Studies in Central American Picture-Writing / First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the / Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, / Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 205-245

Transcriber’s Note
This book was originally published as a part of:
Powell, J. W. 1881 First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-’80. pp. 205-245. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C.
The table of contents and index included in this version of the book was extracted from the complete volume.

EDWARD S. HOLDEN, PROFESSOR OF MATHEMATICS, U. S. NAVAL OBSERVATORY.


By Edward S. Holden.
Since 1876 I have been familiar with the works of Mr. John L. Stephens on the antiquities of Yucatan, and from time to time I have read works on kindred subjects with ever increasing interest and curiosity in regard to the meaning of the hieroglyphic inscriptions on the stones and tablets of Copan, Palenque, and other ruins of Central America. In August, 1880, I determined to see how far the principles which are successful when applied to ordinary cipher-writing would carry one in the inscriptions of Yucatan. The difference between an ordinary cipher-message and these inscriptions is not so marked as might at first sight appear. The underlying principles of deciphering are quite the same in the two cases.
The chief difficulty in the Yucatec inscriptions is our lack of any definite knowledge of the nature of the records of the aborigines. The patient researches of our archæologists have recovered but very little of their manners and habits, and one has constantly to avoid the tempting suggestions of an imagination which has been formed by modern influences, and to endeavor to keep free from every suggestion not inherent in the stones themselves. I say the stones, for I have only used the Maya manuscripts incidentally. They do not possess, to me, the same interest, and I think it may certainly be said that all of them are younger than the Palenque tablets, and far younger than the inscriptions at Copan.
I therefore determined to apply the ordinary principles of deciphering, without any bias, to the Yucatec inscriptions, and to go as far as I could certainly . Arrived at the point where demonstration ceased, it would be my duty to stop. For, while even the conjectures of a mind perfectly trained in archæologic research are valuable and may subsequently prove to be quite right, my lack of familiarity with historical works forced me to keep within narrow and safe limits.