The Coolidge examiner., 1937-06-17

floors surround the patios on all
four sides, and in more modest ones
on one or two sides.
The patio itself usually is riot
of brilliantly colored tropical flow
ers, many of which distill rare per-
fumes.
Today, with its well-lighted, clean
streets, its many parks, its movies,
electric signs, autobusses and mill
ing neWsboys, bootblacks with their
little portable boxes, and sweetmeat
vendors, Merida is a city of the
Twentieth century.
But with Maya Indians in their
picturesque native costumes rub
bling shoulders with MeXicans in
the more familiar habilimentS of
the modern world, even with Amer
lean visitors in plus fours strolling
beneath the medieval dignity of the
cathedral towers, a thousand years
of human history unfold before the
eye.
The story of mans earliest occu-
patton of Europe has been recov-
cred from the caves of France and
Spain, so in Yucatan the archeolo-
gist naturally turns to the caves, Of
which there are many, for evidence
concerning mans antiquity in this
region.
1t would seem that the dwellers
in the caves were the same people
as the builders of the great cities
of stone, since excavations disclose
that both appear to have used the
same utensils, the same kinds of
dishes, bowls and water jars, the
same kinds of corn grinders, arrow
and lance-heads, fiber cleaners, pot
terry burnishers, and the same kinds
of jade ornaments. earplugs, nose
plugs, beads, and pendants.
However, about the builders of the
cities of cut stone, the ancient
Maya, the archeologist knows more
than little, and with the Maya the
clouds of obscurity surrounding the
ancient history of Yucatan begin to
dissipate.
Sometime during the early years
of the Christian era there developed
in what is now the northern part of
the Republic of Guatemala-more
exactly, in the department of Peten,
Guatemala, south of Yucatan-a
civilization which archeologists
have called the Mayan.
This civilization, which was des-
tined to become the most brilliant
cultural expression of ancient
America, was based upon agricul-
ture, chiefly the raising of corn.
Mayan Civilization.
Because the early Maya were pri-
marily farmers, they became inter-
ested in the phenomena of time, the
passing of the seasons, the several
stages of the farmers year-When
the forest should be felled, when
the dried wood and leaves should
be burned, when the corn should be
planted, and when harvested. All
these were of vital concern, so their
priests at a very early date, prob
ably by the beginning of the first
millennium before Christ, turned
their attention to the measurement
of time and to the study of astron-
omy.
Although the Maya in their knowl-
edge Of the apparent movements
of the heavenly bodies-the sun,
moon, Venus, and probably other
planets as Well-far eXcelled both
the ancient Egyptians and Baby
lonians, their greatest intellectual
achievement was the invention of a
chronology, exact to the day within
a period of 374, 400 years, which is
as accurate as our own Gregorian
calendar. For the first time in hui
man history, their mathematical
system to keep account of this
chronology made use of a positional
system of writing numbers involv-
ing the conception of the abstract
mathematical quantity of zero, one
of the outstanding achievements of
all time.
While our own numerical system
is decimal, increasing by tens from
right to left of the decimal point,
the ancient Maya system was VICES.
imal, increasing by twenties from
bottom to top. But all the essential
elements of our modern arithmetic,
including enumeration by position
and use of a symbol to represent
zero, had been devised by the an
cient Maya 1000 years ago, and at
least five centuries before the Hin
dus had developed the fundamentals
of Arabic notation in India.
By their exceedingly accurate
system Of chronology as well as by
their knowledge of the apparent
movements of the heavenly bodies,
the Maya priests were able to pre-
dict eclipses and the heliacal rising
and setting of Venus. Moreover,
what was of even greater impor-
tance to the Maya farmer, they had
determined the length of the trop-
ical year with as high a degree of
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