INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY PERIOD. 85 
The first and last of these, however, may be eliminated at once, on the 
ground of historic and stylistic improbability, the first being as much too 
early as the last is too late. 
Of the two remaining dates, 9.4.9.17.0 has more in its favor than 
g.7.2.12.0 for the following reasons: 
1. It is just 1 uinal or 20 days earlier than the end of a tun, hotun, and lahun- 
tun in the Long Count, and 
2. It is within I uinal or 20 days of the date of another monument here, Stela 
15 (9.4.10.0.0). 
On the other hand, the later value would be nearer the date of Stela 17, 
which is some time in Katun 6, and which on stylistic grounds this monu- 
ment more closely resembles than any other. An entirely different explana- 
tion, however, is possible here, although one less likely to be correct than the 
preceding, since it necessitates a forced reading of the original before it 
becomes possible at all. 
In plate 10, b, the glyph immediately following 5 Ahau in a3 has a co- 
efficient of 5 and a hand at the right side. Can this possibly signify that 
the preceding inverted Calendar Round date was a hotun-ending, the head 
between the 5 and the hand in B3 being some unknown early form of the 
tun-sign? 
Referring to Goodman’s tables, it will be found that there are only three 
hotuns in the Early Period which ended on the day 5 Ahau, as follows: 
g.1.10.0.0 5 Ahau 3 Tzec; 9.4.15.0.0 5 Ahau 3 Yaxkin, and 9.8.0.0.0 5 Ahau 
3 Chen; and of these, the only one at all possible here is the second, which 
agrees with the date in a3, except for its month coefficient, which is 3 instead 
of the 8 recorded. 
It is barely possible, though not probable, that the bar in the month 
coefficient of a3 is ornamental and not numerical, and that this date is 5 
Ahau 3 Yaxkin and not 5 Ahau 8 Yaxkin, as it first appears to be. If this 
is true the corresponding Initial Series is almost certainly 9.4.15.0.0. 
Against this reading, however, must be offset the fact that the month- 
coefficient certainly looks more like 8 than like 3, and also that using it as 3 
gives a third hotun as the resulting date, 7. ¢., 9.14.15.0.0, which would be 
by nearly a century the earliest example of the record of a quarter katun 
yet found at Copan. Indeed, as the several monuments of the Early Period 
are described hereinafter, it will be seen that at first the custom seems to 
have been to commemorate only the lahuntuns and the katuns by the erec- 
tion of stele, and that it was not until the very end of the Early Period 
that the quarter katuns were similarly commemorated.’ 
Before attempting to decide, even tentatively, however, upon any of 
these dates, it is best to describe Stela 17, the sister monument, after which 
a better choice can be made.” 

See p. 126. 2For the discussion of Stela 17, see pp. 89-93. 
