INSCRIPTIONS OF THE EARLY PERIOD. 123 
of huts; finally, Cristina Ramirez describes it as having only a dozen odd 
ranchos scattered in small clearings in the bush during her childhood, about 
1845 to 1860. 
‘During the past ten years the writer has noticed the construction of a 
number of municipal buildings: a new town-hall, school-house, church, two 
bridges, market, and many new dwellings. This recent growth has been 
accomplished at the expense of the archeological remains at Group 9, how- 
ever, and there can be no doubt that a number of archaic monuments have 
been broken up within the past thirty years to be used in the construction of 
these buildings. The fragments described as V’ amply establish this. Even 
in the face of this extensive recent destruction, however, more archaic 
monuments have survived here than at any other group in the valley, 
and it therefore would appear probable that more stood here originally than 
anywhere else. 
Weighing all the evidence, therefore, (1) the provenance of the early 
monuments, (2) their present condition, 7. ¢., whether they have been reused 
in ancient times or not, and (3) the dates inscribed upon them, the case may 
be summed up as follows: 
The earliest center of population in the valley, at least the earliest 
characterized by sculptures in stone, what might perhaps appropriately be 
termed Old Copan, would appear to have been the group of mounds 2 
kilometers west of the Main Structure, and now the site of the modern village, 
Group 9. Here the very earliest dated monuments are found, not only 
in greatest number, but also under conditions least indicative of secondary 
usage. 
This group of mounds was built on an artificially leveled terrace cut 
from the lower slopes of the foothills on the northern side of the valley, 
probably growing up around the mound of Stela 7 as its most important 
ceremonial center. (See plate 3 and figure 22). The little Rio Sesesmil 
nearby afforded a convenient and abundant water-supply, and the rich allu- 
vial bottom lands to the east, south, and west, between the foothills and the 
Copan River, gave sufficient tillage area to have supported a not inconsid- 
erable population. In short, the location was happy, and the community 
prospered, in all probability becoming the principal settlement in the valley 
as far back as the Early Period. 
It is not unlikely that most of the monuments of this period—even those 
reused in later constructions in other parts of the valley such as Stele E 
and P at the Main Structure for example—were originally erected at Old 
Copan and were not removed to their present positions until after 9.10.0.0.0. 
As early as the closing years of the Early Period, however, the practice 
of reusing early monuments in later constructions seems to have com- 
menced. Thus, for example, Stela 24 was placed in the foundations of 


1In this connection it should be remembered, that in addition to Stela 7, which is the only monument of the 
Early Period at Copan which it is at all possible to regard as im situ, seven other early monuments: Altars Q’ and 
P’, and Stel 25, 20, 24, 15, and 18, as well as numerous fragments of early stela, have been traced to this same 
mound. 
