New Britain herald., 1924-08-05
JUNGLE OF YUCATAN
 DISCLOSES SECRETS
Interesting Discoveries Made Of
 Lost Maya Race

Washington. Aug, s,-EEesvation of ehiehen ltza, the once brilliant capital of the lost Maya race, a eiplli- zation of American ahorigines that reared an amazing culture oathis com iinent before the dawn of the Chris tian era and then disappeared, be- queathing to pesterity vast riddle of ruined temples and stately pyramids, has been begun under the direction of the Carnegie Institute of Washington,
 An expedition sent into fueatsn, the site of the Mayas' greatest eultur- al achievement, early this spring. has sent back to the Institution here its first report of actual progress on the task. of digging the ancient metropo- lis from ifs jungle covered grave In a genuine effort to solve the mystery of the origin of the people who built 1t.
 Dr. sylvanus c. Morley, associate of the Carnegie Institution in Middle American Archaeology Is head of the expedition, which reached chichen Itza May IS, Since that time the ex- cavators have devoted their unre- strieted attention to uncovering group of pyramids and temples in the very heart Of the buried city, known as "The Court Of the Thousand col- umns."
 Part of this has already been re- claimed. the excavators coming upon beautifully carved columns. whose numbers led 10 the name ascribed to the court above. Tn the course of their excavations the srchaeologists, Dr. Morley wrote, found great mosaic which had once. graced the entrance to one of the temples in this court, Examination proved it to have com tained a large central figure of ku Kulcan. the patron deity of Chichen Itza, surrounded by jaguars and flow CTS. The mosaic lay in a thousand pieces when the archaeologists found 1t, scattered over a stone platform that had once been the floor Of the tenn pie. Dr. Morley compared it 10 great picture puzzle which the mem bers of his staff must carefully piece together and study.
 "Chichen Itza originally covered an immense extent" pr. Morley wrote. ''The civic and religious center con- taining the temples, palaces. pyra- mids, market places, ball courts, ter races, tombs and plazas alone cov- cred an area two miles long by mile wide. But beyond this in every direc- ton for miles and miles formerly stretched the homes of the humber folks.
 "of these not trace may now be seen. The great forest of 1ucatan has obliterated them, so that now they are as much part of the earth S the thousands of Mayas who reared them so long ago." ]. o. Kimartin, of the United States Geological Survey. who was loaned 10 the Carnegie Institution for the pur- pose of making map of Chichen 1tza, has just returned to Washington. MT. Kilmartin has completed the first modern map of a portion of this an- cient city, drawn to scale Whlch VIII later enable the archaeologists to in sert in its proper place every temple and even every column in the tenn ples, if desired.
 The program of the Carnegie lnst1- tuition contemplates excavations coV- ering a period of at least ten years. No work will be possible in Chichen Itza during the summer and autumn hecause of the torrentlal rains which fall during those seasons. But 1t IS expected that in ten years the expe- dition will have progressed far enough to know whether the many mysteries surrounding the history of the Maya civilization are to be solved there.