Identifier: ancientcitiesofn00char (find matches)
Title: The ancient cities of the New World : being travels and explorations in Mexico and Central America from 1857-1882
Year: 1887 (1880s)
Authors: Charnay, Désiré, 1828-1915
Subjects: Indians of Mexico Indians of Central America
Publisher: London : Chapman and Hall
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation

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and lateral sides with reliefs incement, vestiges of which are still discernible. The lintels overthe doorways of the gallery have disappeared; they were ofred zapote wood, and their impress Is unmistakable. Theseornamental woods cannot all have long been demolished; forin Palenque, Mr. Kohler showed me a yard-measure and a stickhe had had made out of a lintel found amonof the ruins. These facts, taken altogether, seem to indicate that thebuildings at Palenque are not so old as is supposed. The roofin the upper portion of the palace slopes gently, and the entabla-ture is so marvellously rich, that I found fresh details everytime I visited It. The frieze was decorated with seven enormousheads; the last one to the right has still visible the mouth,nose, and eyebrows. These heads were obtained by means ofslabs enclosed in tl\c wall as stays to the cement, which wasmodelled by the sculptor whilst in this soft state. The centralfigure over the door of the gallery is the largest; each seems
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Las Playas and Palenque. 239 to have had on either side statues Hfe-size in high rehef, andtraces of them occur throughout. Sometimes it is the distinctoutline of the fallen relief, sometimes it is a leg, sometimespart of a torso. Near the central figure to the left, we tracedthe entire lower portion of one of the fifjures, which brino-.s to

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