156 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
heads seen on Altars L’, M’, and Q’, and later to be seen on more complex 
altars of the Great Period. 
In Stela 3 for the first time we find both the front and back of the 
monument carved with representations of the human figure, each side being 
inscribed with a single column of 10 glyph-blocks, which, with the 6 on the 
collar, make 26 for the entire text. This is a new development, and on the 
basis of this arrangement of the design, Stela 3 may be referred to a new 
class, 5. The inscription on each side commences with an Initial Series 
introducing glyph; and on this monument, also for the first time, we have 2 
Initial Series recorded.’ 
Gordon says Stela 3 faced north and south, 7. ¢., the surfaces presenting 
the human figures faced in these directions;? and if this was true, the inscrip- 
tion is presented on the east and west sides. Since it is now impossible to 
tell which of the latter faced east and which west, and since there is a rounded 
inclusion of harder rock embedded in the side on which the inscription 
begins, this side, in default of the knowledge of the original orientation, will 
be called the inclusion side. 
The Initial Series introducing glyph is at a1; the upper part and lower 
right-hand corner are missing. (See plate 19, b.) In the top of the variable 
central element, here a grotesque head, a rectangular hole has been cut. 
This is 76 mm. high and 63 mm. wide, and passes diagonally through the 
stone, emerging on the top, 51 mm. behind the edge and in line with the 
variable element. The interior surfaces of this hole are worn smooth, as 
though they had been subjected to rubbing, perhaps by cords. The Initial 
Series introducing glyph on the opposite, B1, has the same kind of a hole 
cut in the same relative position. This hole also emerges at the top behind 
the variable element on this side. The function of these two openings is 
unknown; perhaps banners or streamers of feather-work were attached to 
the stela by means of them; no other stele at Copan show this feature.’ 
The order of the glyphs within the individual glyph-blocks is very 
unusual in this text. Instead of reading from left to right and top to bottom 
within the glyph-block, they read from top to bottom first and then from 
left to right. Unusual as this order is, however, it is amply substantiated by 
the sequence of the known glyphs on both sides of the monument. 
The cycle-sign and coefficient are found in a2a, the upper half being the 
coefficient and the lower half the period-glyph. (See plate 19, b.) The former 
is very clearly 9, and the traces of the clasped hand on the lower part of the 


1Although Stele 15, 18, 16, 17, 21, 7, and P have 4, 3, 2, 2, 4, 3, and 3 Initial Series introducing glyphs respec- 
tively, none of them has more than one Initial Series number. Indeed Stela 3 is not only the first example of 
this kind at Copan, but also the only one yet found here. Such stele are very rare, there being but seven others 
now known in the whole Maya area: Stela 17 at Tikal; Stela 11 at Yaxchilan; Stele 1 and 3 at Piedras Negras, and 
Stele F, D, and E at Quirigua, less than 4 per cent of all known stele. See plate 1 for the location of these sites. 
*See Gordon, 1896, p. 35. This orientation makes Stela 3 face the Middle Court. 
8 Stela 1 at Cancuen on the Rio de la Pasién (plate 1) has holes passing through its top, but they are not only 
larger but are also of different shape, being round. (See Maler, 1908, p. 44 and pl. 13.) Maler here suggests 
these holes were used to bind sacrificial victims to the stele: “It may be assumed that the victims were bound by 
means of the perforations to these stela, the sacrifice probably being usually performed with the victim in an 
upright position before stelz of this kind.” This explanation, it is hardly necessary to add, appears scarcely probable. 
