INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD. 151 
The best defense of this reading that can be offered is the satisfactory 
chronological coincidence which its use develops; for if we read m4, 14 as 8 
Lamat 1 Yaxkin, we will have a date which is within 2 years of the hotun- 
ending recorded on this stela, and which is exactly 1 tun earlier than a date 
reached in calculations on the other side, as already noted: 
g.10.18.12. 8 
I. 02°C 
g.10.19.12. 8 
Si 
9.11.70..0;40 
8 Lamat 1 Yaxkin 
(360 days) 
4 Lamat 16 Xul 
(112 days) 
12 Ahau 8 Ceh 
The month coefficient in 14, as noted in note 3, page 150, looks as much like 
I as 2, and this, coupled with the fact that the day-sign is probably Lamat, 
and the satisfactory chronologic proximity arising from such an identifica- 
tion tends to corroborate the accuracy of the reading suggested. A sum- 
mary of the text follows: 
Front BI Cycle 13 
Back DI-Es, Fo GAOL i? 6,7, 0r 8? 
DiI 5.12 
Back and side Er1b, Fi g.II. 0. o. o 12 Ahau 8 Ceh 
Side GI, F2 End of Katun 11 
G9, Fio0 13. 0. 0. 0. o 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu 
Gio, FII End of Cycle 13 
Side H7, 17 g.10.18.12. 8 8 Lamat 1 Yaxkin 
There are 6 glyph-blocks on the front of this monument, Ig on the back, 
and 22 on each side, making a total of 6+19+22+22=6g for the entire text. 
The portrayal of the principal figure of a stela, in profile, together with 
the peculiar inverted L-shape arrangement of the glyphs on the front, strikes 
a unique note of presentation at Copan, one indeed more characteristic of 
the northern cities of the Old Empire, 7. ¢., those of the Usumacintla Valley 
and the Peten region of northern Guatemala. (See plate 1.) Examples of 
this presentation in the former region are Lintels 32, 42, and 46, and Stele 
11, 19, and 20 at Yaxchilan, where it is particularly noticeable; and in the 
latter region Stele 23 and 29 at Naranjo. 
The only other stela at Copan having the same presentation of the 
principal figure is the small late stela, No. 11 (p. 369), which, however, 
lacks the peculiar inverted L-shaped glyph-panel so characteristic of the 
stele and lintels at the northern cities. 
Stela 23, therefore, is particularly important as a connecting-link between 
the two parts of the Old Empire. It indicates that even at this early date 
(9.11.0.0.0), at the beginning of the Middle Period, there must have been 
close and constant intercourse between the different parts of the Old Empire. 
Indeed, we can possibly imagine northern sculptors as coming south to the 
great southern metropolis for new ideas, and the Copan sculptors as going 
north to draw inspiration and help from the great northern centers. ‘There 
must have been a free and general exchange of ideas and technical processes 
and endless borrowing and copying of decorative motives. Possibly the 
