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Show Keeping Up WitlijSciene By $ cenhe Sen vec C Science Service. WNU Service. Mayan Empire May Have Been Wrecked i)V Social Upheaval Philadelphia. A violent social upheaval, with thrones literally shattered, may have wrecked America's mysterious mysteri-ous old empire of the Mayas, which flowered so magnificently magnifi-cently in the tropics long before be-fore Columbus. This new scientific theory, brought back from Guatemala by an expedition of the University of Pennsylvania museum and partly financed by the American Philosophical Philo-sophical society, shows the "peaceful" "peace-ful" and highly civilized Mayan Indians in warlike phase. Archeol-gists Archeol-gists have long been mystified by the curious break in their civilization, civiliza-tion, when many stone cities in Central Cen-tral America were abandoned. Their center of civilization shifted northward to Yucatan. "Many scientists long have felt that it was inability of the Mayan Indians to cope with the enveloping envelop-ing jungle, or some other natural nat-ural force, that led them to abandon aban-don elaborate temples and palaces," said Linton Satterthwaite, Jr., field director of the expedition. The expedition, which returned to Piedras Negras, a deserted city that previous university museum expe-"- citior.s found well worlh exploring, has t.ier.rthed new evidence to confirm con-firm a sucp'icion that damage to thrones in sacred palaces was done by human vengeance, net merely by time and we.-.ther. Parts of thrones were even found buried in the jungles away from the palaces, showing that human hands had moved them. Basis of the New Theory. Explaining the scientific reasoning reason-ing which leads the expedition to deduce de-duce social upheaval in Mayan days, Mr. Satterthwaite said: "'Tne ancient Maya communities were not cities in the strict sense of the word, but rather, religious centers, at.d the absence of kitchens end sleeping quarters in the palaces pal-aces indica:es that those structures were used primarily for religious or civil ceremonies, and were not priestly residences as has been supposed. sup-posed. Nevertheless, they doubtless were erected at the instance of the priests who constituted the ruling class, and it is logical to assume that, therefore, such sacred buildings build-ings would not have lost their appeal to the Mayas, and their construction construc-tion have been discontinued without with-out some change in the relationship relation-ship between priests and laymen. "Possibly the change took the iorm of a violent social upheaval in which the priests themselves, and all that they stood for, were overthrown. over-thrown. That we do not know, of course. But the discovery of evidence evi-dence that human agencies played some part in the destruction and removal of sacred objects is significant. signif-icant. "For while that discovery does not solve by any means the mystery surrounding the fundamental causes of the decline of Maya culture it suggests that violence resulted from those causes. If so, the abandonment abandon-ment of the religious centers does not imply that the people left their country immediately. "Thus the opinion of many scholars schol-ars that the whole population left the southern 'Old Empire' country under the leadership of their priests may bemore justifiablyquestioned." |