The Ruins of Time by David Adamson;

Author:David Adamson;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis (Unlimited)
Published: 2023-02-14T00:00:00+00:00

The only sounds came from troupes of monkeys, forty or fifty strong, who moved through the trees in long processions. It was the first time Stephens and Catherwood had seen these ‘mockeries of humanity’, and they looked to the travellers like the departed spirits of those who had once lived in the ruined city around them.

Altar G, perhaps the most magnificent at Copán. It is carved in the form of a double-headed serpent. The date is the latest so far deciphered at Copán: 800 a.d. Hieroglyphics and ornamentation on Stela C, Ceremonial Plaza, Copán Head of the rain god, Ik, from Temple 11, Copán The carvings on the Copán stelae are the most elaborate, the most deeply undercut, complex and fluent in the Maya world. They are the nearest thing to statuary in the round that the Maya ever produced. No space is wasted and glyphs cover the sides and backs of the stones. The difficulties for Catherwood were enormous. He found the complicated designs ‘perfectly unintelligible’. Added to the problem of unfamiliarity was that posed by the poor light. It was the rainy season and the foliage was thick, casting a deep shade. Burning away the trees would have been hard in the perpetual wetness and in any case, an attempt might have brought down the wrath of Don Gregorio. Finally, they decided to clear a few trees around one idol with the machetes of the Indians they had hired. It was slow work and Stephens found himself thinking nostalgically of the ring of the woodman’s axe at home and wishing for ‘a few long-sided Green Mountain boys’ from New England. As was to become his customary task, he cleaned and scrubbed away the dirt and moss on the sculpture. Then, while Catherwood prepared for his first drawings, he explored the site with two mestizos, Bruno and Francisco, who although living near by had never seen the sculpture before. Their enthusiasm grew with his and before long they were raking the ground with machetes, stopping when metal rang on stone so that Stephens could scrape away the soil with his hands and uncover the carvings beneath the humus. Stephens was overwhelmed by the beauty, the stillness and the sense of desolation.

He returned to Catherwood to find him consideraby less enchanted. His feet were in mud and he was drawing with his gloves on to protect his hands from the mosquitoes. Even with the camera lucida he found it impossible to master the intricate designs; what he had done satisfied neither himself nor Stephens, a less exacting critic. The camera lucida was a device in principle rather like a periscope which by means of prisms projected an image on to paper (Catherwood used squared paper) where it could be traced. They moved into a hut on the edge of the forest, where they were to spend the night in a depressed frame of mind. However, the recovery of a pair of waterproof boots in a bag which had fallen into

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