1948

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merely isolated elements. Many of the latter are immediately interesting to us, but we should know their meaning and relative importance to the people who created them. This was our approach at Piedras Negras and the plan was about completed for the central heart or core of the "city". It is now proposed to extend this type of work to a peripheral zone of mounds, mapped but scarcely sampled by excavation. Though planned for from the beginning, we shall nevertheless be breaking new ground, and this should be our major effort in the Maya field.

The remarkable Bonampak site recently discovered in Chiapas, Mexico is approximately 30 miles from Piedras Negras and in the same localized culture area. It is our understanding that the Carnegie Institution does not contemplate additional investigation in the region (other than to complete recording of the famous frescos) and it is therefore considered desirable to follow-up this discovery with continued survey work in the general region of Piedras Negras. Piedras Negras would be the natural nucleus for survey work in the area and a center for correlation of discoveries similar to that of Bonampak which probably remain to be made.

In order to clear the site of Piedras Negras for continued excavations, to arrange for labor, supplies, equipment, agreements with Guatemala, and to initiate a survey of the area it is recommended that Dr. Satterthwaite return to Guatemala early in 1948, probably with Mr. Healy who made the Bonampak discoveries, for a two to three months proparatory expedition. Actual excavations at Piedras Negras should begin in the 1949 season with Dr Satterthwaite and an assistant in charge. Thereafter the assistant could continue in the field while Dr. Satterthwaite concentrated on completion of the publications.

The total cost of the preliminary survey and three seasons of re- … continues