Chapter II: The Mayan Civilization (1)

The wonderful culture of the Mayan Indians to which we will now turn our attention was developed in the humid lowlands of Central America and especially in the Yucatan Peninsula. Artists are everywhere of the opinion that the sculptures and other products of the Mayas deserve to rank among the highest art products of the world, and astronomers are amazed at the progress made by this people in the measuring of time by the observed movements of the heavenly bodies. Moreover, they invented a remarkable system of hieroglyphic writing by which they were able to record facts and events and they built great cities of stone that attest a degree of wealth and splendor beyond anything seen elsewhere in the New World.

The Mayan culture was made possible by the agricultural conquest of the rich lowlands where the exuberance of nature can only be held in check by organized effort. On the highlands the preparation of the land is comparatively easy, owing to scanty natural vegetation and a control vested in irrigation. On the lowlands, however, great trees have to be felled and fast-growing bushes kept down by untiring energy. But when nature is truly tamed she returns recompense many fold to the daring farmer. Moreover, there is reason to believe that the removal of the forest cover over large areas affects favorably the conditions of life which under a canopy of leaves are hard indeed.

Plate XIV. Photographs by Peabody Museum Expedition.

The principal crops of the Mayas were probably much the same as on the highlands, with maize as the great staple. Varieties favorable to a humid environment had doubtless been developed from the highland stock by selective breeding as agriculture worked its way down into the lowlands. Archaic art appears along the edges of the Mayan Area in the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico, and in the Uloa Valley, Honduras. In both these regions are also found clay figurines that mark the transition in style between the archaic and the Mayan, as well as finished examples of the latter. There can be no doubt, then, that the archaic art of Mexico marks an earlier horizon than the Mayan. Whether or not it was once laid entirely across the Mayan Area cannot be decided on present data but it seems unlikely. We have already seen that this first art was distributed primarily across arid and open territory.

With their calendarial system already in working order the Mayas appear on the threshold of history 600 years before the Christian Era, according to a correlation with European chronology that will be explained later. The first great cities were Tikal in northern Guatemala and Copan in western Honduras, both of which had a long and glorious existence. Many others sprang into prominence at a somewhat later date; for example, Palenque, Yaxchilan or Menché, Piedras Negras, Seibal, Naranjo, and Quirigua. The most brilliant period was from 300 to 600 A. D., after which all these cities appear to have been abandoned to the forest that soon closed over them. The population moved to northern Yucatan, where it no longer reacted strongly upon the other nations of Central America and where it enjoyed a second period of brilliancy several hundred years later.

Plate XV.

Fig. 20. Groundplans of Yaxchilan Temples:

Architecture.

The idea of a civic center is admirably illustrated in Mayan cities, particularly those of the first brilliant period. The principal structures are built around courts or plazas and there is usually an artificial acropolis which is a great terraced mound serving as a common base or platform from which the individual pyramidal bases of several temples rise. At some sites this acropolis is a natural hill which has been trimmed down or added to, but at other sites it is entirely artificial. At Copan there is an especially fine example of artificial platform mound rising from one end of the Great Plaza and affording space for several temples, as well as for sunken courts with stepped sides that may have been theatres. The river washing against one side of this great mound has removed perhaps a third of it and made a vertical section that shows the method of construction. It is apparent that the mound was enlarged and old walls and floors buried.

Mayan buildings are of two principal kinds. One is a temple pure and simple and the other has been called a palace. The temple is a rectangular structure crowning a rather high pyramid that rises in several steps or terraces. As a rule the temple has a single front with one or more doorways and is approached by a broad stairway. The pyramid is ordinarily a solid mass of rubble and earth faced with cement or cut stone and rarely contains compartments. Some temples have but a single chamber while others have two or more chambers, the central or innermost one being specially developed into a sanctuary. The so-called palaces are clusters of rooms on low and often irregular platforms. These palaces may have been habitations of the priests and nobility. The common people doubtless lived in palm-thatched huts similar to those used today in the same region.

The typical Mayan construction is a faced concrete. The limestone, which abounds in nearly all parts of the Mayan Area, was burned into lime. This was then slaked to make mortar and applied to a mass of broken limestone. The facing stones were smoothed on the outside and left rough hewn and pointed on the inside. It is likely that these facing stones were held in place between forms and the lime, mortar, and rubble filled in between. The resulting wall was essentially monolithic. The rooms of Mayan buildings are characteristically vaulted but the roof is not a true arch with a keystone. The vault, like the walls, is a solid mass of concrete that grips the cut stone veneer and that must have been held in place by a false work form while it was hardening. The so-called corbelled arch of overstepping stones was doubtless known to the Mayan builders but was little used. Taking the single rectangular room as the unit of construction the width was limited to the span of the vault, which seldom exceeded twelve feet, while the length was indeterminate.

Plate XVI.

