With respect to certain similarities presented by the attributes of the figures depicted at certain sites, allusion has been made above to the hand appearing as part of the head-dress at Copan, Piedras Negras and Palenque (p. 227), to the jaguar-man at Tikal, Seibal, Piedras Negras and Quirigua (p. 343), and to the fish and flower, also shown as a head-dress, at Naranjo, Palenque, Chichen Itza and on the Nebaj vase (p. 310). Attention will be called later to a peculiar interlaced ornament, also borne on the head, by figures at Copan, Piedras Negras, Menché and Naranjo, and found again at Xochicalco, Teayo and in the Mexican valley (p. 355). One more may be mentioned, the head-dress representing a heron with a fish or frog in its beak, seen at Palenque (Fig. [61]; p. 297) and twice at Seibal, an ornament which recalls the Quiché legend of how they sent eastward to a country, most probably to be identified with the Usumacinta valley, to obtain royal insignia, and received amongst other objects the plumes of the heron.
Fig. 83.—The “Monjas” at Chichen Itza, showing how the original structure has been enlarged.
(After Holmes)
Fig. 84.—Caryatid figure, Chichen Itza.
Of the Yucatec sites the most important is that of Chichen Itza. The remains here are considerable, though they conform to no definite plan save that the same arrangement of building round rectangular courts prevails. The buildings themselves are typically Maya, though structurally they exhibit a certain advance upon those of the central area, and Maya glyphs are found throughout, with certain important exceptions. Of the peculiarities which distinguish the architecture of Yucatan from that of the last region, many have already been mentioned, including the mosaic ornament with which the façades of buildings are decorated. But another important feature remains to be recorded. Throughout the whole of Yucatan only two dates in the long count have been discovered, and one of these is at Chichen Itza. The site is interesting as providing evidence of more than one stage of construction. One of the finest buildings, the so-called Monjas, shows plainly that a considerable addition was made to the foundation at a time later than the original building (Fig. [83]). At the same period an additional storey was added, and one of the chambers in the earlier structure was filled solid with masonry to support the weight. Certain annexes were also built (Pl. [XXIX, 2]; p. 350), in the decoration of which ornamental fragments from the façades of previous “palaces” were included, but the inscriptions are in regular Maya characters, though no date in the long count is included. Other buildings in the immediate neighbourhood are in similar style and belong presumably to the same epoch. But further north is a large group of structures of an entirely different character of ornamentation. These include the famous ball-court and attached temples (Pl. [XXVIII]; p. 348), the Castillo (also seen in Pl. [XXVIII]), a large structure of which only the numerous square sculptured columns remain, and the so-called “Temple of the Tables.” On these buildings neither Maya glyphs nor mosaic masks are found, while the Castillo and upper ball-court temple are furnished with serpent-columns similar to those of Tulan. In the lower temple attached to the ball-court is an elaborate relief showing figures, exhibiting no signs of cranial deformation, armed with spears and spear-throwers, assisting, so it would seem, at the obsequies of some personage in the centre who is distinguished by a huge feathered snake which overshadows him. Many of the figures are accompanied by glyphs which are distinctly Nahua in type, while their ornaments and dress combine both Nahua and Maya characters; further, a sun-disc in Nahua style occurs at the top of the relief. In the Castillo are atlantean figures carved in relief in similar style, and in the Temple of the Tables were found a number of slabs supported by small caryatides (Fig. [84]), carved in the round, exactly similar to some which have been found at Tlaxcala. Finally, several stone recumbent figures supporting vases, of the type shown on Pl. [VIII, 2]; p. 74, have been discovered buried in the neighbourhood.[8] The buildings themselves, as far as preserved, present, architecturally speaking, Maya characteristics, except the large site with the numerous square columns, which probably supported a flat roof laid on transverse beams. To the west and south of the buildings first described are many unexplored mounds, probably the remains of the earliest settlement of all, and it is in one of these that a slab bearing a date in the long count, but later than any in the central area, has been discovered. Thus we appear to have three, or possibly four, periods represented at Chichen Itza, the first by the mounds where the initial date was found, the second and possible third by the Monjas group with its reconstructions in typical Yucatec style, the last by the northern group with its definite “Toltec” affinities. It is to be noted that this corresponds in a most remarkable manner with the Tutul Xiu tradition. The first settlement would be that of which they heard when they were yet at Balcalar, the second and doubtful third periods would represent their own occupation and reoccupation, while the last would illustrate the result of the Nahua influx which brought about the fall of the league of Mayapan. The other date in the long count which has been found in the Yucatec area is at Tulum. This is a very early date, in the sixth katun of the ninth cycle, and may possibly relate to some event in past history. At any rate it supports the evidence furnished by Chichen Itza that the Maya peoples who reckoned by the long count and built the cities of the central area had penetrated into Yucatan before the arrival of the Tutul Xiu. Tulum has not yet been satisfactorily explored, but the buildings there are neither imposing nor richly decorated; the site however presents one feature of interest in so far as it is surrounded on three sides by a wall, the fourth being protected by the sea.
PLATE XXVIII
Photo. C. R. Waite