INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY PERIOD. 57 
similarity, it has been assigned to the same period as Altar J’, namely, 
to the first four or five katuns of Cycle 9. 
INLTAR 7 
Provenance: Original position unknown, probably from just west of 
the pyramid at the southeastern corner of the village 
plaza (Group 9). Found built into the altar of the 
village church, when it was torn down in March 1915. 
Destroyed in 1916. (See plate 3 and figure 22, g 
and h.) 
Date: 9.4.0.0.0 to 9.6.0.0.0. 
Text, photograph: plate 8, /. 
Altar L’ is 1.7 meters long, 89 cm. wide, and 28 cm. thick. Only the 
top and front are sculptured. The top is divided by two vertical bands, one 
on the left, the other in the center. At the left of the central band is a panel 
of 6 glyph-blocks arranged in two vertical columns of 3 each (see plate 8, f); 
and at the right is a large, grotesque serpent’s head, similar to those on 
Altars J’ and K’, except that the one here has a human figure in its widely 
opened mouth. The front shows a continuation of the central vertical band, 
the space to the left again being filled with glyphs—4 double blocks—and 
that to the right with the familar twisted rope pattern QVYMWO.. The 
back and ends are dressed but not carved. The bottom is plain. Although 
the glyphs are well preserved, none are decipherable. The first, a1, has the 
coefficient 3, but the accompanying sign is indeterminate. Its suffix appears 
to be the moon-sign. B2 may beg cycles O-O-©O_9; the coefficient is clearly 
g, but the sign to which it is attached is too indistinct to identify 
with certainty. That the end of Cycle g is recorded here, how- 
ever, seems improbable, since the day on which this period ended, 8 Ahau 
13 Ceh, appears nowhere in the text. 
The remaining glyphs of the inscription both on the top and front are 
of unknown meaning. 
The style of the carving, although still crude and in low relief, is some- 
what better than that on Altars J’ and K’. It closely resembles Altar Q’ 
both in carving and arrangement of the design; and since the latter has been 
pretty definitely dated as 9.4.10.0.0, this monument has been referred to 
the same general period, 7. ¢., Katuns 4 to 6. 
During the writer’s last visit to Copan, additional evidence was secured 
as to the original provenance of both Altars L’ and M’. Of the three oldest 
inhabitants of the village in June 1919, Christina Ramirez, Pio Garin, and 
Maria Melendrez, all born between 1840 and 1850, two agreed that these 
two altars originally came from somewhere south of the church. Maria 
Melendrez believed they had been in the yard of a rancho which had formerty 
stood just south of the old church (figure 22, C), while Pio Garin stated that 
as a child he remembered them as just south of the large plain stela in front 
of the mound at the southeastern corner of the village plaza, 7. e., some 75 
meters farther south. (See figure 22, g and 7.) 
1As will appear later (pp. 88, 89) this important date is probably recorded on Stela 15 and certainly as one 
of the two Initial Series on Stela 3 (pp. 157, 158.) 