The first variation from the temple with one rectangular room was the two-roomed structure with one chamber directly behind the other. In this case there were two vaulted compartments separated from each other by a common supporting wall pierced by one or more doorways. The inner room was naturally more dimly lighted than the other one and as a result was modified into a sanctuary, or holy of holies, enhanced by sculptures and paintings, while the outer room developed gradually into a portico. The outer wall was cut by doorways till only pier-like sections remained, and finally these piers were replaced by square or round columns. The development of the Mayan temple may be traced through a thousand years of change and adjustment.

Much attention was paid by Mayan builders to the question of stability which was accomplished directly by keeping the center of gravity of the principal masses within the supporting walls rather than by the use of binding stones. The cross-section of a two-roomed temple of late date will illustrate how this was done. There are three principal masses, one over the front wall, one over the medial partition, and one over the back wall. The roof where these sections join is of no great thickness. The central mass is symmetrical and, if the mortar has the proper cohesiveness, very stable. For the front and back masses the projection of the upper or frieze zone tends to counterbalance the overhang of half the vault. In the earlier temples the upper zone of the façade often slopes backward so that the balance is not so perfect.

Plate XVII.

So far we have given brief space to the question of elevations. Taken vertically there are three parts to the Mayan building: first, the substructure or pyramidal base; second, the structure proper; third, the superstructure. In the case of temples the structure proper is one story in height. Two and three stories are rather common in palaces, but the upper stories are in most cases built directly over a solid core and not over the rooms of the lower story. The upper stories, therefore, recede, so that the building presents a terraced or pyramidal profile. One building at Tikal is five stories in height, in three receding planes, the three uppermost stories being one above the other. In a tower at Palenque we have an example of four stories but this is unusual.

On top of the building proper, especially if it is a temple, we frequently find a superstructure. This is a sort of crest, or roof wall, usually pierced by windows. When this wall rises from the center line of the roof it is called a roof comb or roof crest, and when it rises from the front wall it is called a flying façade. The highest temples in the Mayan Area are those of Tikal that attain a total height of about 175 feet, counting pyramid and superstructure.

Massive Sculptural Art.

The decoration of Mayan buildings may be considered under three heads: first, interior decoration; second, façade decoration; third, supplementary monuments. In many temples at Yaxchilan, Tikal, etc., are found splendidly sculptured lintels of stone or wood. At Copan we see wall sculptures that adorn the entrance to the sanctuary and at Palenque finely sculptured tablets let into the rear wall of the sanctuary. Elsewhere are occasional examples of mural paintings, sculptured door jambs, decorated interior steps, etc.

The façade decorations of the earlier Mayan structures are freer and more realistic than those of the later buildings. In many cases they consist of figures of men, serpents, etc., modeled in stucco or built up out of several nicely fitted blocks of stone. Grotesque faces also occur. In the later styles, decoration consists largely of “mask panels,” which are grotesque front view faces arranged to fill rectangular panels, but there is an increasing amount of purely geometric ornament. The masked panels represent in most instances a highly elaborated serpent’s face which sometimes carries the special markings of one of the greater gods. These panels, considered historically, pass through some interesting developments. Angular representations of serpent heads in profile are sometimes used at the sides of doorways.

The supplementary monuments are stelæ and altars. These are monolithic sculptures that are often set up in definite relation to a building either on the terraces or at the foot of the stairway. The stelæ are great plinths or slabs of stone carved on one or more sides with the figures of priests and warriors loaded down with religious symbols. The altars are small stones usually placed in front of the stelæ. Many stelæ and altars are set up in plazas and have no definite architectural quality.

Plate XVIII.

Minor Arts.

While the richly ornamented temples and the great monoliths attract first attention as works of art, the humbler products of the potter, the weaver, and the lapidary also attained to grace and dignity.

The Mayas were expert potters and employed a variety of technical processes in the decoration of their wares, such as painting, modeling, engraving, and stamping. We can only take time to examine a few examples of the best works, leaving the commoner products practically undescribed. Suffice it to say, that tripod dishes were much used, as well as bowls, bottle-necked vessels, and cylindrical vases, and that the common decorative use of hieroglyphs serves to mark off Mayan pottery from that of other Central American peoples. The realistic designs are drawn in accordance with the highest principles of decorative art. Serpents, monkeys, jaguars, various birds, as well as priests and supernatural beings, are used as subjects for pottery embellishment. Geometric decoration is also much used.

The polychrome pottery is rare and exceptionally beautiful, with designs relating to religious subjects. The background color of these cylindrical vases is usually orange or yellow, the designs are outlined in black, and the details filled in with delicate washes of red, brown, white, etc. The surface bears a high polish made by rubbing. Plate XVIII reproduces the design units on two vases from Chamá, Guatemala. The first example pictures a seated man with a widespreading headdress made of two conventional serpent heads from the ends of which issue the plumes of the quetzal. The hieroglyphs are Mayan day signs—Ben and Imix on the left and Kan and Caban on the right. The second example presents a god before an altar. This god has the face of an old man and his body is attached to a spiral shell. This divinity was probably associated with the end of the year.

In the next illustration an engraved design on a bowl from northern Yucatan is given. A jaguar attired in the dress of man is seated in a wreath of water lilies. After the vessel had been formed, but before it had been fired, this design was made by cutting away the background and incising finer details on the original surfaces. Other designs in relief were obtained by direct modeling or by stamping. The stamps were moulds or negatives made from bas-relief patterns.

