No one can tell the true name of the ancient city now called Palenque.
It is known to us by this name because the ruins are situated a few
miles distant from the town of Palenque, now a village, but formerly a
place of some importance. The ruins are in the northern part of the
Mexican State of Chiapa, hidden out of sight in the forest, where they
seem to have been forgotten long before the time of Cortez. More than
two hundred years passed after the arrival of the Spaniards before their
existence became known to Europeans. They were discovered about the year
1750. Since that year decay has made some progress in them. Captain Del
Rio, who visited and described them in 1787, examined "fourteen
edifices" admirably built of hewn stone, and estimated the extent of the
ruins to be "seven or eight leagues one way [along the River Chacamas],
and half a league the other." He mentions "a subterranean aqueduct of
great solidity and durability, which passes under the largest building."
Other explorers have since visited Palenque, and reported on the ruins
by pen and pencil; but it is not certain that all the ruined edifices
belonging to them have been seen, nor that the explorations have made it
possible to determine the ancient extent of the city with any approach
to accuracy. The very great difficulties which obstruct all attempts at
complete exploration have not allowed any explorer to say he has
examined or discovered all the mouldering monuments hidden in the dense
and tangled forest, even within the space allowed by Del Rio's "half
league" from the river, not to speak of what may lie buried and unknown
in the dense mass of trees and undergrowth beyond this limit.
The largest known building at Palenque is called the "Palace." It stands
near the river, on a terraced pyramidal foundation 40 feet high and 310
feet long, by 260 broad at the base. The edifice itself is 228 feet
long, 180 wide, and 25 feet high. It faces the east, and has 14 doorways
on each side, with 11 at the ends. It was built entirely of hewn stone,
laid with admirable precision in mortar which seems to have been of the
best quality. A corridor 9 feet wide, and roofed by a pointed arch, went
round the building on the outside; and this was separated from another
within of equal width. The "Palace" has four interior courts, the
largest being 70 by 80 feet in extent. These are surrounded by
corridors, and the architectural work facing them is richly decorated.
Within the building were many rooms. From the north side of one of the
smaller courts rises a high tower, or pagoda-like structure, thirty feet
square at the base, which goes up far above the highest elevation of the
building, and seems to have been still higher when the whole structure
was in perfect condition. The great rectangular mound used for the
foundation was cased with hewn stone, the workmanship here, and every
where else throughout the structure, being very superior. The piers
around the courts are "covered with figures in stucco, or plaster,
which, where broken, reveals six or more coats or layers, each revealing
traces of painting." This indicates that the building had been used so
long before it was deserted that the plastering needed to be many times
renewed. There is some evidence that painting was used as a means of
decoration; but that which most engages attention is the artistic
management of the stone-work, and, above all, the beautifully executed
sculptures for ornamentation.
Two other buildings at Palenque, marked by Mr. Stephens, in his plan of
the ruins, as "Casa No. 1" and "Casa No. 2," views of which are shown in
Figures 27 and 28, are smaller, but in some respects still more
remarkable. The first of these, 75 feet long by 25 wide, stands on the
summit of a high truncated pyramid, and has solid walls on all sides
save the north, where there are five doorways. Within are a corridor and
three rooms. Between the doorways leading from the corridor to these
rooms are great tablets, each 13 feet long and 8 feet high, and all
covered with elegantly-carved inscriptions. A similar but smaller
tablet, covered with an inscription, appears on the wall of the central
room.
[Illustration: Fig. 27.--Casa No. 1, Palenque--Front View and Ground
Plan.]
"Casa No. 2" consists of a steep and lofty truncated pyramid, which
stands on a terraced foundation, and has its level summit crowned with a
building 50 feet long by 31 wide, which has three doorways at the south,
and within a corridor and three rooms. This edifice, sometimes called
"La Cruz," has, above the height required for the rooms, what is
described as "two stories of interlaced stucco-work, resembling a high,
fanciful lattice." Here, too, inscribed tablets appear on the walls; but
the inscriptions, which are abundant at Palenque, are by no means
confined to tablets. As to the ornamentation, the walls, piers, and
cornices are covered with it. Every where the masterly workmanship and
artistic skill of the old constructors compel admiration; Mr. Stephens
going so far as to say of sculptured human figures found in fragments,
"In justness of proportion and symmetry they must have approached the
Greek models."
[Illustration: Fig. 28.--Casa No. 2, Palenque (La Cruz)--Front View and
Ground Plan.]
"Casa No. 2" of Mr. Stephens is usually called "La Cruz" because the
most prominent object within the building is a great bas-relief on which
are sculptured a cross and several human figures. This building stands
on the high pyramid, and is approached by a flight of steps. Dupaix
says, "It is impossible to describe adequately the interior decorations
of this sumptuous temple." The cross is supposed to have been the
central object of interest. It was wonderfully sculptured and decorated;
human figures stand near it, and some grave ceremony seems to be
represented. The infant held toward the cross by one of the figures
suggests a christening ceremony. The cross is one of the most common
emblems present in all the ruins. This led the Catholic missionaries to
assume that knowledge of Christianity had been brought to that part of
America long before their arrival; and they adopted the belief that the
Gospel was preached there by St. Thomas. This furnished excellent
material for the hagiologists of that age; but, like every thing else
peculiar to these monkish romancers, it betrayed great lack of
knowledge.
The cross, even the so-called Latin cross, is not exclusively a
Christian emblem. It was used in the Oriental world many centuries
(perhaps millenniums) before the Christian era. It was a religious
emblem of the Phoenicians, associated with Astarte, who is usually
figured bearing what is called a Latin cross. She is seen so figured on
Phoenician coin. The cross is found in the ruins of Nineveh. Mr. Layard,
describing one of the finest specimens of Assyrian sculpture (the figure
of "an early Nimrod king" he calls it), says: "Round his neck are hung
the four sacred signs; the crescent, the star or sun, the trident, and
_the cross_." These "signs," the cross included, appear suspended from
the necks or collars of Oriental prisoners figured on Egyptian monuments
known to be fifteen hundred years older than the Christian era. The
cross was a common emblem in ancient Egypt, and the Latin form of it was
used in the religious mysteries of that country, in connection with a
monogram of the moon. It was to degrade this religious emblem of the
Phoenicians that Alexander ordered the execution of two thousand
principal citizens of Tyre by crucifixion.
The cross, as an emblem, is very common among the antiquities of Western
Europe, where archaeological investigation has sometimes been embarrassed
and confused by the assumption that any old monument bearing the figure
of a cross can not be as old as Christianity.
What more will be found at Palenque, when the whole field of its ruins
has been explored, can not now be reported. The chief difficulty by
which explorers are embarrassed is manifest in this statement of Mr.
Stephens: "Without a guide, we might have gone within a hundred feet of
the buildings without discovering one of them." More has been discovered
there than I have mentioned, my purpose being to give an accurate view
of the style, finish, decoration, and general character of the
architecture and artistic work found in the ruins rather than a
complete account of every thing connected with them. The ruins of
Palenque are deemed important by archaeologists partly on account of the
great abundance of inscriptions found there, which, it is believed, will
at length be deciphered, the written characters being similar to those
of the Mayas, which are now understood.