. Discovery. Science. Tablet of Maya writing from a temple at Palenque. place a higher value than it appears to think the opportunity merits. The localities of Central America in which monu- ments bearing the involved and fantastic characters of this script are most generally found arc still in- habited by people of that Maya stock who once em- ployed it. They embrace the remote peninsula of Yucatan, the uplands of Guatemala, and the districts of Tabasco, Chiapas, and even a portion of Honduras, liut by far the greater number of inscriptions have been met with in the southern part of these pro
. Discovery. Science. Tablet of Maya writing from a temple at Palenque. place a higher value than it appears to think the opportunity merits. The localities of Central America in which monu- ments bearing the involved and fantastic characters of this script are most generally found arc still in- habited by people of that Maya stock who once em- ployed it. They embrace the remote peninsula of Yucatan, the uplands of Guatemala, and the districts of Tabasco, Chiapas, and even a portion of Honduras, liut by far the greater number of inscriptions have been met with in the southern part of these provinces, where the older branch of the Maya civilisation ori- ginally flourished. It is at such sites as Copan in Honduras, Quirigua and Tikal in Guatemala, and Piedras Negras and Palenque in Chiapas that impwrtant texts are found, rather than in Yucatan proper, al- though inscriptions of moment are not wanting at , Chichen Itza, and elsewhere in the northern spheres of Maya influence. Just as the ancient writings of the Middle East arc found inscribed on a variety of objects, so the Maya script is not only painted on paper or skin or carved on stone, but incised on wood, bone, shell, metal, and modelled on pottery. The mediums of stone and paper were the most popular among the Maya scribes, and all others may be dismissed from our considera- tion. The carven inscriptions usually occur upon the sides of monoliths known as stele-shafts, which in shape, if not in their wealth of ornamental detail, recall the menhirs of Brittanj'. On altars, staircases, and frequently on the walls of temples and palaces, they are to be found nestling among the florid reliefs typical of Maya architecture. But the writing proper is confined to the few manuscripts or codices rescued from the fnous attentions of the early Spanish eccle- siastical authorities and now in European museums or libraries. The shape of the glyphs or symbols as they occur in the carven examples differs somewhat from that
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