270 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



dates from the most brilliant epoch of Maya art, namely, the Great Period 

 of the Old Empire, 472-630 A. D. 



It is the inscription on the back, however, which gives this monument 

 its principal importance. This is presented in four columns, of five hiero- 

 glyphs each; the Secondary Series in the first two columns is apparently 

 composed of 8 orders of units, involving possibly the highest Maya time- 

 period known, the great-great-great cycle.^ It is unfortunate, therefore, 

 that it has been impossible to connect this Secondary Series either with one 

 or the other of the two Calendar Round dates on the back or with the other 

 Secondary Series of 2.14.15 present. 



The first week in May was devoted to excavating two small temple-sites 

 at the ruins of Quirigua, Guatemala: The Temple of Stela S in the banana- 

 fields of The United Fruit Company, about a kilometer southwest of the main 

 group, and The Temple of Stelae T and U, about 1.5 kilometers behind the 

 Quirigua Hospital, on the highest point of the first range of hills on the northern 

 side of the Motagua Valley. The former proved to be only a foundation- 

 mound composed of two platforms, the lower 2 feet high with a battered 

 wall, and the upper 4 feet high with a vertical wall. On the summit were 

 traces of a third very low platform, one step high. A stone stairway on the 

 south side, now in ruinous condition, gave access to the summit. There were 

 no vestiges of any former superstructure; and if this foundation-mound had 

 ever supported one, it must have been built of some perishable material. 

 The monument associated with this mound. Stela S, stands about 50 yards 

 in front of the center of the south side, facing south, and dates from 9.15.15.0.0 



Very little material was recovered during the course of the excavations — 

 no whole pieces of pottery, and only a few potsherds and obsidian flakes. 

 These were turned over to the Minister of Public Instruction, in accordance 

 with the terms of the permit, at the conclusion of the excavations. 



The Temple of Stelse T and U was completely excavated. It faces the 

 valley, i. e., south, and contains but a single small chamber, 10 feet 2 inches 

 long by 3 feet 8 inches wide, which had been floored with stone flags. A 

 single doorway 5 feet 6 inches wide in the southern wall gives access to it. 

 The walls are 5 feet thick. Further attempts were made to decipher the 

 Initial Series of Stelae T and U, but unsuccessfully. The former dates surely 

 from Katun 14, 9.14.0.0.0 being the best reading, and on stylistic grounds 

 Stela U is probably not more than one katun later, i. e., 9.15.0.0.0. 



In 1921 a splendid cache of 24 eccentric-shaped flints (now in the Ministry 

 of Public Works in Guatemala City) was found either in the southeastern 

 corner of this chamber or in the hearting of the eastern wall. The excavations 

 this season yielded only a few obsidian flakes. 



Dr. Morley was at Copan for three days in May. Three fragments of 

 early stelae had been found, in tearing down the walls of the house at the 

 west end of the block on the north side of the village plaza, and had been 

 placed in the cabildo for safe-keeping. None has any decipherable calen- 

 drical hieroglyphs, but on styhstic grounds all three may be assigned to the 

 early part of Baktun 9. 



1 Attention has already been called to the importance of this Secondary Series in "The In- 

 scriptions at Copan," puljlication No. 219, Carnegie Institution of Washington, note 2, page 281. 

 It appears to be composed of 8 orders of units with the tuns omitted. The number probably 

 recorded is 13.13.13.1.1.0.11.4. The only other Maya immber known, involving 8 orders of 

 periods, is the Initial Series on Stela 10 at Tikal: 1.11.19.9 3.11.2.0. 



