BOOK NOTES

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLIX, Issue 245, 14 September 1929, Page 13

BOOK NOTES

AN ANCIENT CIVILISATION. THE MAYA~ CITIES. Although it is only a few years since the “dead” cities -of the Maya in Tucatan and the neighbourhood were discovered, and the existence of a vanished civilisation was established, considerable progress has been made in unveiling their secrets. One of the foremost investigators is Dr. Thomas Gann, who in “Discoveries and Adventures in Central America” gives an account of his work at Chunucha, in British Honduras, one of the oldest and most perfect of these ruined cities, and the only one that has hitherto been found in British territory. No sooner had he commenced operations than their success was jeopardised by two incidents which occurred within a few hours of each other. He himself had a narrow escape from being killed by a huge branch which suddenly broke off from a tree, and a stone pillar, crashing down, missed one of his labourers by inches. The coincidence impressed the natives, who thought that the old gods resented their intrusion, and a mixture of tact and firmness was required to induco them to carry on. The Maya excelled in many sciences and crafts. Their script has not yet been deciphered, but their system of numerical notation hap been elucidated. They were expert mathematicians and astronomers. One of the stelae at Chunucha bore a date equivalent to December IC, 293 A.D. They were highly skilled in ceramics. The author picked up the fragments of a beautiful polychrome bowl upon which was exquisitely depicted in red, yellow and black, a scene from Mayan life with explanatory hieroglyphics. It was buried, along with a necklace with a small obsidiar knife, with a child of about six, whose skeleton had been preserved by the action of the earth. The intention was clearly that the little one should have its treasures for use in the new life it was about to enter —a pathetic touch to have survived all these centuries. There was also buried with the skeleton -the top joint of the little finger of a small adult. It was almost certainly that of the mother, cut off with the obsidian knife and interred with it partlv as a token of grief and partly with some instinctive idea of keeping contact with the beloved dead. More than once tins bone has been found along with the skeleton of a child. There are many problems connected with these cities to which no final answer has yet been given. There is evidence that they were abandoned quite suddenly. What was the cause r Some of them must have contained a quarter of a million inhabitants. How did they manage to grow sufficient corn for their needs ? They had no beasts of burden, and their tools were of stone, whereas the modern Indians, aided by animal transport and vastly superior implements, are hard put to it to raise enough grain for a tew thousand people, and their dietary is supplemented by tinned foods and the like. Dr. Gann thinks that the explanation must be that they practised Intensive cultivation, and understood the rotation of crops, a principle which the modern Indian is quite unable to grasp, even when it is demonstrated to him.