122 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Concerning the first, we have seen that not one of the monuments of the 
Early Period may be regarded as in situ, strictly speaking, a number even 
showing evidence of secondary use in ancient times; further, that half of 
them are not even at the Main Structure, but at a smaller cluster of mounds, 
Group 9, 2 kilometers to the west, now the site of the modern village. 
Of the twenty-two early monuments! under observation, only one, 
Stela P, was found standing, and even this, as already pointed out, must 
originally have been erected elsewhere; in short, with the possible exception 
of Stela 7, which, though fallen, is probably somewhere near its original 
position, none may be regarded as im situ, since none has been found in the 
position for which it was originally designed. In fact, more than a third 
“show signs of secondary use before the city was abandoned, chiefly in having 
been used in the foundations of later stele, but in one case at least, Stela 21, 
in having been built into a later building (see p. 95). 
If, then, none of the archaic monuments is now 77 situ, where were their 
original positions? Where was the earliest settlement in the valley on the 
basis of the dated remains? As already pointed out, twelve of the early 
monuments were found at Group 9, the site of the modern village, and two 
more in the immediate vicinity, at Groups 8 and Io, respectively. Six others 
are at the Main Structure, and two others some 4.5 kilometers to the west, at 
Group 12. That is, more than half of them are in one place, namely, Group 
g, and that group not the one which later became the most important in the 
valley. This would tend to indicate that the first center of intensive occupa- 
tion in the region was not at the Main Structure but at Group 9, 2 kilo- 
meters farther west. 
A detailed study of the early monuments themselves further corrob- 
orates this hypothesis. Of the ten® outside the limits of Group 9, seven’ 
show unmistakable signs of secondary usage, and the remaining three‘ are 
probably not in situ. 
When we come to the twelve monuments® at Group 9, on the other 
hand, only two, Stele 21 and 24, show unmistakable signs of secondary 
usage in ancient times, and although most of the remaining ten are now 
more or less mutilated, this can probably be charged in many if not most 
cases to modern vandalism rather than to reuse while the city was occupied. 
Unfortunately the modern village was located on the site of this earliest 
group, its plaza probably coinciding with that of the ancient settlement. 
The modern settlement itself must date as far back as the eighteenth cen- 
tury, although until within the past four decades its growth has been slow. 
Galindo says there were only three houses west of the Sesesmil River, 2.2., 
where the village now stands, when he was at Copan in 1834, and both 
Stephens in 1839 and Maudslay in 1881 found it still a miserable collection 


1This does not include Fragments V’ and S’, as already stated in note I, p. 55. 
*Stelw 16, 17, E, P, and 9, and Altars X, Y, A’, J’, and K’, at the Main Structure, and Groups 8, 10, and 12. 
3Stela 16 and g and Altars X, Y, A’, J’, K’. 
4Stela E, P, and 17. 
5Stelz 7, 15, 18, 20, 21, 22, 24, and 25, and Altars L’, M’, P’, and Q’. 
