154 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
the pair on the north side (see plate 22, d) seems to be of a calendrical nature. 
It records a Calendar Round date as follows: 1 or 2 Kan 7 ?, the day-sign 
surely being Kan and the month coefficient surely 7. The best value of the 
day coefficient is 2, though 11 is possible. The month-sign is possibly Zotz, 
though Muan or even Kankin and Mac are other possible values. The best 
reading of the date therefore seems to be 2 Kan 7 Zotz. This date occurred at 
intervals of every 52 years throughout Cycle 9. The probabilities in this 
case, however, are that it was some time near 9.11.0.0.0, the date on the stela 
with which the altar is correlated. It is clear, moreover, that this altar 
does not record a hotun-ending, since all hotuns ended on some day Ahau, 
while Kan is the day here recorded. The two occurrences of 2 Kan 7 Zotz 
in Cycle 9 nearest this Initial Series are, 9.9.8.2.4 and 9.12.0.15.4. The 
former is I.11.15.16 (about 31 years) before the Initial Series of Stela 13 and 
the latter is 1.0.15.4 (about 20.5 years) after the Initial Series of Stela 13. 
Both of these readings are unsatisfactory and the writer is loath to accept 
either as the date recorded on this altar. It is quite possible, moreover, that 
the terminal date is not 2 Kan 7 Zotz. If the day coefficient is not 2, it must 
be 1. This gives the date 1 Kan 7 Zotz, which occurred in Cycle g nearest 
before and after 9.11.0.0.0 at the following places: 9.10.0.5.4 and 9.12.13.0.4, 
both of which are equally unsatisfactory here. 
Another possible reading, 1 Kan 7 Muan, occurred nearest before and 
after the date of Stela 13 at 9.9.8.13.4 and_9.12.1.8.4, both of which are 
again equally unsatisfatory. 
Another possibility is 9.10.8.17.4 1 Kan 7 Kankin, although little may 
be urged in its favor, except that the month-sign might possibly be Kankin. 
Approaching the question from a different angle, let us next find what 
are the nearest occurrences of the date 1 or 2 Kan 7 ?, that is, leaving the 
month-sign indeterminate for the present, both before and after 9.11.0.0.0. 
These can be shown to be: 
BEFORE. AFTER. 
9.10.17. 0.4. 2 Kan’7 Mac 9.11.0.50.4 (Yi Kan Ap 
g.10.16.16.4 1 Kan 7 Zac 9.11.0.11.4 2 Kan 7 Tzec 
O11, 4.4 93 Kan oa 
9.11.1. 6.4 2 Kan 7 Cumhu 
Of these, the first is the only one whose month-sign may be a grotesque 
head, and even this reading has little in its favor. 
All things considered, however, the writer is inclined to accept it as the 
least of all evils and to regard the month-sign in B1 as an unusual variant for 
Mac, although it should be understood that this reading is far from satis- 
factory and is by no means to be accepted as proved. A summary of the 
entire text follows: 
Stela AI-Ag 9.11. 0. 0. oO 12 Ahau 8 Ceh 
(2.17.16) undeclared 
Altar A1-Br 9.10.17. 0. 4 2 Kan7 Mac?? 


1Tt can not be 3, since the three dots are not all of the same size, and, moreover, are otherwise unlike. 
