Word: mayan
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Dates: during 1923-1923
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...well-organized group of scientists and engineers, including Dr. Morley, John F. Barry, William Barclay Parsons, Dr. Marshall H. Saville of Columbia and Dr. John C. Merriam, president of the Carnegie Institution, is surveying the field preliminary to a more exhaustive explor ation. Restoration and preservation of the astonishing Mayan architecture is the prime task in view...
...bottom of this well have been found human skeletons - the most beautiful maidens were hurled to death here at annual festivals to propitiate the rain gods - and extraordinary relics of jade, mosaics, pottery, weapons, balls of copal- offerings brought to this Mecca by pilgrims from all over the Mayan world...
...best collection of these relics in the United States is at the Peabody Museum, Boston. At its height the Mayan race probably numbered several million people, and the population of Chichen Itza was about 500,000. Their decorative arts show exquisite workmanship. Astronomy and mathematics were highly developed. They had an elaborate picture writing, much of which has been deciphered, giving the clue to many dates in inscriptions and chronicles. Their calendar was the most complex and exact known in the ancient world, with a century of 52 years, and a year of 18 months of 20 days each...
...expedition from the National Geographic Society and the Carnegie Institution is about to undertake a survey of Yucatan to discover the lost cities of the early Mayan civilization in America...