Discoveries in Yucatan

DISCOVERIES IN YUCATAN.

Highly interesting and important discoveries have been made, according to recent reports, in Central America, indicating, if we mistake not, that science at last is on the road to solve the mysteries connected with the aborigines of this continent. Dr. Augustus le Plongeon, the eminent archaeologist, has devoted twelve years to the study of the monuments of the ancient race of that country and has at last succeeded in deciphering many of the inscriptions found in the ruins.

According to the account in the July number of the Review of Reviews, Dr. Plongeon surmised that the language still spoken by the aborigines of Yucatan would bear some resemblance to that of the first inhabitants, and acting on this supposition he soon found that by giving to the mysterious characters on the ruins the same phonetic value they possess in the language of the Quiches, they formed intelligible words and phrases Then he discovered that the modern language of the natives was not materially different from that of the inscriptions. The archaeologist by this means obtained a key to the formerly incomprehensible hieroglyphics.

What may be regarded as a still more startling discovery is the fact that the hieratic, or sacred, alphabet of the Mayas, on comparison, was found to be practically identical with that of the Egyptians, and that the gram­matical structure of the two tongues is strikingly similar, many words and characters having the same meaning in both. The initial letters of the Maya names for the objects which constitute the Egyptian alphabet are the very characters so represented. The conclusion from this is that both these people acquired the art of writing from a common source, or one of them taught it to the other.

Dr Plongeon, we are informed, has succeeded in translating the Troano manuscript in the British Museum, a record dealing with geology and history According to this the peninsula of Yucatan was called “Mayax,” which is said to mean the first or primitive land. It comprised the whole of Central America. The two chief cities were Uxmal and Chichin-Itza, the latter of which was the center of civilization. This place was visited by learned men from all parts of the world, and the illustrations in the manuscript show travelers with unmistakably Assyrian features. As a further proof of the communication that must have existed between the different parts of the globe, is this, that the word “maya” is found in Asia, Africa, and Europe, and always meaning “power" or “wisdom.”

The following is an account of a terrible cataclysm recorded in the Troano manuscript and translated by Dr. Plongeon:

In the year 6 Kan, on the 11th of NuIuc, in the month Zac, there occurred terrible earthquakes, which continued without interruption until the 13th Chuen. The country of the hills of mud, the land of Mu, was sacrificed; being twice upheaved, it suddenly disappeared during the night, the basin being continually shaken by volcanic forces. Being confined, these caused the land to sink and to rise several times and in various places. At last the surface gave way, and ten countries were torn asunder and scattered. Unable to withstand the force of the convulsions, they sank with their 64,000,000 of inhabitants, 8,060 years before the writing of this book.

It is supposed that this terrible cataclysm is the same as that referred to by Plato in his Atlantis, and that the letters of the Greek alphabet are a record of the event.

The story of the creation the Mayas carved over the doorway of the east facade of the palace at Chichin-Itza. The beliefs held by the Mayas con­cerning the creation, as therein recorded, are identical, it is claimed, with the ideas concerning the first origin of things arrived at by the inhabitants of India and of Egypt, and are expressed in nearly the same words. This identity of ideas expressed in identical language cannot be attributed, it is justly argued, to mere coincidence, neither is it conceivable that the people of these different countries arrived at the same conclusions independently of one another. The idea and its explanation must undoubtedly have originated among one people, and by them have been taught to the others.

Dr. Plongeon overthrows the generally accepted views on this subject and agues for the opinions advocated by the believers in the Book of Mormon. He contends that the cosmogony originated on this continent and was transferred to the eastern hemisphere. He shows that the legends connected with the images of several Egyptian deities, when interpreted by means of the Maya language, point directly to Mayax as their birth­place; he cites the identity of the Egyptian with the Mayan alphabet, and he reminds us that the Egyptians themselves looked upon “the lands of the west” as being the mother-land of their gods and their ancestors, and the fountain head from which they had originally derived their knowledge. From these and other premises he deducts the conclusion that the Egyptians and other eastern nations acquired their cosmogonical concept­ions from Mayax.

From all this it is evident that the study of the Maya inscriptions has thrown a new light upon the traditions of the past, handed down by the historians of Egypt, India, Babylonia, and Palestine.—Deseret News.