Chapter XVIII: Appendix: IV

RUINS OF COPAN

NO American has spent so much time in exploring the ruins of this mysterious city of Honduras as Mr. George Byron Gordon. For a number of years he spent the greater part of the year in making excavations, removing debris, and in exploring every nook and corner of this ancient seat of civilization. Through the courtesy of The Century Company I am permitted to give the following description of Copan as written by Mr. Gordon and published in the Century Magazine, which, though greatly abbreviated, is yet sufficiently full to give the reader a fair idea of the one-time grandeur and magnificence of this ancient city:—

Hidden away among the mountains of Honduras, in a beautiful
valley which, even in that little-travelled country, where
remoteness is a characteristic attribute of places, is unusually
secluded, Copan is one of the greatest mysteries of the ages.
Not only do the recent explorations confirm the magnitude and
importance of the ruins, but the collection of relics now in the
Peabody Museum is sufficient to convince the most skeptical that
here are the remains of a city, unknown to history, as
remarkable and as worthy of our careful consideration as any of
the ancient centres of civilization in the Old World. Whatever
the origin of its people, this old city is distinctly
American—the growth of American soil and environment.

The area comprised within the limits of the old city consists of
a level plain seven or eight miles long and two miles wide at
the greatest. This plain is covered with the remains of stone
houses, doubtless the habitations of the wealthy. The streets,
squares, and courtyards were paved with stone, or with white
cement made from lime and powdered rock, and the drainage was
accomplished by means of covered canals and underground sewers
built of stone and cement. On the slopes of the mountains, too,
are found numerous ruins; and even on the highest peaks fallen
columns and ruined structures may be seen.

On the right bank of the Copan River, in the midst of the city,
stands the principal group of structures—the temples, palaces,
and buildings of a public character. These form part of what has
been called, for want of a better name, the Main Structure—a
vast, irregular pile rising from the plain in steps and terraces
of masonry, and terminating in several great pyramidal
elevations, each topped by the remains of a temple which, before
our excavations were begun, looked like a huge pile of fragments
bound together by the roots of trees, while the slopes of the
pyramids, and the terraces and pavements below, are strewn with
the ruins of these superb edifices. Its sides face the four
cardinal points; its greatest length from north to south is
about eight hundred feet, and from east to west it measured
originally nearly as much, but a part of the eastern side has
been carried away by the swift current of the river which flows
directly against it.

Within the Main Structure, at an elevation of sixty feet, is a
court one hundred and twenty feet square, which, with its
surrounding architecture, must have presented a magnificent
spectacle, when it was entire. It was entered from the south
through a passage thirty feet in width, between two high
pyramidal foundations, each supporting a temple. The court
itself is inclosed by ranges of steps or seats rising to a
height of twenty feet, as in an amphitheatre; they are built of
great blocks of stone, neatly cut, and regularly laid without
mortar. In the centre of the western side is a stairway
projecting a few feet into the court, and leading to a broad
terrace above the range of seats on that side. The upper steps
in this stairway are divided in the midst by the head of a huge
dragon facing the court, and holding in its distended jaws a
grotesque human head of colossal proportions.

One temple, in many ways the most interesting yet explored,
furnishes a typical example of this class of building. From the
stone-paved terrace above the western side of the court, a great
stairway, with massive steps, leads up to a platform which runs
the whole length of the building, and is carried out at each end
upon solid piers to the line of beginning of the steps. From the
head of the stairway two graceful wing stones, extending across
the platform, guard the approach to the first entrance, which
gives access to the outer chambers. This doorway is nine feet
wide, and was covered with a vaulted roof, now fallen. Directly
opposite it, in the interior, is a second doorway, leading to
the inner chambers. In front of this second entrance is a step
two feet high, ornamented on the face by hieroglyphics and
skulls carved in relief. At each end a huge death’s-head forms a
pedestal for a crouching human figure supporting the head of a
dragon, the body of which is turned upward, and is lost among
the scrollwork and figures of a cornice that runs above the
doorway. All the interior walls were covered with a thin coat of
stucco, on which figures and scenes were painted in various
colours; and the cornices were adorned with stucco masks and
other ornaments, likewise painted. The roofs, with the massive
towers which they supported, had fallen and filled the chambers
completely. The horizontal arch formed by overlapping stones was
always used in the construction of roofs—a type that is common
to all the Maya cities. The outside of the building, profusely
ornamented with grotesques at every line, bears witness to the
ambitious prodigality of the architect, his love of adornment,
and his aversion to plain surfaces—a characteristic that is
manifested on all the monuments and carvings at Copan. An
elaborate cornice with foliated design, adorned with plumage,
all beautifully carved, ran around the four sides. Higher up, a
row of portrait-like busts was also carried around the entire
building. Whatever of plain surface remained was covered with
pure white stucco, and the same material was used upon the
sculptures to give a finish to the carving and a suitable
surface for the colours that were used to produce the desired
effect.

