HOLDEN. ] THE MAYA HIEROGLYPHS. 227 
Val 
ARE THE HIEROGLYPHS OF COPAN AND PALENQUE 
IDENTICAL? 
One of the first questions to be settled is whether the same system of 
writing was employed at Palenque and at Copan. Before any study of 
the meanings of the separate chiffres can be made, we must have our 
material properly assorted, and must not include in the figures we aré 
examining for the detection of a clue, any which may belong toa system 
possibly very different. 
The opinion of STEPHENS and of later writers is confirmed by my 
comparison of the Palenque and the Copan series; that is, it becomes 
evident that the latter series is far the older. 
In Nicaragua and Copan the statues of gods were placed at the foot 
of the pyramid; farther north, as at Palenque, they were placed in 
temples at the summit. Such differences show a marked change in 
customs, and must have required much time for their accomplishment. 
In this time did the picture-writing change, or, indeed, was it ever 
identical ? 
To settle the question whether they were written on the same system, 
I give here the results of a rapid survey of the card-catalogue of hiero- 
glyphs. A more minute examination is not necessary, as the present 
one is quite sufficient to show that the system employed at the two 
places was the same in its general character and almost identical even 
in details. The practical result of this conclusion is that similar char- 
acters of the Copan and Palenque series may be used interchangeably. 
A detailed study of the undoubted synonyms of the two places will 
afford much light on the manner in which these characters were gradu- 
ally evolved. This is not the place for such a study, but it is interesting 
to remark how, even in un- 
mistakable synonyms, the Pa- | so) 
lenque character is always the yo 7— | JS 623 ee siaen 
most conventional, the least 
pictorial; that is, the latest. 
Examples of this are No. 7, Fie. 51.—Synonomous hieroglyphs from Copan 
and Palenque. 
Plate V*, and No. 1969, Plate 
LVI. The mask in profile which forms the left-hand edge of No. 7 seems 
to have been conventionalized into the two hooks and the ball, which 
have the same place in No. 1969. 
The larger of these two was cut on stone, the smaller in stucco. 
The mask has been changed into the ball and hooks; the angular 
nose ornament into a single ball, easier to make and quite as significant 
to the Maya priest. But to us the older (Copan) figure is infinitely more 
significant. The curious rows of little balls which are often placed at 
