Evening star., 1933-01-06
SEARCH FOR MAYAN
CITIES IS PLANNED
Smithsonian Institution tc
Send Expedition Into
GuatemaIan Jungle.
BY THOMAS r. HENRY.

aICIleOlOSlSLS Will leave early LIllS spring
to follow up clues pointing to the ex-
iStence of the ruins of six or eight
large cities in hitherto unexplored
stretch o. the jungles of Northern
Guatemala, it was announced today by
DR.. Sylvanus Morley of the institutions
staff.
These ruins have been reported to
DR.. Morley by Indian chicle hunters
who roam through the jungle. He has
no doubt, he said, that several of the
reports will prove well founded and
that it will be possible to add a new
chapter to the story of one of the
| highest civilizations in antiquity.
Already q foothold has been secured
in this direction. he said, by the dis
covery early last year of the ruins of
the Old Empire City of Calakmul. DR..
Morley lectured on the Calakmul eX
plorations at the institution building
last night. This city he described as
a sort of Maya Pittsburgh, very rich
and busy center which stood close to
the top of the second size" Maya
cities. 1t dates from approximately
356 A. D. or GIG A. D., according to the
school Of Maya chronology by which
the calculations are made. 1t rose
rapidly to dominance and remained
prosperous for close to 200 years. Then
it declined, presumably from economic
causes, since there is no evidence OF a
foreign invasion. and probably was
rapidly depopulated.
City of Boosters.
Calakmul, as pictured by Dr. Morley
must have been city of boosters" !"
It's chief industry was religion-the
building of pyramids and monuments.
1t was the custom of Maya cities to
commemorate each year by the build
| ing of a monument. But where other
cities were satisfied with one a year
the boosters" of Calakmul would
build four or five They built enormous
pyramids, one $50 feet high, apparently
to get ahead of their neighbors. DR..
Morley has located 125 monuments
and has been able to read the inscrlp-
tions of As of them.
The story of Calakmul, he believes,
was similar to that of other American
cities-both in Maya antiquity and in
later times. Pioneers, pushed out from
the older centers by population and
food pressure. went into virgin terri
tory where the rich soil yielded boun-
! tiful harvests. They stored their corn.
It constituted wealth, the only real
wealth the Maya knew, since the race
had no great industrial development.
With this stored wealth, which made
possible the freeing of labor from the
daily toll of getting enough to eat. 1t
was possible to start the great public
and ecclesiastical building projects. As
wealth increased more labor was freed
from these projects. The building of
monument or pyramid required an
enormous amount of labor. Every
stone had to be transported from dis
stance on the head or heads, of work
men. 1t was a task comparable to the
building of the Egyptian pyramids. In
addition large population had to be
maintained to supply the needs OF
these workmen, such as weaving their
clothes.
The present appearance Of such a
city as Calakmul, Dr. Morley said
might be compared to that of Wash
ington If all the business and dwelling
houses were destroyed and only the
Government buildings and churches
left standing. But actually it was not
a city in the modern sense, but a
densely populated, widespread area OF
small farns-some perhaps as much
as an acre in extent-with the farm
population living in thatched huts. all
traces Of which long since have been
lost. 1t was comparable to the densely
populated suburban area of an Ameri-
can city without the dominating busi-
ness center. Every family must have
land. In about the center of such a
region of small farms stood the govern
ment and religious buildings. DR.
%A fav- nh
same pattern further in the unexplored
region.
Rich Soil Was Exhausted.
The time Of profitable agricultural
occupation of an area, and hence OF
| the existence of one of these great
centers, was limited. he points out
tive to the end. Rich soil was ex-
hausted. 1t was only the abundance
of the harvestS of the earlier years
he believes: which enabled this people
to obtain the reserve food supply with
which they could build up this great
aboriginal civilization. The civilizations
of the Old World were made possible in
much the same way he says, and such
q people as the North American Indians
or the Eskimo never could have beer
expected to develop very far since al
their energy was taken up in keeping
ahead of starvation.
The expedition into the jungle, he
said, will leave Chichen Itza, the Car
negia Institution headquarters in Yuca'
tan, about March /. 1t is expected
this expedition will go far toward;
closing the gap between the Oldest cities
of the Old Empire and the later Maya
establishments. Calakmul f1ourtsheo
as a provincial center toward the enc
OF the Old Empire period, after which
the Maya people transferred their ac-
tivities to the northward and the New
Empire.