The Washington herald., 1916-01-01
GRAFT CAUSE OF
FALL Of MAYAS
Earlier and Greater Nation
than Aztecs Disintegrated
from Oppression.
WEPE HIGHLY HINH LIED
WERE HIGHLY CIVILIZED
Built Civilization Centuries Before
Christ-Plotting Among the Rulers
Started Downfall. Says Morley.


banana fiber records, the lost history of
the great Maya empire of Yucatan was
placed together yesterday Before the
Congress OF Americanists. The address
was given by SyIvsnus G. Morley. OF the
Carnegie Institution of this city, and
represented a dozen years of Mr.. Morley's
life.
This nation, which came to its down
fall through graft and civil war only a
few years before the coming Of the Span
ish invaders, was, say scientists, by far
the greatest nation of people that lived
upon this continent prior to that time
greater than the Aztecs of Mexico or the
Incas OF Peru. Mr.. Morley has found
the cause OF the civil war and even the
names Of the princes who caused the
strife
Had cities and Temples,
These people. said the speaker. lived
first in Southern Mexico and Central
America For fifteen centuries they pre-
served their culture intact. Their history
Is left only in stone monuments, and 1t
Is only by deciphering the inscriptions
on those and piecing together the scraps
OF their history as read to the ignorant
early Spanish and by them recorded. that
their story has been gotten together.
They were a highly organized COM
munity," declared Mr.. Morley, with
great cities and magnificent temples.
Their history sort OF burst on US about
the year 40 A. D. or cycle in the Maya
chronology. Their. calendar alone shows
a development Of a high type OF civiliza-
ton. They must have been building up
such a civilization for centuries, but the
only way we have OF accounting why we
have no relics to speak OF before that Is
that their monuments prior to that time
must have been in wood and therefore
decayed."
About 500 A. D.. the speaker said,
the nation seemed to decline and the
people gradually migrated and col
onized farther north. What adverse
influence caused them to leave the
south and go into Yucatan proper is
not known. But after about~500 years.
devoted to conquering the dryer eli
mate, the same Maya people. with the
ing, appear to have awakened to
greater achievements in art and sci
ence than before.
Three great cities-Chichen Itss,
Msyapan, and Uxmal-shared equally
in the government OF the country.
RevoIts Followed Oppression.
Chac Xib Chsc. ruler of Chichen
Itza, plotted against the prince ruling
MAJ dpdus anu WAT Dtl"ccn lneH re-
suited. This later prince called in
some OF the inferior but more war
like Toltec people of the north and
Chichen Itza was beaten. Then fol-
lowed a readjustment of power, and
Mayapan exercised an overlordship
over Chichen Itzs- They employed the
Toltec mercenaries more and more,
and the rule OF the royal family,
known as the Cocoon family, became
more tyrannical.
From 1900 to 14o0 revolts on the
part of the people were frequent. All
this time the third city, Uxmal, had
kept out of the quarrel. Her princes,
OF the Tutal Xiu family, were widely
known for their wisdom and justice.
The oppressed Chichen Itza people ap-
pealed to Uxmal, and finally this prov
ince yielded and Joined in the civil
war. Mayapan was destroyed, but the
war was so ruthless that all were
decimated, and then pestilence carried
of probably hundreds of thousands
AS a result, all the great cities were
abandoned, and the liza people mi
grated southwark. In 1917 the Span
iards landed. and though the weakened
people fought them for fourteen years
they were subjugated.
The Americanists decided to hold
the next congress in Rio de Jsniero
in 1913.