460 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
We are now in possession of the most important archeological and docu- 
mentary evidence bearing upon the problem of the extinction of the Old 
Empire civilization and have reviewed the principal hypotheses seeking to 
explain the reasons therefor. ‘The writer wishes in a few closing words to 
outline what appears to him to be the best explanation of the facts observed, 
admitting, at the same time, that the evidence is as yet too insufficient to 
warrant final conclusions. 
Probably as early as the Middle Period, the increasing difficulties of the 
agricultural situation, 7. ¢., the farther and farther from their homes they 
were obliged to go in order to find suitable new land for cultivation, coupled 
with the deterioration of the cleared areas nearer the cities, had already 
begun to prove burdensome. This must have been especially true of the 
older and larger cities like Copan and Tikal, which had been occupied not 
only for longer periods but also by larger numbers of people; also, it is 
possible there may have been increasingly unfavorable climatic conditions. 
About the same time, according to the documentary evidence (the 
Books of Chilan Balam), and possibly because of this very fact, the region 
to the north of the Old Empire, the Province of Ziyancaan Bakhalal was dis- 
covered. This region is only 100 to 150 kilometers north of La Honradez, 
the northeasternmost Old Empire city now known (see plate 1), and 
colonists pushing out either from there or from one of the other cities of this 
region in search of new agricultural lands, owing to the increasing deteriora- 
tion of the lands nearer home, discovered Lake Bacalar, 7. ¢., the Province 
of Ziyancaan Bakhalal, in 9.13.0.0.0 or 9.14.0.0.0. The water of the lake was 
sweet, the country to the west fertile, and gradually the new region became 
colonized. 
While they were at Bakhalal, 60 years according to the Mani manu- 
script (from 9.14.0.0.0 to 9.17.0.0.0 according to the writer), in the words of 
the native chronicles, “it occurred then that Chichen Itza was discovered.” 
Possibly hunting or exploring parties pushing still farther north from 
Bakhalal in search of new lands discovered the two great natural wells or 
cenotes at Chichen Itza, something less than 200 kilometers farther north, 
and because of this abundance of sweet water, all the more remarkable for 
being in such a parched and generally waterless country as the whole 
northern half of the Yucatan Peninsula is, they settled there. 
It is not to be supposed that these discoveries of new fertile lands far to 
the north at first attracted general attention in the Old Empire cities, but 
later, toward the middle of the Great Period after 9.18.0.0.0, when the writer 
believes the economic situation may have begun to become menacing, peo- 
ple’s minds, particularly in the northern Peten cities, turned more and more 
toward these new lands, where living conditions were reported to be so easy. 
We may probably imagine the priesthood as opposed to the exodus 
already under way, because of its heavy investment in permanent build- 
ings, temples, and dwellings, and the rich monumental series, particu- 
