“GREAT WHITE WAY”

Wairarapa Times-Age, 27 May 1939, Page 9

“GREAT WHITE WAY”

AN ENGINEERING MARVEL EXPEDITION’S INVESTIGATIONS. MOMENTOUS DISCOVERIES. ■ A “sacbe” or Great White Way 62 miles long, between the ancient Mayan cities of Yaxuna and Coba, has been uncovered and explored for its full length by an expedition sponsored by archaeologists of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, stationed at Chicken Itza, the “City of the Sacred Well,” states a correspondent in the “Christian Science Monitor.” Heading the expedition, which was made up of natives, was Alfonso Villa, a young Yucatecan schoolmaster who has been assisting Professor Robert Redfield, of Chicago University, in his study of the life of Chan Korn, a modern though isolated Yucatecan village. Dr Sylvanus G. Morley, in charge of the institution field staff, commissioned Mr Villa to select twelve Mayan Indians to accompany him, to equip a pack train with supplies and water receptacles, to enter the road at Yaxuna, and to follow it wherever it led, making a survey as he went. It required three weeks, to cover the distance one way.

One of the momentous discoveries en route was the first American road roller found about 22 miles out of Yaxuna—-lying on top of the causeway towards one side, in all probability just where it had been left by the builders centuries before. According to Mr Villa and the photographs he brought back, sun and wind and weather have treated it badly, for the shaft is broken in two nearly midway of its length and segments of considerable size have flaked off. But enough remained to satisfy the archaeologists that it had been quarried and given cylindrical shape for that special purpose. Its weight must have been more than five tons originally. ’ CENTRE OF NETWORK. Coba, 1000 years ago, must have been a Mayan city of consequence, as the abundance of archaeological evidence shows. Nov/ long abandoned, it lies about 65 miles east by south of Chicken Itza, the centre of a vast network of great causeways or roads cutting through territory dotted with small fresh-water lakes. The region is difficult to traverse and has no permanent population. A few chicle gatherers tap the sapodilla trees during the rainy season and these occupy only temporary camps. These ancient roads were truly engineering marvels. Constructing them the builders began by digging down to hardpan, erecting retaining walls on either side to the height to which they desired to bring the road. These walls were made of large, roughly-faced limestone set in mortar, into the space between the walls a layer of heavy boulders, some two or three feet long and weighing hundreds of pounds, w’ere carefully laid and the spaces between chinked with smaller stones, fitted and hammered into position. Then came successively smaller boulders and stones, quite as carefully places, until the road had been brought to proper height, whereupon a layer of rock broken into much finer pieces was added. After this was hammered or rolled into a hard, level surface, a final coating of mortar cement was applied. LITERALLY "WHITE ROAD.” The modern Indian name for the ancient stone roads of Yucatan is “Sacbe,” plural “Socbeob,” which is literally, “white road.” The name is highly applicable, because the surfacing coat was made of lime mixed with fine-sifted white earth which origrnally must have given the roads a dazzling appearance. Why the roads were built is a great mystery. The Mayas had no beasts of burden as had the Inca of Peru; nor wheeled vehicles as had the Romans, greatest road builders of ancient times, yet in durability, in evidence of careful workmanship, and in the expenditure of labour in construction and upkeep, the roads of Mayaland compare favourably with those of both the others. “Apparently,” Dr Morley told the “Christian Science Monitor,” “the highways were built for travellers afoo’ artfl for men bearing palanquins and burdens on their backs. If so, and if these sixteen known roads were utilised to capacity, as indications show, what an amazing picture of the activity of that day and' region the magination presents. Four files of men with their loads could easily pass so wide were the roads, two lines travelling in one direction and two the other. COMMUNITY ACTION. “Road building calls for organiser community action of a relatively higl order. Savage men build no road? nor have they any need for them. The magnificent causeways of Coba testify eloquently to the fact that the Maya; >f that region, in possessing the capacity to plan and execute community projects calling for so great a degree -,f organising ability, had come a long way along the path of civilisation. They also indicate that Coba, the focal point of all these great roads, must have wielded a powerful influence in ill matters''touching the affairs of all people throughout a great area round about. “It is strange, as well as disquieting '.hat a people as numerous and as virile as the Coba region contained, could iisappear; that their farms, their homes, their villages and cities, theii temples and their great causeways, could be swallowed up by the jungle and their very existence, even, could be so nearly forgotten.”