Fig. 79.—Detail of fresco at Santa Rita, British Honduras.

(After Gann)

Apart from the buildings reserved for ceremonial or residential purposes, tlaxtli-courts are found in the Huehuetenango district, at Rabinal, and again in northern Yucatan, though not in the central area. These courts have the floor and walls carefully plastered, and the stone rings which project, one from each wall, are usually well carved. The court at Chichen is the largest known, and is associated with a special temple with serpent columns in the style of Tulan (Pls. [XXVIII] and [XXIX, 1]; pp. 348 and 350). The western courts resemble very closely those of the Zapotec area. The question of the introduction of the game into the Maya area has already been discussed on p. 302.

Fig. 80.—Details from frescoes.

Living as they did in a climate with an abundant rainfall, the Maya were not under the necessity of constructing elaborate irrigation works as were the ancient inhabitants of Peru. One watercourse alone is known, and that appears to be rather in the nature of a drain to carry off superfluous water than an aqueduct. This is at Palenque, and consists of a stone-lined subterranean channel, roofed with the typical Maya vault.

As regards the arrangement of buildings it is impossible to discuss in detail the ground-plans of the various sites, but attention may be called to the prevailing tendency to group the most important structures round square or rectangular courts. Beyond this, little community of plan is observed, and indeed in the central area the builders were often obliged to suit their arrangement to the exigencies of the site. Thus Palenque and Copan, being built in river-valleys, exhibit less regularity of arrangement than such sites as Tikal, where the country is more or less of a plain. There is evidence too that many of the cities grew by accretion beyond the limits intended by the first builders, and this fact will explain much of the irregularity observable in plan. But throughout, the assemblage of buildings round a court is a prominent feature, and the court would seem to have been the unit of growth (see Pl. [XXVI, 2]; p. 338). It is a noticeable fact that none of the sites in the east and centre of the Maya area exhibit any defensive qualities. The courts are open at the corners, and the sites selected for building are evidently not chosen with any strategic insight. In the west, however, the case is somewhat different, and we find settlements, such as Iximché and Utatlan, built as it were on peninsulas almost surrounded by inaccessible barrancas and connected with the “mainland” only by a narrow neck which could be easily defended by a mere handful of men. This fact goes far towards indicating that the ruins in the centre were centres of religious and ceremonial life rather than cities in the modern sense of the word.

The question as to how far Maya buildings were definitely oriented is rather complex. On the whole far fewer indications of the practice occur in the Maya region than in the Mexican. To speak generally the sites at Seibal and in southern Yucatan, as far as surveyed, are more carefully oriented than in northern Yucatan and elsewhere. The buildings at Copan are not oriented, but here and at such sites as Palenque, the surrounding hills and forests obscure the true horizon, and the arrangement of courts may yet be found to square with the apparent point of rising of certain heavenly bodies. An accurate survey of Tikal would throw a good deal of light upon the problem, since the situation of the ruins in comparatively level country, combined with the great height of the pyramids, would have enabled the inhabitants to obtain a far truer horizon than at most sites.

Though the Maya did not for the most part use large masses of stone for building, yet they were able to handle monoliths of considerable size, as may be seen from the number of carved stelæ which constitute so important a feature of many of the ruined sites. These stelæ consist of monolithic pillars, approximately rectangular and decorated with relief carving, usually on all sides. The largest of these are found at Quirigua, but the art of the neighbouring site of Copan (Pl. [XXI]; p. 236) is the finer, since many of the stelæ here are carved in such bold relief as to approximate to sculpture in the round. At these two sites most of the stelæ present on their principal faces a human or divine figure, usually represented en face, and holding the sky-bar (occasionally replaced at Quirigua by the ceremonial axe). At Tikal, Naranjo (Pl. [XXIII]; p. 302), and Menché (Pl. [XXII]; p. 294) the relief is less bold, and the figures are usually therefore shown in profile, at any rate as far as the face is concerned. At Seibal and Piedras Negras profile figures predominate, but a few occur shown en face (Pl. [XX]; p. 224), among them the figures seated in niches already mentioned as characteristic of the latter locality. At Palenque only one stela has been found, but on the other hand comparatively little stone-carving occurs here, though the deficiency is amply supplied by the quality of the magnificent mural tablets in relief which constitute the chief feature of the site. The sky-bar does not appear on the stelæ of Piedras Negras, though the ceremonial axe is occasionally seen. Both emblems occur at Naranjo, Tikal, Seibal and Menché. A few stelæ have been found in Yucatan, e.g. at Sayil; but they are confined to the northern portion of the district and even here are rare and poorly carved. The exact purpose of the stelæ is problematical. In the large majority of cases they stand in definite relation to certain buildings, in fact all at Naranjo, Seibal, Menché and Piedras Negras are connected with temples. At Copan and Quirigua some appear to be independent. They are usually found situated in the courts, though at Piedras Negras a series exists arranged along the lower terrace of a foundation-mound. Many are furnished with altars in front of them (Fig. [81]), and they appear to have been the objects of some cult. A most important point in connection with them lies in the fact that so many of them bear dates in the long count as described in chapter X, and this fact, combined with the statements of early authors that the historical Maya were wont to mark the passage of a katun by setting up a “stone,” lends colour to the opinion that the early Maya followed a similar practice. Many of the dates mark quarter katuns, but many again do not, and though we may conclude that they were in some way commemorative monuments, it is impossible at present to define their use more exactly. As stated before, many of the stelæ were painted in colours, and plain stelæ occur at Tikal and elsewhere, which probably once bore some painted design. The evident relation which Maya sculpture bears to wood-carving renders it probable that many wooden stelæ may once have existed, especially in the earliest times. It is worth noting that at Copan the stone foundations which support the stelæ enclose small cruciform vaults, reproducing in miniature the souterrains found in connection with some of the buildings at Mitla.