The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-04-09
SOME WONDERFUL DISCOVERIES.

For many years the modern archae- ologists and other scientists have been engaged in explorations and excava- tions among the ruins of what we are accustomed to look on as the old world. Ancient Baalbec and Ninevah. hun dred-gated Thebes" and Troy-many ruins have been explored and the hid den treasures of Assyria, Egypt and other seats of ancient civilization have been brought to light. The citizen of today can literally take a peep into the homes. the furnishings and the domes- tic life of those who lived twenty. thirty or forty centuries be- fore our day.
 But while all this exploration has been taking place among historic old country ruins, our so-called new world has been neglected and comparatively little effort made to uncover the mys- teries at our very doors. Ne know that excavations have from time to time been made in Central America and many valuable discoveries made, but now these researches are being ex- tended. Some of the results are sur prising and in view or what has al- ready been revealed and the promises of the future. we may well inquire if the American continent is not really the old world. after all. and if we can not boast some of the oldest civiliza- tions of earth.
 Recent investigations made among the widest regions of Yucatan have shown vast pyramids and other ruins of buildings which must have been erected thousands of years ago by the ancient Mayas, or by an even older race. The structures denote a civilization far in advance of anything found in North America when the Europeans arrived here. Of these people and their work, and of the many evidences they have left behind them. Rene Bache in a TO- cent article says:
 The status of the ancient Mayas at the time of the discovery of America was much like that of the Egyptians immediately before the dawn of history in the Old World: In respect to civil ization they were considerably ahead of any other people on the American  lgators, building vessels of large size and main tainlng a commerce with Cuba and Florida. Their arts were highly developed and their architecture was of 50 notable a character that at the prev ent time thousands of square miles of the territory they once occupied are dotted with the ruins of their towns. Indeed, in that country the traveller is seldom out of sight of some massive structure of antiquity and in one case A mountain 1000 feet high has been completely remodelled by artifice into a system of pyramids and terraces.
 still more wonderful are the disclos- ures made in a recent article on The Resurrection of TikaL' an ancient cap ital city of the Mayas or of those who antedated even that ancient people d barbaric but splendid civilization which may have been at the height of it's splendor when the pyramids of Egypt were built. or have been con temporaneous with Thebes or Nineveh.
 The article in question describes the entrance to Tlkal house of Kings" and has illustrations of some of the won derful discoveries made there. lm- mense pyramids and temples arc shown. of d size and character display ing an advanced knowledge of archi- tecture. Some of tneso temples are built of beautifully carved stone, the doorways ornamented with llntels of carved sspote wood. which has for centuries withstood the ravages of the times and seasons. Many domestic ar- tnles and ornaments of various kinds