The Indianapolis times. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1922-1965, 1929-10-01
Indy TO SEEK
ANCIENT maya
JUNGLE RUINS
Rare Archaeological Finds TO
Be Goal of Institution
Hunt by Air.
BURIED DEEP IN FOREST
Lost Cities Impossible to
Reach Overland: Base
to Be Belize.
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WASHINGTON, Oct. when
Lindbergh and Carnegie Institution
psychologists fly over the jungles of
northern Central America and Mex
leo in search of lost Maya cities
they will be adding a new method
to the scientific exploration Of ruins
Of one of the worlds most interest
ing civilizations.
Buried beneath almost impenetra-
BILE tropical forests in the Yucatan
peninsula. Guatemala, Honduras
and British Honduras. are the re-
mains of populous cities that -four
iShed long before the time of Colum-
bus. Many of these abandoned cities,
rich with artistic temples and mon
umentS. lie hidden, unseen by mod
ern eyes.
On foot tediously hacking a path
through the tangled growth. an ex-
plorer might pass within few hum
dred yards and yet not find the
ruins. From the air. a few hours
flying may reveal not one. but sew
eral, hitherto unmapped and posi-
bly, totally unknown Maya cities.
Such is the expectation of Colonel
Llndbergh and DR.. Oliver Ricketson,
the Carnegie Institution archeolo-
giSt, who will fly with him in a
Pan American Always airplane.
Their base at Belize. British Hon
duras, is nearly in the center of the
region that from before the time of
Christ until about the year 1900 the
Maya inhabited.
Pictures Will Help so
Today the descendants Of the race
that showed such accomplishments
live in the same area in a print
tive state, unmindful of their
glorious past.
Colonel Lindbergh's aerial photo
graphic experience obtained OIL
recent flights over the southwest will
prove useful on the projected flying
over the Maya country. 1t is ex-
pected that he will act as photo
grapher as we'll as pilot and that
DR.. RicketSon will do the mapping
that will allow land parties to reach
and eXcavate the cities that are dis
covered.
The airplane in Middle America
! can duplicate the remarkable feats
achieved in England. where o. G. S.
Crawford, air corps observer, has
discovered Roman towns and
trenches by means of air photo.
graphy These trenches and streets
long since were plowed over by
British farmers and presumably
we're lost forever to the knowledge
of historians, but where the ground
was once disturbed, the texture Of
the soil has been altered, and the
crops planted there are apt to be
greener and more luXuriant.
The air camera or the keen eye Of
the airplane observer often can
trace the exact plan Of the vanished
town or fortress. BY some such
method the stone highways which
the Maya built to connect their i'm,
portant cities probably can b
traced.
Stone Roads Found
1t is only a few years ago that the
existence of these smooth stone
roads, 30 to go feet wide, was discov-
cred. DR.. Thomas Gam, who
found sections Of the roads in the
forest near Coba, concluded that the
Mayas could not have needed such
highways for traffic, since they had
no wagons or beasts of burden, and
since they would have found dirt
roads suitable for their long jour
neys.
The roads, he believes must have
been laboriOusly constructed over
long distances between religious cen
tiers for use by the religious process
sions of priests, votaries and sacri-
fetal victims.
One highway which airplane OBJ
servers may search for is the road
which Dr. Gam believes must have
stretched from Coba to Cozumcl
island. to which the Mayas made re-
ligious pilgrimages. Another may
have led from COba to Chichen TIA.
famed religious city, sacred to the
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