CHAPTER XIII—THE MAYA: ARCHITECTURAL REMAINS
THE architectural remains exemplifying the early Maya culture are scattered over a wide region, roughly between 87 and 94 degrees of west longitude, and between 14 and 22 degrees of north latitude. The western portion of the area consists of the high plateau, intersected with river-valleys, and distinguished by much relatively open country. Over this ground various tribal migrations have passed, but the ruins do not show a culture of so high a type as those of the country further east. Between the plateau and Yucatan, buildings of the highest type are found, in low-lying alluvial country, densely forested, in which stone is, practically speaking, only procurable where the hills approach the rivers. In Yucatan, material for architectural construction was ready to hand in the soft limestone of which the peninsula is formed, and the action of the underground streams in causing the land-surface to collapse in places, had broken up the limestone into slabs of all sizes, almost as if to suit the convenience of the builder. But the Yucatec buildings belong on the whole to a later date than those of the central region, and though technically they may equal the latter, yet signs of artistic decadence make their appearance in over-luxuriant conventionalization, and indications of foreign influence are seen at certain sites, notably at Chichen Itza.
In a book intended mainly as an introduction to the study of Mayan archæology a full description of the many ruined sites is out of the question, and this chap-
319
