164 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
The East Altar of Stela 5 is 1.93 meters in diameter and 51 cm. high. 
It is broken into 9 pieces, of which 2, Fragments T and R! in figure 28, are 
still missing. When the writer first 
visited Copan in 1910, four fragments, 
S, U, W, and Z, were missing. The 
first two of these were found in 1915 in 
the modern stone wall just across the 
road from where this altar now stands, 
in front of the east face of Stela 5s. 
This wall was built some 20 or 30 
years ago of faced stone blocks, and 

even sculptured pieces from ruined ix) 
buildings in the immediate vicinity; Me eee 
: vi 
and it had long been suspected that ee 
“<< ra) 
some of the missing pieces of Stela 5 “ta 
and of its two altars might have been 4 
used in its construction. In 1912 Spin- Fic. 28—Top of East Altar of Stela 5 showing 
den found one of the most important number of, oamept aS a 
pieces of Stela 5, that presenting the 
upper part of the Initial Series, embedded in this wall; and therefore it 
seemed advisable to search here for the other missing pieces. In 1915 a 
section of 125 meters—62 or 63 meters on either side of Stela 5—was 
taken down to its very foundations, and each stone examined for traces of 
sculpture; and in the course of this work two pieces of this altar were 
recovered, Fragment S from the wall itself and Fragment U from just east 
of Stela 5, half buried in the earth. Two pieces of the West Altar of Stela 
5, Fragments Y and Z, figure 32, were also recovered at the same time. 
Unfortunately the piece presenting the missing part of the Initial Series 
on Stela 5 itself was not found. 
In 1917 the second-growth bush north of Stela 5 was felled, and this 
parcel of land put into tobacco. During the course of the clearing two other 
fragments of this altar, W and Z, were recovered about 30 meters northeast 
of Stela 5. Fragment W (see figure 29)? 
presents Glyphs C, D, and E of the Sup- 
plementary Series. Fragment Z fitted in 
between Fragments 5 and Y. 
The inscription on this altar is pre- 
sented upon the periphery, the top and 
bottom being plain. There is a single 
band of 15 glyph-blocks, which completely 
encircles the stone. ‘The order of reading 
within the individual glyph-blocks is again 
ie 

Fic. 29.—Inscription on Fragment W of East 
Altar of Stela 5. 


1 Fragment R originally came from just above Fragment U, and is not shown in figure 28. 
2 Fragment W is not shown on plate 20, b, which was made before this piece was discovered in 1917. A drawing 
of its two glyph-blocks, however, will be found in figure 29 ‘These should occupy the third and fourth dotted 
squares to the right of the Initial Series in plate 20, d, 2. ¢., just to the left of Glyph X of the Supplementary Series. 
