50 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
be found to apply in the great majority of cases, but in a few texts 
where the arrangement is irregular, other methods have to be used. 
The word hieroglyphic has been abbreviated to glyph 
throughout the present work in referring to signs ex- 
pressing single ideas, such as the cycle-sign and its co- 
efficient, the katun-sign and its coefficient, a day-sign and 
its coefficient, for example. The term glyph-block, as 
used hereinafter, refers to what Maudslay calls a glyph— 
that is, a rectangular block or character composed of 
one or more basic elements. Thus, in many glyph- 
blocks there are two ideas expressed, one recorded in 
the left half of the block, designated here as aia or Bia, 
and the other in the right half of the block designated 
here as Alb or Bib. In some cases there are even four 
glyphs in a single glyph-block; in such cases the four glyphs 
are designated as ala u. h. (upper half), aid u. h. (upper 
half), aial.h. (lower half), and aid |. h. (lower half), re- 
spectively. When the presentation is so irregular as to 


lie without the operation of these simple rules, Maudslay’s Fic. 5.—Method of 
: i : ‘ designating individual 
numerical designations have been followed. glyph-blocks. 
The Maya monuments have been usually classified into two groups 
according to their shape and size: stele and altars. As used in Maya arche- 
ology, the word stela (plural, stele) refers to a monolith, of columnar, shaft, 
or slab-like shape, usually over 2 meters in height. As a rule, these are 
inscribed with glyphs and human or grotesque figures, though either or both 
may be wanting. When both are wanting—+. ¢., when a stela is devoid of 
sculptural decoration—we may probably assume that it was originally 
painted instead of carved. 
As used in classical archeology, the word stele or stela usually has a 
more restricted application. A stele specifically refers to painted or carved 
slabs or pillars erected over Greek graves, or to milestones near towns, and 
more generally to inscribed stones in public places, the last more closely 
paralleling its use in Maya archeology. 
Although Maya stele vary greatly in size and shape, the highest being 
over 10 meters and the lowest less than 1 meter in height, it is necessary to 
group them all together as opposed to the other general class of Maya mon- 
uments, the so-called “altars.” ‘The latter are much smaller and less uni- 
form in shape than the stele, and, indeed, appear to have had some function 
subordinate to the latter, perhaps as true altars—. ¢., “places for offering 
SACTINCE, 
A fundamental difference in function also probably existed between the 
two groups at first. As the writer has shown elsewhere, the stele are 
probably time-markers, erected perhaps primarily to mark the passage of 

1See Appendix VII and Morley, 19178, pp. 195-201. 
