2S 



COPAN. 



doorway leading to the inner chamber is a step (A-B) 2 feet high and 15 feet long, 

 carved on its face with hieroglyphs and skulls (Plate XVI.). At each end of this step 

 is a human figure seated on 



a huge skull (Plates XII., Pla * of No - 22 - 



XIII., XIV., and XV.), sup- 

 porting in its hand the head 

 of a dragon, whose body is 

 turned upwards and is lost 

 amongst the scroll-work and 



liu 



=25 ft 



figures of a cornice which runs 

 over the doorway. About 4 

 feet above the floor in each / 

 of the two positions marked J . 

 X a stone in the masonry of 

 the wall is pierced by a hole 

 through which a rope could be passed, and holes may also be noticed above the 

 hieroglyphs on the step, which were probably needed for the support of curtains. How 

 the roof of the passage between one chamber and 

 the other was supported is a mystery. It was 

 covered by a number of blocks of stone, and not by 

 a single stone slab ; and yet these blocks are square 

 at their edges, and could not have formed part of 

 a true nor of a parallel laid arch. Possibly wooden 

 jambs and architraves supported these blocks of 

 stone ; but if so, all trace of them has disappeared. 

 Plate XII. is a sketch of this doorway, most care- 

 fully restored, from photographs and measurements taken during the progress of the 

 excavation (Plate XIII., a), as well as after the excavation was finished. There 



are in this design good examples of two marked characteristics of American sculpture, 

 namely, the inability of the artist to leave plain surfaces alone, and the love of intro- 

 ducing grotesque faces, or scroll-work derived from them, into the ornamentation of 



