PREHISTORIC ENGINEERS

Manawatu Standard, Volume XLVI, Issue 202, 27 July 1926, Page 2

PREHISTORIC ENGINEERS

MAYA RUINS LIKE THOSE OFPERU. HILL-TOP. LEVELLED* TERRACE OF 20-TON STONES. Mr F. A. Mitchell-Hedges, the explorer, -who with Mr T. A. Joyce, of the Ethnological Department of the British Museum, and Lady Richmond Brown has recommenced excavation at the ruined Maya city of Lubaantun, in British Honduras, he is describing the work as it proceeds in special despatches to the London Daily Mail. The most stupendous discoveries we have yet made at Lubaantun have taken place within the last two or three days, he wrote on May 8. They may eclipse in interest the groat citadel. Three, and a-half miles due west, Lady Richmond Brown and I, with Indian guides, climbed a hill which rose steeply from the side of the river to a height of some 1500 feet. A quarter of the way up wo came upon a terrace; this was followed by eight others, continuing to the top of the hill. On the summit stood a building once a temple. Many of the stones employed in the construction of this edifice are of great weight. We found that other immense ruins adjoined and extended over a distance of several square miles. Mr Joyce, who later inspected it, is almost certain that the population was so vast that, like the ancient civilisation in Peru, those people constructed cultivation terraces so that they might use every available foot of ground to grow the food necessary to feed the immense population. The following day proved a revelation. On the other side of the river, immediately opposite the new discovery, we scaled a precipitous hill, the top of which had been artificially levelled. Round the summit these extraordinary people had performed an engineering feat which excelled any we had previously- seen. They had built a terrace of gigantic stones, many of which weighed fully 20 tons. How any human agency raised these stones for a thousand feet or more up the side of a hill so steep that in many places it is almost perpendicular is beyond comprehension. It is obvious how little wo know of primitive engineering. DEGENERATE MAYAS. On the side of this hill is a flat platform. Living here is a Maya family. Many of the Indians to-day have acquired a smattering of Spanish, but this isolated family speak tho Maya language only. It was sad to see in the last stages of degeneracy the descendants of the mighty people who built cities and structures which to-day are a revelation to the world. One half-naked boy appeared to bo an idiot. Another child was almost totally blind during tho day, though at night he could 1 see perfectly. For food they rely on a small patch of land which tho Indian cultivates on tho extreme summit of the .hill ringed round with these colossal stone terraces and actually plants seed in the interstices of the stonework. Mr Joyce finds that in many respects the ruins of Lubaantun bear a resemblance to the ancient Peruvian ruins; the construction of the plain, unoraamented terracing is an example, as are the gigantic stones employed. Mr Jovce also finds that the Lubaantur culture, though fundamentally Maya, exhibits certain peculiar features'which differ markedly from the present known phase of Maya culture. It is all the more interesting because by now it is obvious that this particular culture represented by Lubaantun exists over a very large area of the southern portion of British Honduras. He is certain that the exploration of this region will reveal a new and specialised branch of Maya culture hitherto unknown. A VAST ENTERPRISE.

The wet season is near and we have finished our work for the year on these immense ruins. AA’e know to-day they are far too vast for private enterprise to undertake the work of their thorough and scientifio investigation. It must be after Mr Joyce’s report to the trustees of the British Museum a question for the nation. Already there are suggestions of building a hundred odd miles of railroad from Belize to the great ruined city for the purpose of attracting tourists from the States and elsewhere, who would thus be able to travel in comfort and see one of the sights of the world.

This would automatically mean the opening up of a British Colony which has hitherto been neglected. The Colony has thousands of square miles of some of the richest agricultural land ill the world, but no roads or means of transport except by water.