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THE ALPHABET obtained by archaeological expeditions sent out to work on the spot, are constantly affording evidence that a great mass of potential information still exists waiting to be uncovered.
In order to solve the intricate problems of history, ethnology and linguistics, much research work has still to be done. Investigation on the spot is not easy: it is rendered still more difficult by the inaccessibility of some parts of the region and the malarial infection of others. Havoc and destruction have been wrought upon many famous sites, both by man and nature; the natural levers of root and branch in the tropical jungle of Yucatan were efficient agents in throwing down pyramids and walls which the ignorant inhabitants only spared because of their inaccessibility. From the ethnological point of view, not only were the preColumbian cultures and idioms most heterogeneous, but there now exist few native peoples whose culture has not been much changed by European civilization. Many dialects are still unintelligible. Although much systematic work has already been done, no comprehensive linguistic study has been published.
CULTURES OF ANCIENT MEXICO AND CENTRAL AMERICA
Space does not allow me to give a comprehensive summary of what is known on this subject; and it would be useless to present any decisive judgment on the many controversial problems or to suggest tentative solutions without giving the necessary evidences what would take me far outside the purpose of this book. I shall try, however, to present very briefly the results which are more or less generally accepted by the experts in those studies which are connected with the subject of this book.
Concerning the main problem whether there is any relation in culture between pre-Conquest Mexico and the ancient Old World, it is probable that if there be any connection, it is of infinite remoteness and could have had no influence whatever on the origin of the ancient Mexican scripts. Professor Arthur Posnansky (in Tihuanacu, the Cradle of American Man, New York, 1945) gives a quite new solution of the whole problem: Tihuanacu, situated on the shore of Lake Titicaca (Bolivia) in the high Andes of South America, is according to Posnansky the enchanted spot where Indian legend as well as archäological proof place the primacy of human settlement and culture, not only of the western Hemisphere but of our planet. It is outside the purpose of this book to go into details.
There is a fairly general agreement, nowadays, concerning the part played by the Mayas, the Toltecs and the Aztecs in the cultural development of ancient Mexico. Until the early nineteenth century, the whole civilization of ancient Mexico was attributed to the Aztecs; then, the Toltecs received that great honour; now, the scholars of the twentieth century consider the Mayas of ancient Central America as the originators of the highest pre-Columbian civilization of America. The Zapotecs are considered as the intermediaries between the Mayas and the Nahua civilization of Mexico; both the Aztecs and the Toltecs belonged to the same linguistic group of the Nahuas. We shall deal briefly with these peoples.
MAIN PEOPLE WHO DEVELOPED ANCIENT MEXICAN AND
CENTRAL AMERICAN CULTURES Mayas
The Mayas, one of the most important peoples of native America, and the most highly civilized of pre-Columbian America, still form the bulk of the population of Yucatan. They may be divided into three main groups: (1) the Mayas proper, numbering about 300,000, in Yucatan and the neighbouring states of Mexico, and Guatemala, are subdivided into many tribes; (2) the Quiché.