The textile arts of the ancient Mayas can be recovered in part from a study of the monuments since the designs on many garments are reproduced in delicate relief. The designs are mostly all-over geometric patterns, but borders reproducing the typical “celestial band,” a line of astronomical symbols, are also seen. The techniques of brocade and lace were understood by the ancient weavers. In the minor textile art of basketry the products must also have ranked high; a typical basket pictured on a lintel is given in Fig. 25.

Jade and other semi-precious stones were carved by the Mayas into beautiful and fantastic shapes. There was a considerable use of mosaic veneer on masks and other ceremonial objects. Metal was unknown during the first centuries of Mayan florescence, later it was rare and could not be used for tools, but the working of gold and copper in the manufacture of ornaments was on a high plane.

Having now passed in brief review the objective side of Mayan remains, let us turn our attention to the subjective.

The Serpent in Mayan Art.

Mayan art is strange and unintelligible at first sight, but after careful study many wonderful qualities appear in it. In the knowledge of foreshortening and composition, the Mayas were superior to the Egyptians and Assyrians. They could draw the human body in pure profile and in free and graceful attitudes and they could compose several figures in a rectangular panel so that the result satisfies the eye of a modern artist.

But, unfortunately for our fuller understanding, the human form had only a minor interest because the gods were not in the image of man and the art was essentially religious. The gods were at best half human and half animal with grotesque elaborations. The high esthetic qualities were therefore wasted on subjects that appear trivial to many of us. But, as we break away more and more from the shackles of our own artistic conventions, we shall be able to appreciate the many beauties of ancient American sculpture.

The serpent motive controlled the character of Mayan art and was of first importance in all subsequent arts in Central America and Mexico. The serpent was seldom represented realistically, and yet we may safely infer that the rattlesnake was the prevailing model. Parts of other creatures were added to the serpent’s body, such as the plumes of the trogon or quetzal, the teeth of the jaguar, and the ornaments of man. The serpent was idealized and the lines characteristic of it entered into the delineation of many subjects distinct from the serpent itself. Scrolls and other sinuous details were attached to the serpent’s body and human ornaments such as earplugs, noseplugs, and even headdresses were added to its head. Finally, a human head was placed in the distended jaws. The Mayas may have intended to express the essential human intelligence of the serpent in this fashion. The serpent with a human head in its mouth doubtless belongs in the same category as the partly humanized gods of Egypt, Assyria, and India. It illustrates the partial assumption of human form by a beast divinity. The features combined are so peculiar and unnatural that the influence of Mayan art can be traced far and wide through Central America and Mexico by comparative study of the serpent motive.

A typical serpent head in profile (with the human head omitted) as developed by the Mayas for decorative purposes is reproduced in Fig. 27 with the parts lettered and named. It will be noted that the lines of interest in this design are either vertical or horizontal, although the parts themselves have sinuous outlines. Two features of the typical serpent’s body enter widely into the enrichment of all kinds of subjects. One of these is the double outline which is derived from the line paralleling the base of the serpent’s body and serving to mark off the belly region. The second feature is the small circle applied in bead-like rows to represent scales. The profile serpent head is also seen in scrolls and frets that elaborate many details of dress worn by the human beings carved on the monuments. The front view of the serpent’s head is usually extended to fill an oblong panel and is often used to decorate the base of a monument or the façade of a building. There are several monsters closely connected with the serpent that will be discussed as the description proceeds.

The Human Figure.

The human beings pictured on Mayan monuments are captives, rulers, and priests or worshippers. The captives are poor groveling creatures, bound by rope, held by the hair or crushed under foot to fill a rectangular space over which the conqueror stands. The rulers and priests are hard to distinguish from each other, perhaps because the government was largely theocratic and the ruler was looked upon as the spokesman of divinity. The spear and shield of war served to mark off certain human beings from others who carry religious objects such as the Ceremonial Bar and the Manikin Scepter.

Elaborate thrones on several monuments are canopied over by the arched body of the Two-headed Dragon that bears symbols of the planets. Over all is seen the great Serpent Bird with outstretched wings. Upon the throne is seated a human being who may safely be called a king and a line of footprints on the front of the throne may symbolize ascent. On other monuments the commanding personage wears the mask of a god and wields a club to subdue or scatters grain to placate. On the great majority of monuments the human beings, richly attired in ceremonial regalia and carrying a variety of objects, possibly present the great warriors and priests of the day. Many of the early sculptures are stiff and formal, but in a number of instances the quality of actual portraiture is convincing.

Design, Composition, and Perspective.

It is difficult to compare directly the graphic and plastic arts of different nations where the subject matter is diverse unless we compare them in accordance with absolute principles of design, composition, and perspective drawing. The Mayas produced one of the few really great and coherent expressions of beauty so far given to the world and their influence in America was historically as important as was that of the Greeks in Europe. Set as we are in the matrix of our own religious and artistic conventions, we find it difficult to approach sympathetically beauty that is overcast with an incomprehensible religion. When we can bring ourselves to feel the serpent symbolism of the Mayan artists as we feel, for instance, the conventional halo that crowns the ideal head of Christ, then we shall be able to recognize the truly emotional qualities of Mayan sculptures.

