102 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Historically considered, the first two values can probably be eliminated 
at the outset. The earliest surely deciphered date at Copan is 50 years after 
the first and 30 years after the second. And even if the reading suggested 
for Stela 20, 9.1.10.0.0, be accepted as correct, both of these readings still 
antedate it. 
Stylistically considered, the last reading is very much preferable to the 
other two. If 9.7.0.0.0 is the correct reading for this Initial Series, it makes 
much less of a gap between Stela 18 and the next stela in Class 4, 7. ¢., Stela 7, 
than if either of the other two are correct, 7. ¢., 40 years as compared with 
180 and 160 years respectively. 
This mayseem a minor point, but where the development of art unfolded 
as rapidly as it did at Copan, 180 or even 160 years is too much time to have 
separated Stele 18 and 7. Furthermore, once having developed this new 
type of stela (Class 4) with a human figure on its front, it seems more than 
likely that the ancient sculptors would not have allowed 160 or 180 years to 
go by before attempting it again; indeed, even 40 years would appear to 
have been a long period to have waited. 
Finally, chronologically considered, Stela 18 fits in much better with the 
other stele of the Early Period at 9.7.0.0.0 than at 9.0.0.0.0 or 9.1.0.0.0, 
and in conclusion, in want of further evidence, the writer has accepted 
9.7.0.0.0 as the date most likely to be recorded here. 
Since Stela 18 is probably the earliest stela upon which the human form 
was represented at Copan, it is unfortunate that it is in such a fragmentary 
condition as to prevent certain dating; but even so, the reading suggested 
may probably be accepted as approximately correct, and possibly, actually so. 
STELA®7, 
Provenance: Found fallen above its own foundations at Group 9. 
Now in the cabildo. (See plate 3 and figures 18, 3, 
1g, and 22, 0.) 
Date: 9.9.0.0.0 3 Ahau 3 Zotz. 
Text, (a) photograph: plate 13. 
pinden, 1913, plate 18, 1 (front only). 
(b) drawing: plate 13. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, plate 108. 
References: Gordon, 1896, p. 38. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, pp. 16, 67. 
Spinden, 1913, pp. 159, 160, 164, and table 1. 
Stela 7, broken and badly mutilated, now lies in the cabildo, having 
been removed thither from the yard of the house of Clementino Lopez at 
the southwest corner of the village plaza in 1917. (See figure 22, 0.) Mauds- 
lay describes it as “‘a broken and defaced monolith lying in the scrub about 
50 yards to the west of the village’’;! and Gordon says he found it lying 
“‘in the bush to the west of the modern village, . . . fallen and broken’’.2 
Maudslay says again that it was in “Copan Village, west of Altar U.’* (See 
also plate 3.) 
1Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, p. 16. *See Gordon, 1896, p. 38. 
3See Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, p. 67. 
