NO. 6 



GREAT STONE MONUMENTS FEWKES 



43 



ages by 20 years, which they call katun, and that they placed one 

 worked stone on another on the walls of their temple at the end of 

 these periods, as he himself has seen." 



The stelae of Copan and other related Central American ruins have 

 carved upon them representations of men or women wearing sym- 



Fig. 30. — Stela C, Quirigua, Honduras, from Maudsley. 



bolic ceremonial paraphernalia, and like the Egyptian statues of 

 Rameses are not intended for divinities but represent priests wearing 

 symbols or headdresses characteristic of gods. These American 

 monoliths or stelse, like Egyptian obelisks, bear vertical rows of lines 

 of hieroglyphs ; they generally stand in front of temple mounds or on 

 ceremonial plazas, in much the same relative position as obelisks, indi- 

 cating by the position, general form, and accompanying glyphs that 

 they are both memorial and religious in character. 



