Excavations at Uaxactun1

EXCAVATIONS AT UAXACTUN1 By OLIVER G. RICKETSON, Jr. ARCHAEOLOGIST, CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON IN the New World three distinct A. D. Since this was the first monument aboriginal civilizations developed three bearing a cycle 8 glyph, Dr. Morley apogees of indigenous culture. These named the ruin "Uaxactun "-from the are the Aztec in the Valley of Mexico, Maya uaxac, meaning eight, and tuin, noted for their military organization; stone. It is the oldest dated stela so far the Inca in the Highlands of Peru, whose discovered in the Maya area. The latest despotic, if beneficent, paternalism per- date found at Uaxactun corresponds to meated every fiber of their politico- 639 A. D. So that we have here a dated social fabric, and the Maya of Middle span of 571 years; that is to say, a America. period three and one half times longer We may justly rank the cultural than the United States have existed as achievement of the last as intellectually a free and independent country. Yet the highest, in that their genius devel- archeology has afforded us every proof oped not only an accurate calendric sys- that Uaxactun was occupied long before tem, whose numeration called for the the erection of the earliest stela-just independent invention of zero and place- how long it is difficult to say, but the numeration, but also the orderly devel- sixth century before Christ would be a opment of a pleasing architectural style conservative estimate. Since we have and its concomitant decoration. Their positive proof that the Maya reused architecture never violated the principles stone stelae, effacing one date to set up governing proportion and mass; its another, this custom offers a partial ex- decoration, even when it appears florid planation for the lack of earlier dated to Western eyes, observes the fundamen- monuments; but perhaps a better ex- tals of design, and in their handling of planation lies in the supposition that perspective, the Maya surpassed all the dates may well have been carved first on ancient civilizations of the Old World wood rather than on stone. With the previous to the Minoan. climate of Yucatan such as it is we can It is with a sample of this highest never hope to find traces of these. aboriginal American civilization, as ex- Before I describe the actual excava- emplified in the ruins of Uaxactun, tions themselves, permit me a moment Guatemala, that we are here concerned. to describe two basic factors-environ- So great are the lacunae in our knowl- ment and race-an understanding of edge, however, that the original name of which is necessary for a clear compre- this site is forever lost to us. It was hension of the situation. given its present name on May 5, 1916, Environment is a basic factor which by its discoverer, Dr. S. G. Morley, an can not be ignored. As you are all associate of this Institution. aware, the peninsula lies within the On entering A-Group the first object tropics; the year is characterized by two that met his eye was Stela 9, bearing the seasons, the "rainy" and the "dry." Maya calendric inscription 8. 14. 10. 13. Since the whole region is composed en- 15. 8 Men 8 Kayab-or June 10th, 68 tirely of porous coralline limestone, per- 1 A lecture delivered at Carnegie Institution manent surface water is rare, despite a of Washington, November 3, 1931. heavy rainfall; in fact, the present sur- 72 EXCAVATIONS AT UAXACTUN 73 face-water supply is so scant that it react very unfavorably upon the environ- could not have met the needs of the ment of the ancient inhabitants in at ancient Maya during the dry season least two ways: first, because the origin when their population was at its peak. of the silt is the surface soil of the Various theories have been advanced higher land, composing the terrain suit- to explain this condition, of which the able for agriculture. Its complete de- most convincing is that of C. Wythe nudation would mean crop-failure and Cooke after a visit to Uaxactun this year. the consequent collapse of a civilization This theory is that the present-day based on corn; and second, because the bajos or logwood swamps, covering about transformation of a lake into a morass 40 per cent. of the terrain, were formerly not only eliminates rapid communication shallow lakes. The rapid erosion of the and easy transport by canoe, but changes surface soil, following deforestation by the whole aspect of the region and the Maya, has silted up these lakes. renders land-transport well-nigh impos- Beyond the geologic evidence supporting sible by the development of such exten- this theory, namely, that the mud of sive swamps that they can not be avoided these swamps is composed of black car- and must be crossed. bonaceous clay and disintegrating lime- The normal increase of population is stone-we should remember that the dis- sufficient to account for a slow but steady trict itself is called the "Peten, " a word expansion in search of new land; if, in meaning "lake" in Maya-and that the addition to this population increase, we silting up of these former lakes would have also the progressive onset of these FIG. 1. PRIMITIVE TYPE FIGURINES SHOWING FLATTENED FOREHEADS CHARACTERISTIC OF ANCIENT MAYA SKULLS. UPPER RIGHT- FROM BLACK DIRT STRATUM, UAXACTUN. AT LEFT AND LOWER RIGHT-FROm PALENQUE. 