INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD. Be | 
thither in ancient times from somewhere else, its altar at the same time or 
later being removed to Group 8, where it now stands. There can be little 
doubt but that Stela 1 was erected on the western slope of Mound 9 when 
the latter was built, since the foundations of the monument extend down into 
the body of the mound. The Great Plaza to the north, however, was cer- 
tainly not started until at least 10 years later, and possibly even longer. 
Perhaps this suggestion should be developed no farther than to point out 
the possibility that inasmuch as Stela 1 and the East Altar of Stela 5 both 
record the same hotun-ending, they may have been associated with each 
other, at Mound 9, and possibly even at some other group, although the 
latter contingency appears very unlikely. 
West ALTAR OF STELA 5. 
Provenance: Probably not in situ. Originally may have been 
associated, together with the altar of Stela 1, with 
some stela now missing. Now 1 kilometer west of the 
Main Structure, in front of the west face of Stela 5 
at Group 8. (See plate 3.) 
Date: g.12.0.0.0 10 Ahau 8 Yaxkin.! 
Text, drawing: plate 20, a. 
Reference: Spinden, 1913, p. 161, and table 1. 
The West Altar of Stela 5 is 1.68 meters in diameter and 63 cm. high. 
It is broken into one large piece (Fragment X, figure 32), which represents 
more than five-sixths of the altar, and 
four or five smaller pieces, of which two, 
Fragments Y and Z, were recovered dur- 
ing the examination of the stone wall 
referred to under the preceding monu- 
ment. One of the latter, Fragment Y, 
was of great importance, since its dis- 
covery alone made possible the reading 
here suggested for this Initial Series. 
The inscription is presented upon the 
periphery, the top and bottom being plain. 
(See plate 20, a.) The glyph-blocks are 
arranged in two horizontal rows, which fy, 52—Top of West Altar of Stela 5, show- 
completely encircle the stone, there being ing the number of fragments into 
: which it is broken. 
16 glyph-blocks in each row or 32 for the 
entire text. This is the same presentation as that on the altar of Stela E, 
and, as in the case of the latter, the order of reading the glyph-blocks is 
from left to right and top to bottom in pairs of columns. 
The inscription opens on Fragment X (see the star in figure 32), with the 
Initial Series introducing glyph at a1, plate 20, a; and following this in Bia 
are recorded g cycles and in Bib ? katuns, the katun coefficient being surely 



1 For other monuments recording this hotun-ending, see Appendix VIII. 
