76 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
derived, it is necessary to look to Tikal, the only other city now known 
which can lay claim to an equal antiquity with Copan. 
Tikal is probably the site best suited for the study of the art of the 
Early Period. Four of the five earliest dated stele in the Maya area are 
found here,? and there are also more undated archaic monuments here than 
at any other site, Copan not excepted.’ 
The most constant characteristic of all the earliest stele at Tikal is the 
pronounced irregularity in the outlines of the individual glyph-blocks. 
Two examples, one from Stela 3 and the other from Stela Io, will suffice 
to illustrate this point. On Stela 3 a2 ©O._ 1s the katun-sign and coeffi- 
cient. Note how irregular the outline S_4) of this glyph 
is, and how inadequately it fills the drs {9 available space. 
On Stela 1o a31 the uinal-sign and coefficient, also show the 
same characteristic. 
In later times, both at Copan and elsewhere, the glyph-blocks assumed 
more or less rigid rectangular outlines with only the corners slightly rounded, 
but in Stela 20, which represents perhaps one of the first attempts to carve 
an inscription upon stone at Copan, and probably the earliest monument 
yet found here, this regularity in glyphic outline had not yet been achieved. 
The earliest stela yet found in the Maya area, No. 9 at Uaxactun, has 
this same characteristic. The glyph-blocks are not only irregular in outline, 
but also unevenly arranged in the two vertical columns; that is, a glyph- 
block in one column is not always exactly opposite the corresponding 
glyph-block in the other. (See figure 66.) 
Two other pieces of sculpture still more archaic, the Leyden Plate and 
the Tuxtla Statuette, also present this same characteristic. The Leyden 
Plate is a small celt-like object of nephrite about 21.6 cm. long, 8.5 cm. wide, 
and 2 to 5 mm. thick, upon the front of which a late Cycle 8 Initial Series, 
8.14.3.1.12, is incised. The point claiming our particular interest in this 
connection is the fact that on this very early celt, which antedates Stela 24 
at Copan and Stela 3 at Tikal by some 170 years, and Stela 9 at Uaxactun 
by 7 years, the outlines of the glyphs are even more irregular. (See figure 65.) 
The uinal glyph of the Initial SE Series here, as, well illus- 
trates this peculiarity. Not only is i} the uinal-sign itself very 
irregular in outline, but its coefficient also is asymmetrically 
placed with reference to it.* 

Lory 





1Uaxactun (see plate 1) has earlier dates than Tikal, but it is so near by, not more than 25 kilometers 
distant, that it undoubtedly was tributary to the larger city, and has been considered here as one with it. 
*Uaxactun, Stela 9, 8.14.13.10.15, and Stela 3, 9.3.13.0.0; Tikal, Stela 3, 9.2.13.0.0, and Stela 10, 9.3.11.2.0(?); 
and Copan, Stela 24, 9.2.10.0.0. In the next to last case (Stela 10 at Tikal) there is some doubt as to the value of 
the kin coefficient. However, if it were 19, the highest value possible, the above reading is correct to within 20 
days of the true date. To these should be added the doubtfully dated: Stela 5 at Uaxactun, 8.15.10.3.12; 
Stela 8 at Tikal, 9.0.10.0.0; and Stela 9 at Tikal, 9.2.0.0.0. 
’The writer is inclined to believe that of the 17 sculptured monuments described by Maler (1911, pp. 61-91) 
at Tikal, all but 3 or 4, Stele 5, 11, and 16, and possibly 6, belong to the Early Period, and most of them prob- 
ably to its earliest part, : 
‘For further particulars concerning this interesting specimen, see Leemans 1877, pp. 299-301, Holden 1881, 
pp. 229-237, Morley, 1915, pp. 196-198 and Chapter V, pp. 411, 412. 
