316 CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 



southern side of the Paixban Valley, the streams of which flow into the San 

 Pedro Candalaria River; it thus lies northwest of the ranges forming the main 

 watershed of the Yucatan Peninsula. The long axis of the city extends for 

 about half a mile east and west; there are two principal plazas and a score 

 or more of subsidiary ones. The buildings are now mostly fallen, destroyed 

 by the luxuriant forest growth, though here and there a wall is standing, 

 mute witness to former magnificence. 



An analysis of its inscriptions shows Naachtun was not as old as Uaxactun 

 by more than two centuries, nor survived it as late by more than a century. 

 Its art and architecture, in spite of its size, are provincial, probably because 

 it was a frontier city, and its sculptures are not to be compared with those of 

 Piedras Negras and Quirigua, though both the latter sites have fewer struc- 

 tures and cover less area. The earliest date deciphered is 9.5.0.0.0 (275 A. D.) 

 on Stela 3, and the latest, some time during Katun 17 (511-531 A. D.) on 

 Stela 7. Judging by the provenance of the dated monuments, the Eastern 

 Plaza was built during the Early Period and the Western Plaza during the 

 Great Period, with no monuments thus far found dating from the Middle 

 Period.^ Naachtun is an excellent example of a large provincial Old Empire 

 city of mediocre esthetic achievement. 



A few scattering new inscriptions should be noted here. Mr. R. D. Martin, 

 of the U. S. Department of Agriculture, discovered a new monument at 

 Naranjo, to which the name Stela 36 was given. This bears the Calendar 

 Round date 12 Ahau 8 Pax, which corresponds to the Initial Series 9.17.10.0.0. 

 (521 A. D.). There is a band of four glyphs across the top of the stela, the rest 

 of the front, the back, and sides being plain. It would almost appear a? 

 though this monument had been left in an unfinished state. 



At the conclusion of his explorations in Peten in May, before returning to 

 the United States, Doctor Morley spent two days at Quirigua, Guatemala, 

 where two new stelae had been found on the summit of a hill 2 miles west of the 

 principal group. 



These monuments, which were named Stelae T and U respectively, proved of 

 exceptional interest, and one of them, Stela U, offers several perplexing 

 problems. It has only four period-glyphs between the Initial Series intro- 

 ducing-glyph and the day-sign, and it is therefore evident that one of the 

 period-glyphs has been omitted, probably the kin-sign.^ The best reading 

 for the Initial Series is 9.2.?.8.0, which in itself raises another problem. If 

 Stela U really dates from Katun 2 as this reading would indicate, it would 

 make it more than two and a half centuries earlier than the next earliest 

 monument here at Quirigua, an improbable situation. On the other hand, 

 there are no Secondary Series on the monument to bring it down to the period 

 of the other Quirigua stelae. 



The other new Quirigua monument. Stela T, dates from some time in 

 Katun 14, and because of its close stylistic similarities with Stela U, it seems 



I Stela 2 really dates from the first decade of the Middle Period (9.10.10.0.0), but from its 

 provenance it is evident that it was associated with an Early Period building. 



^ The day-sign of the Initial Series terminal date is surely Ahau, indicating that the kin 

 coefficient was zero, and as such could therefore be omitted without sacrifice of clarity. See 

 "An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Hieroglyphs," Bull. No. 57, Bur. Amer. Eth., S. G. 

 Morley, pp. 127, 128, and "The Inscriptions at Copan," Carnegie Inst. Wash. Pub. No. 219, 

 pp. 203, 301. 



