Can it be that they are only a Huasteca colony, which has recently 
settled there.’” 
Joyce believes the Maya civilization originated where it reached its 
zenith during the Old Empire, namely, in northern Guatemala: 
“The isolation of this definitely Maya branch |1.¢., the Huasteca] would seem 
to imply that the Maya in the earliest days of all must have spread from Guatemala, 
up the east coast of Mexico as far as Tampico, penetrating into Chiapas, and 
possibly into Oaxaca, and colonizing the Mexican valley, where they found a 
primitive people akin to the earliest population of Michoacan. In times subsequent 
to what I may call this proto-Maya movement, there took place in the southern 
fertile region a great cultural development, culminating 1 in the organization Ora 
calendar, the invention of a script, and construction of the ruined ‘cities.’’”” 
This is a far-reaching extension of the Maya indeed, and one which the 
archeological evidence will hardly justify, certainly not as to their coloniza- 
tion of the Valley of Mexico, and probably not as to that of Oaxaca either. 
Joyce’s hypothesis of the autochthonous origin of the Maya civilization, 
he admits, is open to the serious a priort objection that no beginnings of the 
culture have been found in this region, “that civilization springs,”’ as it were, 
‘full-blown from the earth.” He overcomes this difficulty by ascribing the 
failure to find these earlier traces to the lack of systematic excavation in 
this region (negative evidence at best) and to the fact (generally admitted) 
that the art of carving was first developed on some perishable material such 
as wood, and that therefore the earlier remains have not survived. Finally, 
he dismisses the evidence afforded by the Tuxtla Statuette with the brief 
comment that it is “artificial or mythical.’ 
The writer finds himself unable to agree with any of these several con- 
clusions. In the first place, for reasons already stated, he believes the date 
inscribed on the Tuxtla Statuette was contemporaneous with the date of its 
execution; in the second place, that the Huasteca are much more likely to 
represent a backward branch of the Maya, who have always remained in or 

1 See Sapper, 1905, p. 5. 2 See Joyce, 1914, p. 368. *Tbid., p. 254 note 1. 
