WONDERS OF THE PAST
The Romance of Antiquity and Its Splendours
J. A. Hammerton
G. P. Putnam’s Sons · New York & London · 1923 · First Edition · Four Volumes
WONDERS OF THE PAST Volume I · The Ancient Civilizations
THE ACCOUNT OF G. E. ELLIOTT — MAYA, page 98
“The Maya built houses for their gods in stone, however perishable were the dwellings of perishable man, and, despite the fact that all the records of Copan came to an abrupt end nearly sixteen hundred years ago, and despite the centuries of desultory pillaging that succeeded its desertion, enough monuments still stand to prove that here flourished one of the great religious centres of the world.
Long periods of acute observation brought Maya knowledge of astronomy to a pitch of exactitude that would not shame a modern nation, although the latter has the advantage of the telescope.”
SACRED MONUMENTS AND CELESTIAL KNOWLEDGE
At Copán, the Maya built sacred monuments that would outlast their civilization by more than a millennium. Long after the city's abandonment, its carved stones still preserve the achievements of a people who measured celestial cycles with remarkable precision. Their inscriptions record sophisticated calendrical calculations, revealing generations of astronomical knowledge developed without optical instruments.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA , Unnumbered plate 1, following p. 98
“In the early Maya epoch, stelae, deeply-sculptured stones, such as this, were erected to mark the passage of a five-year period. This particular monument belongs to a comparatively late date in the history of Copan; it was raised early in the third century of our era.”
THE MONOLITHIC TIME-MARKER OF COPÁN
Maya stelae combined royal portraits with hieroglyphic records of significant dates and events, preserving the histories of rulers while linking political authority to sacred cycles of time.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 2, following p. 98
“The Maya symbolised the earth as a monster with a head at each end of the body. In the jaws of the principal head they portrayed a figure of the sun-god, while the other is shown with a skeleton jaw, the emblem of the death-god. The old inhabitants of this part of Central America imagined the earth as an alligator-like creature which swallowed the sun each evening.”
THE EARTH MONSTER AND THE SWALLOWED SUN
At Quiriguá, this creature was represented as swallowing the sun each evening, linking its disappearance to the living earth.
The horse and figures beside the upper sculpture reveal the enormous scale of these Maya monuments. Despite their size, the stone surfaces were carved with remarkable precision.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 3, following p. 98
“Human sacrifice, though in vogue among the Maya of Yucatan at the time of the Spanish Conquest, was not practised by the early Maya. The priests, contesting themselves with what is called the ‘penitential rite,’ pierced their ears and tongues and so offered blood from their own persons. There is a remarkable sculpture from Menché, which shows the figure of a god, standing with ceremonial staff in hand while a priest kneels in front of the Deity in the act of drawing across the tongue a rope spiked with thorns.”
BLOOD OFFERINGS BEFORE THE DIVINE
The relief depicts Lady K’abal Xook drawing a thorn-studded rope through her tongue before Shield Jaguar II. Identified as Yaxchilán Lintel 24, it records a royal bloodletting ritual in AD 709, reflecting blood offerings’ sacred role in Maya political and religious life.
Modern Note: The book's identification of the figures as a priest and deity is an earlier interpretation, superseded by the monument's inscriptions.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 4, following p. 98
“Below is a photograph of the Temple of Tigers and Shields at Chichén Itzá, in its present condition. Above is a restoration of the same building, illustrating the harmonious proportions and beauty in detail which characterised the period of Toltec-Maya architecture. The tigers (i.e., jaguars) and shields appear in the frieze, but the outstanding feature is constituted by the rattlesnake columns which are one of the most striking creations of Toltec genius.”
THE TEMPLE OF JAGUARS — RESTORATION AND REDISCOVERY
The photographs show Chichén Itzá’s Temple of Jaguars before and after an imagined restoration. The upper image reconstructs its original appearance; the lower shows its condition in the early twentieth century.
Modern Note: Actual restoration began in 1923 under Mexican archaeologist Miguel Ángel Fernández. Workers cleared debris, identified fallen stones, and rebuilt parts of the façade from surviving fragments. Consolidation continued in the 1930s.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 1, following p. 99
“The so-called House of the Nuns at Chichén Itzá, an immense rectangular building, rich in intricate mosaics and carvings, is one of the most perfect specimens of later Maya architecture.”
THE HOUSE OF THE NUNS — AN ARCHITECTURAL LEGACY
The Casa de las Monjas was constructed and enlarged in successive phases, incorporating architectural influences from the Puuc region. Its carefully fitted limestone masonry and elaborate façades demonstrate the technical sophistication of Maya builders.
Modern Note: The photograph preserves the complex before conservation, when vegetation and fallen masonry still surrounded its surviving structures.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 2, following p. 99
“This monument, one of the numerous stelae, or upright slabs, still standing at Quiriguá under a canopy of dense forest, measures 24 ft. from base to summit, exclusive of the portion fixed in the earth. Human figures, wearing elaborate ceremonial headdress, are carved on front and back, while the sides are covered with some of the most elaborate Maya inscriptions, or glyphs, that have yet been found.”
A MONUMENT OF MAYA ENGINEERING
Likely erected in AD 761, Quiriguá's Stela F rises approximately 24 feet above ground. Carved from a single sandstone block, it was the tallest monument yet erected by the Maya at the time.