Plate XIX.

It is generally recognized that design to be successful must contain order of various sorts (in measurements, shapes, directions, tones, colors, etc.). In the simpler forms of decorative art the restrictions of technical process, as in basketry, may impose order, but in freehand sculpture it must come from an educated sense of beauty involving selection and the reproduction of the finest qualities. Design at its highest is embodied in the Mayan hieroglyphs. Given spaces had to be filled with given symbols and the results attained were uniformly excellent. Although the influence of the serpent led to the great use of tapering flame-like masses in nearly all Mayan designs, still dominant vertical and horizontal lines of interest were maintained.

The panel and lintel sculptures show composition achieved by simple and subtle methods. The sweeping plumes of headdresses were skilfully used to fill in corners, while blocks of glyphs were placed in open spaces that might otherwise distract the attention. Many compositions appear overcrowded to us, but this fault decreases with knowledge of the subject matter. Also, the Mayas appear to have painted their sculptures so that the details were emphasized by color contrast.

In perspective as applied to the human figure the Mayas were far ahead of the Egyptians and Assyrians, since they could draw the body in front view and pure profile without the distortions seen in the Old World. They were even able to make graceful approximations of a three-quarters view, as may be seen in Plate XIX, where the raising of the nearer shoulder has a distinct perspective value.

The Mayan Pantheon.

We have seen that during the earliest culture of Mexico and Central America there were no figurines of individualized gods, simply straightforward representations of human beings and animals. With the Mayan culture, however, we enter upon an epoch of rich religious symbolism. The serpent, highly conventionalized as we have just seen, and variously combined with elements taken from the quetzal, the jaguar, and even from man himself, appears as a general indication of divinity. The Ceremonial Bar, essentially a two-headed serpent carrying in its mouths the heads of an important god, is one of the earliest religious objects. The heads that appear in the mouths are usually those of a Roman-nosed or of a Long-nosed god. Other representations of divinities are combined with the Two-headed Dragon that also has reptilian characters; still others appear as headdresses and masks on human figures. Strange to say, the gods are supplementary to the human figures on all the early sculptures. In the codices, however, they are represented apart from man, as engaged in various activities and contests. Mayan religion was clearly organized on a dualistic basis. The powers for good are in a constant struggle with the powers for evil and most of the benevolent divinities have malevolent duplicates. In actual form the gods are partly human, but ordinarily the determining features are grotesque variations from the human face and figure. While beast associations are sometimes discernible, they are rarely controlling. Sometimes, however, beast gods are represented in unmistakable fashion, good examples being the jaguar, the bat, and the moan bird. All of these have human bodies and animal heads.

The head position in the Mayan pantheon may with some assurance be given to a god who has been called the Roman-nosed god and who is probably to be identified with Itzamna. According to Spanish writers Itzamna was regarded by the Mayas as the creator and father of all, the inventor of writing, the founder of the Mayan civilization, and the god of light and life. This Zeus of the Mayas is represented in the form of an old man with a high forehead, a strongly aquiline nose, and a distended mouth, toothless, or with a single enlarged tooth in front. On the ancient monuments he is frequently seen in the mouths of the Ceremonial Bar and also in association with the sun, moon, and the planet Venus. In the codices he is shown as a protector of the Maize God and in other acts beneficial to man. There is, however, a malevolent aspect of this god or possibly another being who imitates his features but not his qualities. This being may be an old woman goddess who wears a serpent headdress and who is associated with destructive floods, the very opposite of life-giving sunshine.

Of almost equal importance to the Roman-nosed god is a god whose face is a more or less humanized serpent. His proper name is Ah Bolon Dzacab.

On the early monuments this god is shown in connection with the Ceremonial Bar. He also appears at a somewhat later date as the Manikin Scepter, an object in the form of a manikin that is held out by a leg modified into a serpent’s body. Since a celt is usually worn in the forehead of the manikin it has been suggested that this curious object represents a ceremonial battle-ax. The face of the Long-nosed god is frequently worn by high priests and rulers either as a headdress or, more rarely, as a mask. It is possible that this divinity was regarded as primarily a war god but in the codices he is evidently a universal deity of varied powers. Especially he is shown in connection with water and maize and it seems likely that his principal function was to cause life-giving rain. A malevolent variant of the Long-nosed god has a bare bone for the lower jaw, a sun symbol on his forehead, and a headdress consisting of three other symbols. This head is associated with the Two-headed Dragon, a monster which brings calamity at times of the inferior conjunction of Venus and the Sun.