The northern slope of the main structure goes down abruptly, in
a broad, steep flight of steps, to the floor of the plaza, which
stretches away to the north, and terminates in an amphitheatre
about three hundred feet square, inclosed on the eastern,
northern, and western sides by ranges of seats twenty feet high.
The southern side is open, except that its centre is occupied by
a pyramid that rose almost to a point, leaving a square platform
on top. In the plaza stood the principal group of obelisks,
monoliths, or stelae, as they are variously designated, to which
Copan owes its principal fame. There are fifteen in all
scattered over the plaza, some overthrown and others still
erect. Although affording infinite variety in detail, in general
design and treatment these monuments are all the same. They
average about twelve feet in height and three feet square, and
are carved over the entire surface. On one side, and sometimes
on two opposite sides, stands a human figure in high relief,
always looking toward one of the cardinal points. Upon these
personages is displayed such a wealth of ornament and insignia
that the figures look over-burdened and encumbered, giving the
idea that the chief object of the artist was the display of such
adornment. While nearly all these human figures are
disproportionately short, the accurate drawing and excellent
treatment of the smaller figures in the designs surrounding the
principal characters show that this is not owing to deficient
perception on the part of the sculptor.

The sides of the monuments not occupied by human figures are
covered by hieroglyphic inscriptions. In front of each of the
figures, at a distance of a few feet, is a smaller sculpture,
called an altar. These measure sometimes seven feet across and
from two to four feet in height. The design sometimes represents
a grotesque monster with curious adornments; but a common form
of altar is a flat disk seven or eight feet in diameter, with a
row of hieroglyphs around the edge. Much of the carving on these
obelisks and altars is doubtless symbolical; and until this is
better understood it is useless to speculate upon the character
of the monuments themselves—speculations in which our ignorance
would allow us unlimited scope. Two of the figures have their
faces hidden by masks, a circumstance which seems to preclude
the theory that they are portraits, although that is suggested
by the striking individuality of many of the faces. But who can
tell? The statues may be those of deified kings or heroes; on
these altars a grateful people may have paid the tribute of
affection; or, as some would have us believe, they may have been
idols, insatiate monsters, on whose reeking altars the bloody
sacrifice prevailed. We would fain believe that the Mayas were a
humane and gentle people, given to generous impulses and noble
deeds; that these relics of their art, in which the thought and
feeling of the people strove to find expression, had for their
object and inspiration a better motive than the deliberate
shedding of human blood.

No regular burying-place has yet been found at Copan, but a
number of isolated tombs have been explored. The location of
these was strange and unexpected—beneath the pavement of
courtyards and under the foundations of houses. They consist of
small chambers of very excellent masonry, roofed sometimes by
means of the horizontal arch, and sometimes by means of slabs of
stone resting on the top of the vertical walls. In these tombs
one, and sometimes two, interments had been made. The bodies had
been laid at full length upon the floor. The cerements had long
since moldered away, and the skeletons themselves were in a
crumbling condition, and give little knowledge of the physical
characteristics of the people; but one fact of surpassing
interest came to light concerning their private lives, namely,
the custom of adorning the front teeth with gems inlaid in the
enamel, and by filing. The stone used in the inlaying was a
bright-green jadeite. A circular cavity about one-sixteenth of
an inch in diameter was drilled in the enamel of each of the two
front teeth of the upper row, and inlaid with a little disk of
jadeite, cut to a perfect fit, and secured by means of a bright
red cement.

Besides the human remains, each tomb contained a number of
earthenware vessels of great beauty and excellence of
workmanship, some of them painted with figures in various
colours, and others finished with a peculiar polish resembling a
glaze. Some of these vessels contained charcoal and ashes; in
others were various articles of use and adornment. The beads,
ear-ornaments, medallions, and a variety of other ornaments,
usually of jadeite, exhibit an extraordinary degree of skill in
the art of cutting and polishing stones, while the pearls and
trinkets carved from shell must have been obtained by trade or
by journeys to the coast. In the same tombs with these ornaments
were frequently found such objects of utility as knives and
spear-heads of flint and obsidian, and stone hatchets and
chisels. These were doubtless family vaults, though none of them
contained the remains of many burials.

As to the antiquity of the city, although we have no data that
will enable us to fix a date, there are certain historical facts
that remove it from the reach of history or tradition, and place
the era of its destruction long anterior to the discovery of
America.

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