16 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
with substantives means in, on, inside, during, and for; for example, apan, 
“on the water”; ¢lalpan, “on the earth”; and negaualizpan, “during Lent, 
during fasting.”! It occurs very frequently in Nahua place-names, as Chi- 
malpan, “on the shields,’” Teotlalpan, “in the lands of the gods,”* and even 
Coapan, ‘“‘in the waters of the snakes.’ 
The particle pan used by Gordon in his etymology, however, is not the 
above, but another derived from the Nahua word “pantli,” meaning flag, 
banner, wall, line, or row.° 
This latter derivation is somewhat supported by Galindo, who gives 
Copante or Copantli as variant spellings, but without stating his authority 
for so doing.® Whether this is a naive attempt on the part of Galindo to 
connect the name with the Nahua word panitli1, or whether it is a bona-fide 
variant, unfortunately can not be determined, since he cites no authority for 
its use. 
In the Maya language even less satisfactory etymologies are to be 
found. The Motul Dictionary, composed about 1577, at the convent of 
Motul, northern Yucatan, gives cop=rope, liana, or things twisted, and pan, 
banner or standard, the latter clearly borrowed from the Nahuatl. Copan 
might thus perhaps signify “a twisted banner.”’ The same dictionary gives 
for the word copaan, “twisted or rolled up,” 2. ¢., the past participle of cop. 
The only other Maya place-name containing the particle pan with 
which the writer is familiar is Mayapan, a large site, in northern Yucatan, 
the meaning of which is usually given as “the standard of the Maya,’’ 
clearly a borrowed derivation from the Nahuatl. 
That Copan is Nahua rather than Maya appears to be the best explana- 
tion of the word; if so,it could not have been the name by which the place 
was originally known. The old name doubtless had been forgotten long 
before the time of the Spanish Conquest, and unless the hieroglyph by which 
it was expressed should be identified, it will probably never be known. 
In the Spanish period, according to Fuentes y Guzman, Copan was 
one of the villages of the Province of Chiquimula de la Sierra, of the Kingdom 
of Guatemala. ‘This latter unit of the Spanish colonial empire comprised 
roughly the greater part of Central America and the state of Chiapas in 
southern Mexico. Its affairs were administered by a governor and captain- 
general, whose capital was at Santiago de los Caballeros de Guatemala, 
now Antigua Guatemala. 
The Province of Chiquimula de la Sierra was subdued in 1524 by Juan 
Perez Dardon, Sancho de Baraona, and Bartolomé Bezerra, acting under 
the orders of Pedro de Alvarado, the conqueror of Guatemala. These were 
the first Europeans to penetrate this region, but they have left no notice 
of a large native city or civilized tribe in the vicinity of the ruins. 

1Simeon, 1885, p. 274. 2Penafiel, 1885, pp. 108, 109. 3[bid., p. 187. *Tbid. p77. 
5Simeon, ibid. p. 332. SGalindo, 1834, Appendix XI, p. 595, and 1836a, p. 76. 
7Brinton, 1882, p. 119. About 1200 a. p. northern Yucatan was subjected to a strong Nahua influence 
(Morley, 19134, pp. 66, 67, 74, 75; also 1915, pp. 4-6, and 19174, pp. 147, 148) and many Nahua words were doubt- 
ess introduced into the Maya language about this time, possibly pan among others. 
