. Ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Indians of Mexico; Indians of Central America. 84 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA or built up out of several nicely fitted blocks of stone. Grotesque faces also occur. In the later styles, decoration consists largely of "mask panels," which are grotesque front view faces arranged to fill rectangular panels, but there is an increasing amount of purely geometric ornament. The masked panels represent in most instances a highly elab- orated serpent's face which sometimes carries the. Fig. 22. Mask Panel over Doorway at Xkichmook. Yucatan.
. Ancient civilizations of Mexico and Central America. Indians of Mexico; Indians of Central America. 84 MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA or built up out of several nicely fitted blocks of stone. Grotesque faces also occur. In the later styles, decoration consists largely of "mask panels," which are grotesque front view faces arranged to fill rectangular panels, but there is an increasing amount of purely geometric ornament. The masked panels represent in most instances a highly elab- orated serpent's face which sometimes carries the. Fig. 22. Mask Panel over Doorway at Xkichmook. Yucatan. special markings of one of the greater gods. These panels, considered historically, pass through some interesting developments. Angular representations of serpent heads in profile are sometimes used at the sides of doorways. The supplementary monuments are stelae and altars. These are monolithic sculptures that are often set up in definite relation to a building either on the terraces or at the foot of the stairway. The stelae are great plinths or slabs of stone carved on one or more sides with the figures of priests and warriors loaded down with religious symbols. The altars are small stones usually placed in front of the stelae. Many stelae and altars are set up in plazas and have no definite architectural 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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