152 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
human figure in profile may have been introduced at Copan with this monu- 
ment, only to have fallen into immediate disfavor. 
The glyphic presentation on the front of Stela 23 is but a single item in 
a vast body of evidence now available tending to establish the absolute 
homogeneity of culture throughout the Old Empire region. 
STELA 13. 
Provenance: On a steep bluff overhanging the north bank of the 
Copan River 6.5 kilometers northeast of the Main 
Structure at Group 2. (See plate 3.) 
Date: (Stela) 9.11. 0.0.0 12 Ahau 8 Ceh.! 
(Altar) 9.10.17.0.4 2 Kan 7 Mac (??). 
Text, drawing: plates 15, b, and 22, d. 
Stela 13 was found by one of the Peabody Museum Expedition, but no 
description of it has ever been published, not even the fact of its discovery. 
Through information received from Gordon, the writer was able to re-locate 
this monument during his visit to Copan in 1912. 
It lies on the summit of a low hill or bluff overhanging the north bank 
of the Copan River, 6.5 kilometers up the valley from the Main Structure, 
and within 5 or 6 kilometers of Santa Rita, where Stela 23 was found. (See 
plate 3.) It is 3.34 meters long, 71 cm. wide, and 61 cm. thick. The asso- 
ciated altar stands in front of the north side of the monument, which we 
may therefore conclude was its front. 
All four sides are inscribed with glyphs, as in the cases of Stele 20, 15, 
21, 9, 12, 10, and 19, and on the basis of the arrangement of its design, Stela 
13 is to be assigned to Class 3. The Initial Series introducing glyph appears 
at Al-B2. (See plate15,b.) The cycle coefficient (a3) is 9 expressed by a bar- 
and-dot numeral. The katun coefficient (B3) is unusually clear as 11, also 
expressed by a bar-and-dot numeral. The monument is broken across the 
tun and uinal glyphs, which are somewhat destroyed in consequence. The 
two coefficients, however (A4a and B4a respectively), are sufficiently preserved 
to permit the identification of both aso. The kin coefficient (asa) isin better 
condition and is exactly like the tun and uinal coefficients, namely, o. 
The day of the Initial Series terminal date, 12 Ahau, is not recorded 
at Bs as usual, but is found at as after the last glyph of the Supple- 
mentary Series, which in this inscription is of very unusual form. 
The ball element in the oval in the upper part is a grotesque head. This 
is very rare; in fact, the writer recalls but one other instance in the entire 
range of the Maya inscriptions, also here at Copan, not only on one of the 
monuments of this same group, namely, Stela 3,? but also upon one recording 
the same date, namely, 9.11.0.0.0. 


1For other monuments recording this same hotun-ending, see Appendix VIII. 
2A few cases where the moon-glyph occurs in constellation bands are not included here, although even in such 
cases the head appearing is sometimes that of God D. Thus, for example, in the constellation band on the base of 
Stela 10 at Piedras Negras, God D appears in the upper part of the moon-glyph. See Maler, 1901, plate 19. 