Ah Puch, the Lord of Death, was the principal malevolent god. His body as figured in the codices is a strange compound of skeletal and full-fleshed parts. His head is a skull except for the normal ears. His spinal column is usually bare and sometimes the ribs as well, but the arms and legs are often covered with flesh. As added symbols black spots and dotted lines are sometimes drawn upon his body and a curious device like a percentage sign upon his cheek. The Death God in complete form is rarely shown in the earlier sculptures, although grinning skulls and interlacing bones occur as temple decorations. As has already been pointed out, Mayan religion was strongly dualistic and the evil powers are usually to be identified by death symbols such as a bare bone for the lower jaw, or the percentage symbol noted above on the cheek. Death heads of several kinds are frequent in the hieroglyphic inscriptions.

Plate XX.

The Maize God, figured so frequently on the ancient monuments and in the Mayan codices may be the same that in the time of the Conquest was called Yum Kaax, Lord of the Harvest. He is represented as a youth with a leafy headdress that is possibly meant to represent an opening ear of maize. The _kan_ sign, a grain of maize, is constantly associated with him. He appears to be at the mercy of the evil deities when not protected by the good ones.

Space considerations forbid a further study of Mayan gods. Suffice it to say that several other divinities are shown in the sculptures and codices including a somewhat youthful appearing war god, as well as a more mature and grotesque war god called Ek Ahau, the Black Captain. There is an old god with a shell attached to his body, a god with the face of a monkey who is associated with the North Star, a god in the form of a frog and another in the form of a bat. In the Spanish accounts we can also glean scanty information concerning Ixchel, Goddess of the Rainbow and mate of Itzamna; Ixtubtun, patroness of jade carvers; Ixchebelyax, patroness of the art of weaving and decorating cloth, etc.

How Mayan History has been Recovered.

The arrangement of Mayan remains on a time scale is now an accomplished fact thanks to a correlation which permits us to read the dates on ancient monuments in terms of the Gregorian calendar and the Christian era. Early attempts to achieve this result met with widely varying results. Most of these attempts were made by developing a single line of evidence and some were based on assumptions that can now be disproved. But no single line of evidence should be deemed sufficient to decide this all important question.

The general course of Mayan history is indicated unmistakably by four principal lines of evidence capable of being correlated with each other. These are:—

1. Stratigraphic sequences in pottery, stylistic sequences in sculpture, structural sequences in architecture, etc.

2. Traditional history preserved in the Books of Chilam Balam and representing a knowledge of past events at the time of the Spanish Conquest.

3. Dates inscribed on a great number of monuments in terms of the ancient Mayan time counts.

4. Astronomical checks on these inscribed dates.

The artistic position of a monument may be used to validate the contemporaneous character of an inscribed date, otherwise interpretable as referring to the past or future, or it may serve to fix a repeating date in a single historical setting. The events in the traditional history of the Books of Chilam Balam, meager enough when taken alone, have the valuable quality of reaching back into the time of the First Empire when the use of dates on temples and monuments was much in vogue. They permit a richly documented past to be tied in, as it were, to a poorly documented terminal period.

Before the matter of the ancient inscribed dates can be understood, however, the somewhat complicated mechanism of the Mayan calendar must be explained, as well as the system of hieroglyphs and the notation of numbers. Then there is the problem of correlation which necessitates delicate adjudications of evidence. Finally we must take up the proofs which demonstrate the astronomical achievements of the Mayas which, in reverse, provide checks upon the correctness of the day for day correlation itself. We must proceed slowly and carefully, without much following of by-ways, however attractive they may appear. We will begin with stratigraphy and stylistic sequence.

Sequences in Art.

The study of Mayan ceramics reveals developments as regard shapes, fabrics, and designs. Specimens recovered from sealed cysts under stelæ at Copan establish true associations with the higher forms of art and can be used far and wide in comparison with pottery finds in Salvador, Guatemala, etc. Vaillant has found stratigraphic sequences in a collection of funerary vessels obtained at Holmul, where graves occurred under the floors and within the filled-in chambers of a buried temple.

As regards sculpture we find at Copan a remarkably homogeneous series of stelæ on which a royal or priestly personage stands erect and in front view. A Ceremonial Bar is held symmetrically in the two arms and the body is partly covered with rich and elaborate ornament. The amount of relief, the proportions of the body, the forms of the Ceremonial Bar, etc., all pass through a harmonious development. The earliest monuments show a crude block-like carving of the face, with protruding eyes, while the latest monuments have fully rounded contours. At Tikal the stelæ show, for the most part, human figures in profile, but unmistakable development can be seen in general quality of carving as well as in specific details.

Plate XXI. Development in Style of Carving at Copan.

In making comparisons in art it is always necessary to consider similar things. At many other Mayan cities than the two named above it is possible to obtain satisfactory evidence of sequence in art forms by cutting out similar details from different masses. Thus at Naranjo, when we examine all the Ceremonial Bars, we find a remarkable development of flamboyant detail on the later monuments. At Quirigua the faces on the tops of the altars may be compared with the same result. At Piedras Negras the heads of the Two-headed Dragon that occur in exactly similar positions on four monuments likewise show a steady modification towards flamboyancy as may be seen from Fig. 36, where the front heads are put side by side.

Still other lines of evidence on historical sequence are to be gained from a study of architecture. Not only is it possible to determine the general developments that hold true of the entire Mayan Area but also in a given city it is sometimes possible to arrange the buildings in their order of erection according to dependable criteria, both decorative and structural.

