DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.29899#0619
Bk. II. Ch. II.
MEXICAN CONSTRUCTION.
599
introcluced above the walls, between the interstices of the wood-work ;
which is further confirmed by the strange erection on the top of the
Casa at Palenque (Woodcut No. 1018), where the openings look very
like the copy of a ventilator of some sort.
1025. Apartment at Chichen itza. (From a Drawing by F. Catherwood.)
It is, of course, impossible to ascribe any very remote antiquity to
buildings containing so much wood in their construction, and erected
in a climate so fatal to the durability of any class of buildings what-
ever. In addition to this, it must be borne in mind that the bas-reliefs
are generally in stucco, which, however good, is still a very perish-
able material, and also that the painting on
these and on the walls is still bright and
fresh. In such a climate as that of Egypt
no argument could be drawn from these
circumstances ; but in a country subject to
tropical rains and the heat and dryness of a
tropical summer the marvel is that they
should have lasted four or five centuries, and
still more that they should have resisted so long the very destructive
powers of vegetation. Taking all these circumstances together, the
epoch of their erection does not seem a matter of cloubt, and all that
remains for the elucidation of their history is that they shoulcl be
arranged in a sequence during the six or eight centuries which may
have intervened between the erection of the oldest and the most
modern of these mysterious monuments.
Diagram of Mexican
constouction.
MEXICAN CONSTRUCTION.
599
introcluced above the walls, between the interstices of the wood-work ;
which is further confirmed by the strange erection on the top of the
Casa at Palenque (Woodcut No. 1018), where the openings look very
like the copy of a ventilator of some sort.
1025. Apartment at Chichen itza. (From a Drawing by F. Catherwood.)
It is, of course, impossible to ascribe any very remote antiquity to
buildings containing so much wood in their construction, and erected
in a climate so fatal to the durability of any class of buildings what-
ever. In addition to this, it must be borne in mind that the bas-reliefs
are generally in stucco, which, however good, is still a very perish-
able material, and also that the painting on
these and on the walls is still bright and
fresh. In such a climate as that of Egypt
no argument could be drawn from these
circumstances ; but in a country subject to
tropical rains and the heat and dryness of a
tropical summer the marvel is that they
should have lasted four or five centuries, and
still more that they should have resisted so long the very destructive
powers of vegetation. Taking all these circumstances together, the
epoch of their erection does not seem a matter of cloubt, and all that
remains for the elucidation of their history is that they shoulcl be
arranged in a sequence during the six or eight centuries which may
have intervened between the erection of the oldest and the most
modern of these mysterious monuments.
Diagram of Mexican
constouction.