This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 Excerpt: ...structures--not surpassed in interest and importance by any other group of Maya remains north of Guatemala. It is so complex and extensive and withal in parts in such an advanced stage of demolition that the time at my disposal did not permit of a satisfactory exploration. The group undoubtedly represents a long period ...
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This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1895 Excerpt: ...structures--not surpassed in interest and importance by any other group of Maya remains north of Guatemala. It is so complex and extensive and withal in parts in such an advanced stage of demolition that the time at my disposal did not permit of a satisfactory exploration. The group undoubtedly represents a long period of growth, the people probably passing meantime through many minor mutations of fortune and art. There appear to be ten or more somewhat independent units of construction (Fig. 49), but the order of their development cannot be made out save in a tentative way. The general consistency of style charaterizing the great exterior ranges of buildings toward the north, taken together with their superior state of preservation, would seem to indicate a later date for them than for the southern members of the group. The addition of these superior buildings and the unifying of the whole group by carrying the galleries and terraces somewhat uniformly along the four sides, appear to indicate also that the greater period of power and culture was toward the close, a period probably ante-dating the conquest by decades rather than by centuries. This group of remains, as it stands to-day, if denuded in the main of its enveloping foliage, is correctly indicated in the panorama, although I have ventured to bring out certain forms more distinctly than they would appear in a photograph. This is done in cases only where the forms concerned are known. There is no attempt at restoration. The original appearance of the group must have been striking and impressive, and the restoration (after Armin), published by Bancroft in a small wood cut, though manifestly wrong in numerous details, is still capable of conveying a fairly correct impression to those who keep in mind ...
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