. Ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Indians of Mexico; Indians of Central America. THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 109 it possible to determine the general developments that hold true of the entire Mayan Area but also in a given city it is sometimes possible to arrange the buildings in their order of erection according to de- pendable criteria, both dec- orative and structural. The earliest temples have narrow vaulted rooms, heavy walls, and a single doorway. The rooms in- crease in width, the walls decrease in thickness, the doorways multiply till the spaces between them be- come pi
. Ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Indians of Mexico; Indians of Central America. THE MAYAN CIVILIZATION 109 it possible to determine the general developments that hold true of the entire Mayan Area but also in a given city it is sometimes possible to arrange the buildings in their order of erection according to de- pendable criteria, both dec- orative and structural. The earliest temples have narrow vaulted rooms, heavy walls, and a single doorway. The rooms in- crease in width, the walls decrease in thickness, the doorways multiply till the spaces between them be- come piers and finally col- umns. The support for the heavy roof comb taxed the structural ingenuity of the Mayan architects. The solving of this problem is marked by successive ad- vances and since mechani- cal science goes forward rather than backward the relative order of structures is fairly certain. More- over, many buildings are closely associated with dated monuments, tablets, lintels, or stelae. Still another evidence of architectural sequence is seen in structures that have been enlarged by the addi- tion of wings or by the enclosing of the old parts under new masonry. Books of Chilam Balam. We now turn to a very different kind of history, the digests of ancient chronicles in the Mayan language but in Spanish. Fig. 39. Late Sculpture from Chichen Itza. The head- dress resembles that worn by the rulers on the highlands of Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original Spinden, Herbert Joseph, 1879-1967. New York : American Museum of Natural History
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