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"This is an observatory Please note the details on the frieze Next Construction wasn't confined to the ground level This is a subterranean tehly unusual site"

Austin leaned forward in his chair as if he were trying to put himself into the scene "Unusual in what other ways, Dr Chi?"

Gesturing toward the ie behind him, the professor said, "Most Mayan cities are coious, and residential uses This center was devoted entirely to science Primarily the study of tiion in ion was tied to political power But I have the feeling that more pure science was practiced here than usual It's Mayan na it MIT"

"Like the Massachusetts Institute of Technology?" Zavala said The world-renowned research and teaching institution was only a few miles from where they sat

"Yes," Chi replied, "but in this case MIT stands for the Mayan Institute of Technology"

Like a standup cohter to die down, then turned theover to Trout and took his place at the table

In contrast to the professor, Trout had to lean onto the lectern to use it

"Frolyphs inscribed on the stones described a narrative," Trout said "Our proble was jues out of a novel and shuffled them Actually several novels, because the stones caher because the `pages' were heavy stones So we es and fed the data into a coe the pictures on a' monitor We used cos, which Dr Chi and Dr Orville translated Then we organized the stones into a sequence, similar to the story board used for a television commercial The tale they tell, as Dr Orville ie and unbelievable one"

Trout went back to the projection controls, and Orville took his place "It was fairly easy to categorize the ies We simply concentrated on pictures of boats like those on the MIT observatory you saw earlier and went froy"

Austin, studied the busy scene for aoff to sea"

"Yes, from the number of boats it is definitely a fleet rather than rando activity at a port The activity is frenetic but organized Here you see boats lining up, being loaded, then standing by with cargo aboard"

The photo was replaced by a series of scenes showing the fleet at sea

"Here we have a rather fanciful voyage with all sorts of strange sea creatures," Orville continued "Many of these scenes differ only slightly in detail Probably an artistic device to give a feeling of ti"

Any idea how much time?" Gamay said

"The Mayan writings say the voyage lasted one moon cycle About thirty days The Maya were precise timekeepers Here is the last in the series The boats have arrived at their destination They are being greeted as they unload There is an easy faests they were known to the inhabitants of this land" He turned to Trout and said, "It is tiic"