The earliest temples have narrow vaulted rooms, heavy walls, and a single doorway. The rooms increase in width, the walls decrease in thickness, the doorways multiply till the spaces between them become piers and finally columns. The support for the heavy roof comb taxed the structural ingenuity of the Mayan architects. The solving of this problem is marked by successive advances and since mechanical science goes forward rather than backward the relative order of structures is fairly certain. Moreover, many buildings are closely associated with dated monuments, tablets, lintels, or stelæ. Still another evidence of architectural sequence is seen in structures that have been enlarged by the addition of wings or by the enclosing of the old parts under new masonry.

Books of Chilam Balam.

We now turn to a very different kind of history, the digests of ancient chronicles in the Mayan language but in Spanish script which managed to survive in the so-called Books of Chilam Balam along with other texts, ceremonial and medical. There are five chronicles, the two longest covering 68 katuns before the coming of the Spaniards in 1517. We now know that these katuns were time units consisting of 7200 days, or nearly 20 years, and that they were designated by their final day which was always a day called Ahau associated with a number, 1 and 13, in a peculiar sequence. A katun with the same designation returns in 13 × 7200 days or about 256 years. Such a completion, counted especially from a Katun 8 Ahau, was called the “doubling back of the katuns” or, as we would say, the completion of a cycle. The count of the katuns used in the chronicles was really part and parcel of a fuller count just as a year ’22 implies a position in one of the centuries of our Christian era.

The chronicles unfortunately give few names of chieftains and cities and few outstanding events. Chichen Itza is the city most fully concerned and an early occupation is recorded, then an abandonment for some two and a half centuries. After its re-establishment the Toltecs enter Yucatan and capture this capital. The first part of the chronicles has the atmosphere of myth rather than history, but a calendarial adjustment of some kind is mentioned in one place. This was an event which took place in 503 A. D. as we shall see in another place.

The first rough correlation between the time count on the ancient monuments and the time count in the chronicles was made on the theory that a dated lintel at Chichen Itza had to be placed in the first occupation of the city: when this was done the beginning of the chronicles was found to proceed from an important round number in the old day count while the abandonment of Chichen Itza coincided with the abandonment of all the cities of the Mayan First Empire. We must now turn attention to the famous calendar.

The Mayan Time Counts.

The passage of time, seen in finer and finer degree in the course of human life, the succession of summer and winter, the waxing and waning moons, the alternation of day and night, the upward and downward sloping of the sun, and the swinging dial of the stars, are phenomena that no human group has failed to notice. Longer periods than those included within the memory of the oldest men (presenting an imperfect reflection of the memory of men still older) are found only in those favored centers where a serviceable system of counting has been developed. Mythology has a content of history but hardly of chronology. Tradition, when organized by the priesthood, may be reasonably dependable for perhaps two hundred years.

The year and the month are the basis of all primitive time systems, the former depending on the recurring seasons, the latter on recurring moons. Both of these are expressed in days. Unfortunately, the day is not contained evenly in either the month or the year, nor do these larger time measures show any simple relation to each other as regards length. The history of the calendar is one of compromise and correction.

The Mayan calendars were made possible by: first, the knowledge of astronomical time periods; second, the possession of a suitable notation system; third, the discovery of a permutation system of names and numbers.

Elements of the Day Count.

There is reason to believe that the Mayas had first a lunar-solar calendar of twelve months of thirty days each, making a year of 360 days, and that they reduced the number of days in the formal month to 20 and raised the number of months in the year from 12 to 18. These changes permitted a close adjustment of the units of time with their vigesimal system of counting. With a truer knowledge of the length of the year an extra five day month was added to make a year of 365 days. Beyond this the “leap year” error was calculated but not interpolated. As proof that the lunar month of thirty days preceded the formal month of twenty days, it need only be pointed out that the name for this period, _uinal_, seems to be connected with the name for moon, _u_, and that the hieroglyph for moon has the value, twenty, in the inscriptions and ancient books.

Before entering into a fuller discussion of the astronomical and notational facts let us turn for a moment to the third fact, the permutation system. The origin of the cycle[1] known by the Mayan name _tzolkin_ and the Aztecan name _tonalamatl_, book of the days, has never been satisfactorily explained. It is a permutation system with two factors, 13 and 20. The former is a series of numbers (1-13) and the latter a series of twenty names as follows:—

1. Imix
2. Ik
3. Akbal
4. Kan
5. Chicchan
6. Cimi
7. Manik
8. Lamat
9. Muluc
10. Oc
11. Chuen
12. Eb
13. Ben
14. Ix
15. Men
16. Cib
17. Caban
18. Eznab
19. Cauac
20. Ahau

These two series revolve upon each other like two wheels, one with thirteen and the other with twenty cogs. The smaller wheel of numbers makes twenty revolutions while the larger wheel of days is making thirteen revolutions, and after this the number cog and name cog with which the experiment began are again in combination. Thus, a day with the same number and the same name recurs every 13 × 20 or 260 days.