74 THE SCIENTIFIC MONTHLY mutually interactive conditions, soil- Our second basic factor is race. We denudation and lake-silting, we have a definitely know that at Uaxactun we are condition wherein expansion will be dealing with a Maya race pure and under forced draught, so to speak. This simple. No evidence is at hand that any expansion, however, is no more of an other type ever occupied this site. Such exodus than was our own westward ex- skeletons as have been encountered indi- pansion across the Great Plains in the cate that the individuals were markedly nineteenth century. brachycephalic, of relatively light skele- The sharp division of Maya history tal set-up and of equal stature with liv- into two epochs-a so-called "Old Em- ing Maya stocks as found in northern pire" in the south, abandoned in the Yucatan and the Highlands of Guate- seventh century A. D., to be followed mala to-day. later by a "New Empire" in the north, Two wide-spread characteristics of will have to be revised in the light of ancient Maya skulls are also seen at our present knowledge. The earlier Uaxactun-fronto-occipital deformation, centers were not abandoned; they in which the forehead is purposely flat- merely yielded their prestige to new tened (see Fig. 1), and the filing of the rivals. Incidentally, we should also ex- incisor teeth. We therefore assume, in plain that Maya ruins are not the re- the light of our present knowledge, that mains of extensive cities; the Maya were the first and original settlers of Uaxactun not an urban people, but agriculturists. were of Maya stock, no evidence of a Even in the large, multi-chambered preceding race of inhabitants ever hav- buildings of northern Yucatan there ing been discovered. Not only is there would not be housing facilities for a no archeological evidence, but in the large population. Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel, The ruins that we see to-day are the which recounts legendary lore of the civil and religious centers to which the Maya, there is this statement in regard surrounding farmers flocked on market- to the arrival of the Mayas. "They and feast-days. Proof of this state- named the district, they named the ment is evidenced by the fact that the wells, they named the region, they named low platforms forming ancient house- the land, because no one had arrived mounds extend throughout the jungle in here, here in Ucalpeten, when we ar- every direction and without demarcation rived here." If this is the case, then, between one center and another. the living Maya can claim 2,500 years of By taking a sample count of these continuous residence in the Peninsula of mounds and allowing the jurisdiction of Yucatan, during which time the major- such a center as Uaxactun to extend ten ity of their race has maintained its miles in every direction, we arrive at physical characteristics even up to the the conclusion that the population could present day, and this in spite of the not have been less than 48,000, providing shock of the Spanish Conquest. that only 25 per cent. of the house- With these two factors in mind, let us mounds were simultaneously occupied. now turn specifically to the ruins of If all the arable land were equally Uaxactun themselves. These lie in the divided among all the house-mounds, north central portion of the Department each householder would own a lot 125 of the Peten, Guatemala (see map, Fig. yards square. With intensive agricul- 2) at the geographic center of the Yuca- ture, such a lot would produce sufficient, tan Peninsula, in a dense high jungle and more than sufficient, corn, beans and which is to-day completely devoid of all squash for one family. permanent human habitation between EXCAVATIONS AT UAXACTUN 75 GULF OF MEX IC 0 MAYAPAN Y U C', A T A N C"Ick TZA UXMAL % SKABAH 0 UM Li o *LASNA TULUM G u 4 r or c A UPECH E 4i QUINTANA R 0 0 q4i +1 41 I v- C, AC TABASC IKAL v N lioz-A0 e 0 0 4b :r AL Gut- F OF 0 VFUrITSIMTE HONDURAS Ge G S vA FIG.

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