84 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
STELANIO. 
Provenance: Original position unknown. Placed by the Second Pea- 
body Museum Expedition at the head of Owens’s 
grave in the Great Plaza at the Main Structure in 
1893. (See plate 6.) 
Date: 9.4.9.17.0 5 Ahau 8 Yaxkin (?) or 
9.7.2.12.0 5 Ahau 8 Yaxkin (?). 
Text, (a) photograph: plate 10, a and b. 
(b) drawing: plate 10, a and b. 
No reference is made in any of the Peabody Museum publications to 
this sculptured fragment, although it is the upper part of a very early stela. 
Neither has it been possible to ascertain just where it was found. When 
first examined by the writer in 1910, it was standing at the head of Owens’s 
grave inthe Great Plaza, though obviously not 7m situ here. A sister monu- 
ment, Stela 17 (see p. 90) was found on the terrace just north of the Great 
Plaza, a few yards west of Mound 2 (see plate 6), which suggests that Stela 16 
also may have come from somewhere in this general vicinity. 
The fragment preserved is 1 meter long, 63 cm. wide, and 42 cm. thick. 
It is sculptured with glyphs on both broad faces, the narrow sides remaining 
plain. On the basis of arrangement of design, therefore, it may be assigned 
to Class 2. Both inscriptions open with large Initial Series introducing 
glyphs ai-B2 and ci-p2; the variable element on the side not presenting 
the Initial Series is the normal form of the kin-sign.! 
The text opens with an Initial Series introducing glyph (see plate Io, a) 
in Al—B2, which is followed by an Initial Series number in a3—Bs. Unfor- 
tunately almost all the carving on this side has scaled off, carrying with it 
the details of these glyphs. Enough remains to distinguish faint traces of 
the cycle coefficient in a3a and the katun sign in B3b, but not enough to 
decipher the date. The line of fracture runs across the tun and uinal signs; 
consequently, the Initial Series terminal date—if it were recorded on this 
side—is missing. 
Happily, the back of the monument is in a better state of preservation 
(see plate 10,b). The text on this side also opens with an Initial Series intro- 
ducing glyph followed by a Calendar Round date, which, so far as the writer 
knows, is unique throughout the entire range of the Maya inscriptions in 
having its month-sign precede its day-sign. As recorded, this date very 
clearly reads 8 Yaxkin 5 Ahau, which can hardly be other than an inversion 
of 5 Ahau 8 Yaxkin. 
This date occurred four times in the Early Period, as follows: 
reey iy ae 
9.4. 9.17.0 
Qrazii2.0 
6-011 Sa07.0 
It should be noted in this connection that the variable elements in the introducing glyphs of the Initial Series 
on the Leyden plate and also on Stela 23, at Santa Rita (Group 1, plate 3), and Dates 20 and 28 of the Hiero- 
glyphic Stairway, are the same. 