This 260 day cycle corresponds to no natural time period and is an invention pure and simple. It is the most fundamental feature of the Mayan time count and of the time counts of other nations in Mexico and Central America. We may perhaps assume that the twenty names were originally those of the twenty days in the modified lunar months. But the thirteen numbers have no recognized prototype. The formal book of days generally was considered to begin with 1 Imix for the Mayas and with a corresponding day for the other Mexican and Central American nations. But it can be made to begin anywhere and proceed to an equivalent station that is always 260 days removed.

PERMUTATION TABLE

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 1
1 Imix 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1
2 Ik 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2
3 Akbal 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3
4 Kan 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4
5 Chicchan 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5
6 Cimi 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6
7 Manik 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7
8 Lamat 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8
9 Muluc 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9
10 Oc 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10
11 Chuen 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11
12 Eb 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12
13 Ben 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13
14 Ix 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1
15 Men 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2
16 Cib 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3
17 Caban 4 11 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4
18 Eznab 5 12 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5
19 Cauac 6 13 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6
20 Ahau 7 1 8 2 9 3 10 4 11 5 12 6 13 7

The Conventional Year.

It has been stated that the Mayas arrived at a conventional 365 day year made up of eighteen months of twenty days each plus a short period of five days that fell after the eighteen regular months had been counted. The Mayan month names are as follows:—

1. Pop
2. Uo
3. Zip
4. Zotz
5. Tzec
6. Xul
7. Yaxkin
8. Mol
9. Chen
10. Yax
11. Zac
12. Ceh
13. Mac
14. Kankin
15. Muan
16. Pax
17. Kayab
18. Cumhu
19. Uayeb (five additional days)

Since there are twenty days or positions in the month and likewise twenty distinct day names in the _tzolkin_, falling in regular order, it follows that each day would always occupy the same month position were it not for the offset at the end of each year caused by the short Uayeb period. As it is, any day name occupies the same month position during the course of an entire year and a position five days in advance during the course of the following year. Since five is contained four times in twenty there can be only four shifts, the fifth year showing the same arrangement as the first. The following table gives the month positions of each day name during the changes of four consecutive years as these are recorded in the ancient inscriptions.

Plate XXII.

Ik Manik Eb Caban 0 5 10 15
Akbal Lamat Ben Eznab 1 6 11 16
Kan Muluc Ix Cauac 2 7 12 17
Chicchan Oc Men Ahau 3 8 13 18
Imix Cimi Chuen Cib 4 9 14 19

Thus Ik occupies 0 position the first year, 5, the second year, 10 the third, 15 the fourth, and 0 the fifth. While Manik that belongs to the same set has position 5 the first year, 10 the second, etc. It will be noted that Imix, the first day of the formal permutation of the _tzolkin_ is never the first day of a month.

The Calendar Round.

But this assignment of particular day names to particular places in the month does not close the problem. Each day name is associated in the _tzolkin_, or permutation, with a day number. While it is true that each day can occupy only four month positions in as many years, it must be remembered that the day numbers associated with these names can run the whole gamut of 13 changes. Thus, although Ik must always occupy the fifth position in the months during a certain year, nevertheless it will have numbers which fall in the sequence 1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 1, etc. The complete cycle of variations must run through the least common multiple of 260 (the permutation) and 365 (the conventional year) or 18,980 days. This cycle is commonly known as the Calendar Round. A Mayan day fixed in a month, or let us say a calendar round date, has four parts to its name, thus, 11 Ahau 18 Mac. We describe a day as Tuesday, July 4, meaning “Tuesday the third day of the seven day week occupies the fourth position in the month of July.” Similarly the Mayan date 11 Ahau 18 Mac may be read “the day named Ahau as eleventh day in a thirteen day week occupies the eighteenth position in the month Mac.” Owing to leap year corrections the European date given above does not recur at regular intervals, but a Mayan day recurs infallibly in 52 calendar years, never sooner, never later.

So far we have considered two kinds of Mayan dates, first the _tzolkin_ date, recurring every 260 days, secondly the calendar round date recurring every 18,980 days. Before we can understand a third and much more important kind of date, namely a date which states, in addition to the calendar round designation, the total number of days since a beginning day called 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, located far in the past, we must direct our attention to the matter of numbers and notation.

Mayan Numbers.

The three most common numerical systems in use in the world are all derived from man’s anatomy. The quinary system is based on counting the fingers of one hand, the decimal system on counting those of both hands and the vigesimal system, which prevailed in Central America, is based on counting all the fingers and all the toes. The vigesimal system is seen in imperfect form in our count of scores, where seventy years are three score and ten.

