HARVARD ARCHAEOLOGIST TO EXPLORE IN YUCATAN

Dr. Herbert J. Spinden, '06. Assistant Curator of the Peabody Museum, and Gregory Mason, writer and explorer, will lead an expedition which will search for records of the ancient Mayas in Yucatan, it was announced last night.

Return Scheduled for May

The expedition is to leave New Orleans by steamer on January 9 for Belize, British Honduras, where a trading schooner has been chartered. In the sailing vessel the expedition will skin the Eastern Coast of Yucatan, stopping at points where ruins are known or suspected to exist in order to make excursions into the interior. Sometime in May the explorers will return to the United States.

Dr. Spinden was Assistant Curator of Anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York from 1909 to 1921, and since then has been Curator of Mexican Archaeology and Ethnology at the Peabody Museum of the University. He has made 14 expeditions to Central America gathering material which has led to the recovery of much ancient history and science. His book "Maya Art" was awarded the Prix Anguand by the French government. On December 27, 1925, Harvard announced that Dr. Spinden had solved the mystery of the Venus Calendar of the Mayas by which the ancient inhabitants of Yucatan began a record of celestial events in the sixth century B. C.

Hope for Important Discoveries

The Indians, who are the present day dwellers of Yucatan, have for years been so hostile to explorers that little scientific research has been possible. Now that the attitude of the Indians is reported to be more friendly, Dr. Spinden believes there is a good chance that discoveries of importance will be made. The Mayas were a city dwelling people and the peninsula of Yucatan was once densely populated. Many great cities are known to have existed. In them impressive architecture, painting and sculpture, together with inscriptions and writings dealing with scientific work, have been found. Dr. Spinden reports that the primary object of this expedition is to obtain accurate maps and photographs of the ruins as they now exist. The field of exploration is as yet so little known that no excavation can even be attempted.

On a high cliff overlooking the Caribbean Sea are the ruins of the ancient city of Tuloom. This sky is seldom visited by scientists and it is reported that ruins of still older cities may be found behind it.

Increasing interest in Yucatan

The long continued explorations carried on by the University in Central America are now beginning to show very definite results with increased knowledge of the hieroglyphic writing and other lore of the Mayas. The growing importance which archaeology and thnology occupy in the estimation of he general public today Dr. Spinden attributes in large part to the wider sympathy between nations and their appreciation of the civilization of other aces and other times than their own. The Peabody Museum began its Mayan research in the eighteen eighties and has pursued the work so constantly that Harvard now has enviable archaeological possessions and facilities for study in this field.

Gregory Mason, the organizer of this expedition, has made two previous trips of Yucatan and has written many magazine articles and a book on this region. In 1912 and 1913 he did newspaper work for the New York Evening Sun. He was outlook correspondent in the armies of Villa and Carranza in 1914 and two years later in the punitive expedition led by Pershing. Before the World War he undertook political and economic investigations in Yucatan, Mexico, Russia, Asia and the Far East. During the war he was outlook correspondent in the Argonne and Meuse campaigns and later in the antisubmarine operations of the United States and Great Britain. Immediately after the Armistice he visited Germany, Austria, Turkey and the Balkans to report political and economic conditions. As a lecturer he obtained fame by his talks dealing with international political problems.

Mr. McClurg, publisher and yachtsman, is familiar with Caribbean waters and has offered his services as navigator and hydrographer.

The opening of the Yucatan Peninsula to scientific research is due largely to the work carried on by the American chewing gum industry and the United Fruit Company. In the interior the "Chicle Development Company has established several camps and trails which will be used by the Mason-Spinden Expedition. In Northern Honduras where Dr. Spinden hopes to continue his researches of recent years, the United Fruit Company has offered invaluable assistance in the cooperation of its personnel and the use of its planation clearings