Maya Ruins in the Yucatan at Mayapan

THE MAYA RUINS IN YUCATAN.

The remains of ancient cities Maya are abundant in the settled portion of Yucatan, which lies north of the great forest. Charnay found “the country covered with them from north to south.” Stephens states, in the Preface to his work on Yucatan, that he visited “forty-four ruined cities or places” in which such remains are still found, most of which were unknown to white men, even to those inhabiting the country; and he adds that “time and the elements are hastening them to utter destruction.”

Previous to the Spanish Conquest, the region known to us as Yucatan was called Maya. It is still called Maya by the natives among themselves, and this is the true name of the country. Why the Spaniards called it Yucatan is unknown, but the name is wholly arbitrary and without reason. It is said to have arisen from an odd mistake like that which occasioned the name given to one of the capes by Hernandez de Cordova. Being on the coast in 1517, he met some of the natives. Their cacique said to him, “Conèx cotoch,” meaning “Come to our town.” The Spaniard, supposing he had mentioned the name of the place, immediately named the projecting point of land “Cape Cotoche,” and it is called so still.

At that time the country was occupied by the people still known as Mayas. They all spoke the same language, which was one of a closely related family of tongues spoken in Guatemala, Chiapas, Western Honduras, and in some other districts of Central America and Mexico. Yucatan was then much more populous than at present. The people had more civilization, more regular industry, and more wealth. They were much more highly skilled in the arts of civilized life. They had cities and large towns; and dwelling-houses, built of timber and covered with thatch, like those common in England, were scattered over all the rural districts. Some of the cities now found in ruins were then inhabited. This peninsula had been the seat of an important feudal monarchy, which arose probably after the Toltecs overthrew the very ancient kingdom of Xibalba. It was broken up by a rebellion of the feudal lords about a hundred years previous to the arrival of the Spaniards. According to the Maya chronicles, its downfall occurred in the year 1420. Mayapan, the capital of this kingdom, was destroyed at that time, and never afterward inhabited.

Merida, the present capital of Yucatan, was built on the site of an ancient Maya city called Tihoo. It is stated in the old Spanish accounts of Merida that it was built on that site because there was in the ruins an abundance of building material. There is mention of two “mounds” which furnished a vast amount of hewn stone. Mr. Stephens noticed in some of the edifices stones with “sculptured figures, from the ruins of ancient buildings;” and he mentions that a portion of an ancient building, including an arch in the Maya style, was retained in the construction of the Franciscan convent.

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MAYA CITY OF MAYAPAN. IN THE YUCATAN

We shall notice only some of the principal ruins in Yucatan, beginning with Mayapan, the ancient capital. The remains of this city are situated about ten leagues, in a southern direction, from Merida. They are spread over an extensive plain, and overgrown by trees and other vegetation. The most prominent object seen by the approaching explorer is a great mound, 60 feet high and 100 feet square at the base. It is an imposing structure, seen through the trees, and is itself overgrown like a wooded hill. Fshows one view of this. Four stairways, in a ruinous condition, 25 feet wide, lead up to an esplanade within 6 feet of the top, which is reached by a smaller stairway. The summit is a plain stone platform 15 feet square. This, of course, was a temple. Sculptured stones are scattered around the base, and within the mound subterranean chambers have been discovered.

It is probable that the principal edifices at Mayapan were not all built wholly of stone, for they have mostly disappeared. Only one remains, a circular stone building 25 feet in diameter, which stands on a pyramidal foundation 35 feet high. This is represented in Figure 35. On the southwest side of it, on a terrace projecting from the mound, was a double row of columns without capitals, 8 feet apart. There are indications that this city was old, and that the buildings had been more than once renewed. Brasseur de Bourbourg classes some of the foundations at Mayapan with the oldest seen at Palenque and Copan. This point, however, can not be determined with sufficient accuracy to remove all doubt. Mayapan may have stood upon the foundations of a very ancient city which was several times rebuilt, but the city destroyed in 1420 could not have been as old as either Palenque or Copan.

Mayan Animal Hieroglyphic Glyphs of Amphibians

Mayan Animal  Hieroglyphic Glyphs of Amphibians

AMPHIBIA

Frogs. Figures undoubtedly representing frogs (Maya mutš or uo) or toads are found in several places in the codices[309] and in the stone carvings, but it is quite impossible to refer them definitely to any of the numerous species occurring in Central America, if, indeed, the artists had any one species in mind. In the Tro-Cortesianus frogs are not uncommon. In 31a there are four , fig. 1) with water coming from their mouths. They are characterized by their stout tailless bodies, flattened heads and toothless mouths. In 101d ( figs. 2, 3) there are two, the first painted blue with spots of darker blue and the second white and represented as broken in two in the middle. The signs of death above the latter clearly show that a dead animal is indicated. , fig. 6, shows the end of Altar O from Copan on which a frog and a fish are pictured, the former in dorsal view, the latter in lateral aspect. The peculiar pointed snout of this frog is similar to that of the frog shown in  fig. 7, also in dorsal view. A somewhat similar creature (, fig. 6) we have included and though it may represent an opossum it has little to distinguish it from the figures of frogs.

God B in Tro-Cortesianus 12b should be associated with the frog. His legs are those of a frog and he appears as if swimming in the water. Frog in Maya is Uo which is also the name of the second month of the Maya year. The first day of this month, according to Landa, corresponds to August 5 of our year and this is the height of the rainy season in the Maya region. The sign for Uo does not, however, resemble a frog in any way. The frog above one of the figures in the Lower Chamber of the Temple of the Tigers at Chichen Itza (, fig. 7) has clearly some relation to the name or totem of the warrior. The Nahua custom is seen here.

Toads are probably intended in 7, figs. 4, 5. In these the great breadth of the head and mouth together with the short inflated body combine to produce a very toad-like appearance. It is not unlikely that they represent the huge marine toad, Bufo marinus, common from southern Mexico to Brazil and in the West Indies. There seems to be no distinction in the treatment of frogs and toads in the codices.0]

Tree-toad (Hyla eximia). Of great interest are the figures in Tro-Cortesianus 26a and b (, figs. 1, 3), showing a god with expanded finger tips and characterized further by the presence of two parallel black stripes from the hinder and lower margins of the eye respectively. The knob-like finger tips at once suggest one of the tree-toads, and the presence of the two lines seems to indicate Hyla eximia as the species represented. In this tree-toad there is a long black lateral line running posteriorly from the tympanum and above it a shorter line just as in the drawings. It appears to be a common species in the valley of Mexico though but little seems to have been written of its habits. At the beginning of the rainy season it repairs to pools of water to breed and is then very noticeable from its loud voice. No doubt its importance in the Maya economy was from its conspicuousness at the beginning of the rainy period. This fact is brought out more strongly when we consider that these gods representing the tree-toad are associated with agriculture and the sowing of grain at the beginning of the rainy season. Förstemann (1902, p. 35) identifies these figures as god F. They are quite unlike the usual representation of this god and are clearly god P as Schellhas (1904, p. 39) indicates. It is interesting to note that the two black lines behind the eye are also seen in the other gods shown in Tro-Cortesianus 26a and b although the knob-like finger tips are lacking. The glyph for this tree-toad god is recognized in the fifth place at the top of the same page (, fig. 2) by the same two black lines under and behind the eye.