The Mayan name for one was _hun_: they had simple names to 9 and composite ones from 10 to 19, much as in English, and twenty was _hun kal_, one score. The ascending values in the vigesimal scale were as follows:—

Mayan Numbers Arabic Equivalents

hun 1
20 hun = 1 kal 20
20 kal = 1 bak 400
20 bak = 1 pic 8,000
20 pic = 1 cabal 160,000
20 cabal = 1 kinchil 3,200,000
20 kinchil = 1 alau 64,000,000
20 alau = 1 hablat 1,280,000,000

They invented signs for zero and discovered the principle of “local value” in the writing down of numbers centuries before these ideas (which are fundamental to higher mathematics) were known in the Old World. The notation of numbers had its simpler and more complicated phase. In the simpler phase 1 was represented by a dot, 2 by two dots, 5 by a bar, 6 by a bar and dot, 15 by three bars, etc. The commonest sign for zero was a shell while a picture of the moon stood for twenty. In the more elaborate notation a series of twenty faces of gods represented the numerals from 0 to 19.

The straight vigesimal system was doubtless used by the Mayas in ordinary counting, but in counting time a very important change was introduced in the third position. Also the names were modified: _hun_ was called _kin_ which means sun or day. In the second position _kal_ was called _uinal_ which means month and 18 of these were taken to form a _tun_, stone, which was the third unit. The _tun_ then had a value of 18 × 20 = 360 days, making a conventional year about five and a quarter days less than a true year. Twenty _tuns_ made a _kaltun_ or _katun_ and above this period the numeral system proceeded as before and in the ascending values the names already given were merely combined with _tun_, if Gates is right in his clever suggestion. For years it has been customary to speak of the fifth period as cycle for want of a native term: this will now be called _baktun_. One _hablatun_, the highest period with a name, has the astonishing value of 460,800,000,000 days. However, the highest numbers fall considerably short of this potential limit.

In our decimal system the number 347,981, for instance, is really:—

3 × 100000
4 × 10000
7 × 1000
9 × 100
8 × 10
1 × 1

When written out in a horizontal line each “position” has a value ten times that of the “position” to the right of it. It is understood that a digit which stands in a “position” is to be multiplied by 1, 10, 100, 1000, etc., as the case may be. The Mayas, using the principle of position, ordinarily write their bar and dot numerals in columns. But we can partially transcribe a Mayan number in imitation of our own system by putting dots or dashes between the positions or periods. The number in five positions given below is transcribed as 9.12.16.7.8.

9 × 144000 1,296,000
12 × 7200 86,400
16 × 360 5,760
7 × 20 140
8 × 1 8
1,388,308

We read this date: 9 baktuns, 12 katuns, 16 tuns, 7 uinals, and 8 kins. It is convenient to remember that a tun is a little less than a year, a katun a little less than 20 years and a baktun a little less than 400 years. But the count is really of days, not years.

Although the numerical values are expressed by position alone in some cases, in other cases use is made of Period Glyphs to make assurance doubly sure. These Period Glyphs represent the basic value of the positions which are to be multiplied by the accompanying numerals. For examples, see Figs. 44 and 45.

Plate XXIII.

Introducing Glyph
Initial Series
1. 9 baktuns (cycles).
2. 14 katuns
3. 13 tuns (written 12 by error)
4. 4 uinals
5. 17 kins
6. 12 Caban (day)
Supplementary Series
7. glyph F
8. (a) glyph D, (b) glyph C
9. (a) glyph X, (b) glyph B
10. (a) glyph A (30 day lunar month)
10. (b) 5 Kayab (month)
Explanatory Series
11, 12, 13 and 14a, possibly explain the dates
Secondary Series
14b, 3 kins, 13 uinals
15a, 6 tuns (to be added)
Period Ending Date
16. 4 Ahau 13 Yax (9.15.0.0.0)

The Long Count.

Many early monuments of the Mayas have inscriptions with an enlarged Introducing Glyph containing a variable element indicating the title or principal subject matter of the inscription. Next follows the number of elapsed days from the epoch of a Mundane Era. This starting point is uniformly the day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu and the complete Initial Series date not only states the number of elapsed days, but also the name and number of the day reached and its position in a Mayan month.

The Initial Series is normally followed by a Supplementary Series which concerns the lunar calendar, and often there are numbers of days to be added to or subtracted from the Initial Series date: these are called Secondary Series. Also Period Ending dates are used, these being merely abbreviated dates which correspond to indicated round numbers in the day count.

The Initial Series analyzed in Plate XXIII actually records the number 1,401,217. This number does not, however, reach the day 12 Caban declared immediately after it or the month position 5 Kayab recorded in glyph 10b. When 13 tuns are corrected to 12 tuns on the theory that the sculptor did not follow copy, we do reach 12 Caban 5 Kayab. Another check comes when we add the Secondary Series of 2423 days and reach 4 Ahau 13 Yax ending an even katun.

Dates of Dedication.

Initial Series dates are especially common on stelæ at cities of the First Empire, mostly located in the southern part of the Mayan Area. While it is impossible to read much of the texts which accompany these dates nevertheless it is a remarkable fact that when we arrange the monuments in their artistic order we find that the inscribed dates in the great majority of cases fall in the same order. This leads us to conclude that the dates are practically contemporaneous with the carving and setting up of the monuments. Now the above is especially true when the inscription gives a simple Initial Series date. When more than one date is given the historic one appears in most instances to be the latest, but in a few instances it appears to be a specially emphasized intermediate date. In addition, then, to contemporaneous dates there are some that refer to the past and others that refer to the future.