Modern Note: The precise methods used to transport and erect these enormous sandstone monuments have yet to be conclusively established.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 3, following p. 99
“Stone slab, from the Temple of the Cross at Palenque, showing a figure with the face of the thunder-god blowing an offering of incense through a tube. His head is crowned with the mask of the mythological Moon-bird, associated with clouds and lightning. This energetic example of relief carving belongs probably to the second century A.D.”
A SACRED RITUAL AT PALENQUE
This relief depicts an elaborate ceremony framed by supernatural imagery. Modern archaeology dates the Temple of the Cross to the late seventh century AD, during K'inich Kan B'ahlam II’s reign — not the second century, as the original caption claims. Its sculptures link royal authority to divine ancestry and Palenque’s sacred history.
Modern Note: The original identification of the figure as a priest offering incense and its interpretation of the headdress reflect early twentieth-century scholarship.
THE ACCOUNT OF G. E. ELLIOTT — MAYA, page 102
“This was the Golden Age of the Maya, a brilliant efflorescence finding its great expression in splendid and beautiful temples. It flourished until about A.D. 340, soon after the end of the Tenth Cycle of the Maya calendar. Then the whole of this great artistic and scientific effort came suddenly to an end, as if a magic hand had wiped it out.
Not a single glyph was carved within the great triangle after this time, and it is reasonable to suppose that the desertion of the sites by the inhabitants then occurred. Neither spoken tradition nor the historical legends of certain of the emigrant clans, written down soon after the Spanish conquest, explain this mystery. No guess, suggesting change of climate, invasions of disease, earthquakes or the fear of enemies, sheds a light upon this strange event sufficiently. Though a mural painting in the Great Ball Court at Chichén Itzá shows a battle, Maya monumental carvings are almost uniformly peaceful. Nor do the ancient Maya sites display any sign of destruction other than that of the slow pressure of nature.
The reason of the Maya dissolution remains mysterious, but we know where the dispersed people went. A few probably wandered south without their learned men, and some west, influencing the Quiché and Kakchiquel tribes. But the big mass of the people, led by their priests armed with calendrical lore, went north to Yucatan.”
THE DISAPPEARANCE OF THE CLASSIC MAYA CITIES
Elliott was describing what archaeologists now call the Classic Maya collapse, a prolonged decline affecting many southern lowland cities during the eighth and ninth centuries AD.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 1, following p. 102
“Example of Maya architecture from Chichén Itzá, in Yucatan, affording a good illustration of the skill of the Maya builder before he came into contact with the Toltec. The high façade of the building is a mosaic of limestone blocks so assembled as to portray a series of masks of the rain-god, whose stout-like nose was borrowed from the tapir, an animal identified in mythology with the lightning.”
THE STONE MOSAICS OF CHICHÉN ITZÁ
The Chichanchob, or Red House, belongs to the Puuc architectural tradition and dates to approximately the ninth century AD. Its exterior was assembled from individually shaped limestone blocks arranged in geometric patterns with supernatural imagery.
Modern Note: Early twentieth-century scholars identified the façade's masks as representations of the Maya rain deity Chaac. The precise identification and symbolism of individual masks remain subjects of archaeological debate.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 2, following p. 102
“Uxmal, in Yucatan, an offshoot of Chichén Itzá, is remarkable for the elaborate mosaic decoration of its buildings. One of the finest is the so-called House of the Governor, shown in the lower photograph on this page. This building has many doorways provided with wooden lintels, and the decay of the latter, though responsible for a certain amount of damage, has not seriously endangered the stability of the building.
In the upper photograph is shown the detail of a corner, the mosaic being arranged to show a series of colossal grotesque rain-god faces with characteristic trunk-like noses.”
THE STONEWORK OF UXMAL
The House of the Governor at Uxmal, constructed around the ninth to tenth centuries AD, is among the finest surviving examples of Puuc architecture. Its monumental façade also combines precisely fitted limestone masonry with elaborate stone mosaics.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 3, following p. 102
“This building, forming part of the group known as the Nunnery, is one of the best preserved of the Maya structures at Chichén Itzá. The lintels are intact, and most of the mosaic wall decoration is in place.“
A MONUMENT TO MAYA COSMOLOGY
The building's entrance is framed as the open jaws of a supernatural creature, an architectural motif associated with the Chenes tradition.
Such doorways have been interpreted as symbolic passages into a sacred or supernatural realm, suggesting that the building's design carried meaning beyond its decorative appearance.
THE MARVELS OF CENTRAL AMERICA — MAYA, Unnumbered plate 4, following p. 102
“The so-called ‘Castillo’ at Chichén Itzá is built on a pyramid 200 ft. high, and is approached by 103 steps. Rising above the plain, surrounded by forest, the building is one of the most striking ruins in the district, and is richly ornamented with carved stone. It may be assigned to the eleventh or twelfth century A.D., as its architecture bears many traces of Toltec influence.”
A PYRAMID BUILT AROUND THE SOLAR YEAR
El Castillo, or Temple of Kukulcán, reflects calendrical symbolism: its four stairways each have 91 steps, and the summit platform brings the total to 365, representing the solar year.
Modern Note: Since this photograph was taken, El Castillo has undergone extensive excavation and restoration, particularly during the 1920s and 1930s. Around the equinoxes, sunlight and shadows create a descending serpent on the north staircase.
[Further Analysis Pending…]
