During the last two decades, four manuscripts have
surfaced, all purportedly of sixteenth- to eighteenth-century
origin and each describing historical episodes of the contact
between the Maya and Spaniards. Although some of them received
scholarly attention and have been used as authentic sources
of Maya history and culture, their identification as modern
fakes can be established beyond a reasonable doubt. The
texts show characteristics identical to the Spanish translation
of Sylvanus G. Morley's The Ancient Maya
(1947), and they possess specific information and illustrative
material (i.e., Mayan hieroglyphs) that were drawn from
this work, indicating that these manuscripts were created
between 1950 and 1965.