116 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
exclude even the possibility of his being correct, since they are contradicted 
by evidence in the text itself: 
1. The day coefficient is clearly 2, not 3. 
2. The month-part 3 Uayeb does not appear in the text at all, while the 
month-part 13 Pop is unmistakably recorded in Bé6b at its regular 
position after Glyph A of the Supplementary Series. 
3. An examination of the original showed that the tun coefficient (A4a) 
has the fleshless lower jaw and is therefore to be identified as 10, not 
SESE 
4. 9.9.13.0.0 3 Ahau 3 Uayeb does not end a hotun in the Long Count, 
whereas 9.9.10.0.0 2 Ahau 13 Pop, which also fulfills all the other 
necessary conditions as to coefhcients, month-sign, etc., does end a 
hotun. 
5. Finally, the record of a lahuntun-ending in B7a corroborates the reading 
9.9.10.0.0 and at the same time disqualifies the Tun 13 reading. 
Seler’s identification of the tun coefficient of Stela P as 13 has led him 
into another error already noted in connection with Stela E, whose katun 
coefficient he calls 13 on the basis of its fancied resemblance to the tun 
coefficient on this monument. Bowditch was the first to decipher the Initial 
Series of Stela P correctly. ff 
An ending-sign appears in A7a, and a hotun-ending may possibly be 
recorded in B7b. B7a is the sign for the lahuntun, mentioned also in the 
discussions of Altar Q’ and Stela 15, pages 61 and 88, respectively, and its 
presence here further corroborates Bowditch’s reading. Other familiar 
glyphs appear throughout the text, B10 for example, probably being 4 katuns 
and pii (south side) 3 katuns. 
This text has 25+25+23=73 glyph-blocks, each of the three Initial 
Series introducing glyphs occupying the space of four glyph-blocks. 
The glyphs on Stela P are excellently carved with an infinite attention 
to detail. Says Bowditch in this connection: “The glyphs of Stela P, Copan, 
are the most ornate and variegated of all the inscription glyphs.’”! 
Even at this early date—the close of the Early Period—the Maya 
sculptors were beginning to show signs of that great ability which was to 
reach its fullest expression a hundred years later. 
With Stela P concludes the presentation of the monuments of the Early 
Period. Before reviewing this material, however, it is first necessary to 
describe briefly a few fragmentary inscriptions of uncertain date, namely, 
Fragments V’ and S’. 
Under V’ are included 14 fragments all surely referable to the Early 
Period and all from the southwestern quarter of the village (see figure 
22h'-v'); and S’ is a reused fragment from mound g at the Main Structure, 
dating from the end of the Early Period or the beginning of the Middle 
Period. 
1Bowditch, 1910, p. 144. 
