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CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



A, Stela 19, and B, Stela 18 at Uaxactun. These two stelae record the same date: 8.16.0.0.0 

 approx. 150 A. D. Next to Stela 9 at this same site they are the two earliest Maya monu- 

 ments known. 



Another important new early monument discovered at Uaxactun this year 

 is Stela 20, probably dating from 9.3.0.0.0 (235 A. D.), also recorded as a 

 Period Ending. The front is carved with an heroic-sized human figure, front 

 view, carrying a ceremonial bar in the arms, the presentation being almost 

 identical with that on Stela 7 at Copan, for example, so close, in fact, that the 

 sculptors of these two widely separated monuments must have had a common 

 source of inspiration, a striking example of the homogeneity of Old Empire 

 culture even at this early date. 



Another important monument found this year was the fragment of a very 

 early stela which had been worked down into a round altar in ancient times 

 and re-used as such with Stela 9. Unfortunately, it was impossible to date 

 this fragment exactly, but stylistically it would seem to have been at least 

 as early as Stela 9, itself the earliest Maya Stela known, if not indeed earlier. 



The number of these early stelaB at Uaxactun, coupled with the fact that the 

 next earliest stela elsewhere is nearly a century and a half later (Stela 9 at 

 Tikal, 9.2.0.0.0, 216 A. D.), 1 strongly indicates the advisability of further 

 intensive investigation, including excavation at this site. No other site now 

 known would probably shed more light upon the beginnings of the Old Empire 



1 Uoluntun is an exception to this statement, but it is so small, having only a single pyramid 

 and a single monument, that it has been disregarded in this connection. 



