Word: maya
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Dates: during 1920-1929
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Because of the great importance of religion in Maya life the members of our expedition were not surprised to find that most of the buildings in the seven ruined cities we discovered were temples or edifices devoted to religious purposes. Under the latter heading, of course, would come tombs, observatories, monasteries and nunneries. One of the most interesting buildings Dr. Spinden and I found at Okop, a building that is now a mass of stone, 45 feet high 130 feet long and 110 feet wide--with most of its ceilings caved in--was perhaps of the latter category...
...look at the grotesque faces decorating the four corners of Muyil's highest temple would alone incline the archaeologist to the opinion that Muyil is not a First Empire city. Such faces or "mask panels" are common in Maya architecture; but in the southern and older area the details of the face are generally built up of stucoo, whereas in the northern and later area they are in relief. These faces at Muyil are in relief that is, cut into the walls...
This tall temple with the grotesque faces of conventionalized art at its four corners presents one entirely new feature in Maya architecture. This is a round cupola or small tower, which rises from the roof of the temple proper, itself set upon a pyramidal mound of five terraces ascended by a wide stairway. The cupola enhances the effect of height and grandeur...
...work has tended strongly to confirm the belief of the scientific world that Maya history saw a gradual shifting of population from the south to the north. Why magnificent southern cities like Copan in Northern Honduras and Tikal in Guatemala were abandoned is still a riddle. The exodus from them about 600 A. D. may have been caused by exhaustion of the soil or by epidemic or by some other danger yet unproved. But there seems no doubt that the Mayas did migrate gradually northward and that their cities in Northern Yucatan were the last ones they built...
...this building may be a tomb. Or it may have been associated with worship of Kukulcan. God of the Air. There is one more possibility which suggests itself with much force that this peculiar edifice, like the only other round building now known to be standing in the entire Maya area the so-called Caracol at Chichen Itza was an astronomical observatory. Most of the 30 per cent of the Maya hieroglyphs that have been translated relate to the calendar and astronomy of the ancients or to methods of counting. We realize how advanced was the science of these first...