INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY PERIOD. 83 
original clearness and brilliancy, traces of the red paint with which it was 
originally covered still adhering in some places. The relief is uniformly 1 cm. 
deep, and conside1ing the extremely early date at which it was executed 
is fine work. Although low and flat, it possesses strength and character and 
already indicates an almost perfect control of the medium, much more so, for 
example, than the work being done at Tikal at the same time, 7. ¢., Stela 3. 
The glyphs on Stela 24 have already assumed the rectangular outline which 
was to characterize Maya glyphic delineation throughout the Old Empire, 
but which did not appear at Tikal until later. | 
We have already seen that there is only one other monument now known 
at Copan which has glyphs of an earlier and less rectangular character, 
namely, Stela 20 (9.1.10.0.0). The fact that this irregularity of outline had 
disappeared at Copan by the time Stela 24 was erected, probably only 20 
years later, therefore tends to authenticate on stylistic grounds the fact 
that Stela 20 was the earlier of these two. 
Another early feature of this inscription is the lack of specialization in 
the essential characteristics of its period glyphs. The cycle-sign lacks the 
hand on the lower part of the face; the katun-sign, the oval in the upper 
part of the head; and the tun-sign, the fleshless lower jaw. Indeed, the only 
period-glyph which would appear to have developed its distinguishing charac- 
teristics as early as this is the uinal-sign, which is the full figure of a toad. 
The uinal would seem to have been the first period to have acquired 
special characteristics. In the Leyden Plate Initial Series the uinal-sign is 
the only one of the five period-glyphs which has the same essential element 
as that by which it was recognized in later times. This lack of specialization 
is in itself an indubitable mark of antiquity, since it indicates that at the 
early date this inscription was carved the period-glyphs, with the exception 
of the uinal-sign, had not yet developed the special characteristics by which 
they were severally known later. 
A close similarity in a minor detail between Stela 24 at Copan and Stela 
3 at Tikal should be noted here, namely, that the day-sign cartouche in the 
Initial Series terminal date of each has a pair of small tassel-like protub- 
erances, one from each of the upper corners. In the Copan glyph there 
is another in the lower right-hand corner as well. The presence of this 
minor detail—and since it is repeated nowhere else in the whole range of 
the Maya writing we must believe an adventitious one as well—at two such 
widely separated cities as Copan and Tikal argues for close intercourse 
within the area at a very early date, and a correspondingly early homo- 
geneity of culture. 
The question as to which of these two cities was the older will be fully 
presented in Chapter V, and that discussion will not be anticipated here, 
except to note that although Stela 24 at Copan is earlier than any date yet 
deciphered at Tikal, and although Stela 20 is probably still older, there are 
strong grounds for believing that the northern metropolis is probably the 
older of the two. 
