Evening star., 1923-08-13
Carnegie Institute to Wrest
Facts of Pre-Christian
Race From Jungle.
EXPEDITION WILL RIVAL
EXPLORATIONS IN EGYPT
Study of Mexican and Guatemalan
Ruins May Reverse Ancient
History Concepts.
BY HAROLD KAMEs PHILIPS.

The buried secrets of the long lost
Maya civilization. an aboriginal race
that fiourished on this continent CEN
turfes before the coming Of Christ,
reached an amazingly high state of
intellectual culture by that period.
and then disappeared with a COM
pleteness that has baffied science. are
to be wrested from the jungles Of
Mexico and Guatemala by the Car
negie Institution of Washington.
Formal announcement was made
here this morning that that institu-
tion has been granted permission by
the governments concerned. through
agreements. setting forth definite ar
rangements. to begin Immediately a
series Of excavations and investiga-
tions in the ruins of ancient Maya
cities that are expected to cover a
period Of at least ten years. and per-
haps longer.
Noted Scientists Going.
The expedition anticipated by the
Carnegie Institution will be the
largest and most important archeo-
logical venture ever attempted on
this continent and perhaps equal to
any of the pretentious explorations
carried out in ancient Europe and
Egypt. Some Of the best known
scientists Of both America and Eu-
rope will head the various depart
ments Of the expedition and their
discoveries may literally turn pres
ont conceptions Of primitive history
upside down.
Pial.s adopted by the Carnegie In
sitution include not only archeolog-
ical studies of Maya engineering.
architecture. art, cultures. physical
anthropology and language, but they
embrace also q thorough investiga-
tion into the conditions under which
the Maya people lived. Through a
study Of their geology. geography,
climatology. meteorology, ethno-
botany and chronology it is hoped
to solve the mystery of their vir-
tual disappearance from the face OF
the earth as separate race.
Preliminary Jungle Study.
To accomplish this end the institu-
tton expects TO invite the leading
authorities on the various subjects
and go into the Latin American jun
giles for a personal investigation nf
conditions exactly as they exist.
Each of these experts will spend
periods of two or three months at
a time with the expedition.
DR.. Sylvanus G. Moreiey. associate
of the institution in middle Ameri-
can archaeology. who has been con-
, ducting explorations and archeo-
logical studies in Middle America for
the past nine years, is now in Yu-
clearing the bush from the group of
structures which will form the first
subjects for study. They are at
Chichen Itza, the religious capital
Of the Maya people.
Sn nf y,
sited so much interest in scientific
circles as the institutions announce
raent that it intended to excavate the
ruined cities of what is generally
accepted to haye been the first hu-
! man race to inhabit this continent
Jast what the explorers will find no
man can predict. but suffice il to say
that before going into the venture
TIE Carnegie Institution conducted a
preliminary investigation which sat
I isGed 1t that the story which has
lain buried in the tropical jungles OF
most intriguing chapters in primitive
hlstor!.
Were Master Architects.
The dazzling veil of vanished CEN
turies has obscured the history of the
Maya peoples up to the present gen
Grafton. That they were master ar
chftacts. unsurpassed astronomers
great engineers and deeply religious
before the dawn OF the Christian era
has been established beyond the
shadow of a doubt. How long be-
fore that period they emerged from
primitive savagery can only be esti-
mated. but the most conservative
scientists have judged that time to
have been fully 100000 years before
, Christ.
Their ancient priests left to pos
tcrity a perfect calendar. engraved
upon a series Of stone monuments
which has enabled science to trace
their culture definitely back to at
least ninety-one years before Christ
BY the same period they had mastered
written language and there are
strange stories of a complete written
history that lies buried in the tomb
of d Shief priest among the ruins OF
ChichAn Itza. There are many royal
tombs In that half-buried city and
none Of them has yet been opened.
Some archeologists have declared
the Maya race antedated every other
race known to man, and one or two
after years of study, have gone so far
as to: assert that the great Egyptian
empire was founded by Maya colonists
Although most scientists dispute this
belief. strange similarities in the re-
fCaptipued on Pave Column 81