ee eae 

INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD. LT 
Perhaps the fact that we have two altars dating from this hotun may 
indicate that no stela recording this date was ever erected. ‘That is, the 
sculptural effort usually expended in the erection of a stela and its accom- 
panying altar may in this particular hotun have been devoted to the making 
of two altars instead. It is very unlikely that a stela marking this particular 
hotun may still lie buried somewhere in the valley. What is more probable 
is that it has been destroyed and its two altars devoted to other uses, one 
being placed in front of Stela 1 and the other in front of Stela 5. 
STELA li 
Provenance: In a niche or recess in the western steps of the platform 
at the east side of the Great Plaza at the Main Struc- 
ture. The associated altar is just in front of the 
stela, 7. ¢., on its west side. (See plate 6.) 
Date: g.12.5.0.0 3 Ahau 3 Xul. 
Text, (a) ae Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, plates 62-64. 
(b) drawing: plate 22, c (altar only).! 
Maudslay, zbid., plate 65. 
Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, plate facing p. 151 (front only). 
References: Bowditch, 1910, pp. 136, 140, 243, and table 31. 
Goodman, 1897, p. 131. 
Gordon, 1896, pp. 35, 36. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, pp. 52, 53. 
Seler, 1902-1908, vol. I, p. 757. 
Spinden, 1913, pp. 157, 161, and table 1. 
Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, p. 151. 
Thomas, 1904, p. 223. 
Stela I stands in a niche or recess in the terrace, which forms the eastern 
side of the Great Plaza. That it was erected here before the construction 
of this terrace is evident from the fact that the terrace is built around the 
monument. 
This offset is of considerable importance, therefore, in determining the 
age of the Great Plaza, since the date of Stela I, which made it necessary, 
is known to be 9.12.5.0.0, and therefore the Great Plaza must have been 
built or laid out at some later period. 
The front of the monument is sculptured with a human figure, the most 
elaborate yet encountered, and the back and sides are inscribed with glyphs, 
on the basis of which arrangement it may be assigned to Class 4. "It is 2.76 
meters high, 84 cm. wide, and 58 cm. thick. When Stephens visited Copan 
in 1839, it was entire and i situ,” but when Maudslay went there forty years 
later, it had been broken and the upper part had fallen forward, though the 
base was still in position. 
In front of the stela a cruciform chamber was discovered by the Pea- 
body Museum Expedition, like those underneath Stele 7,1, M, and C. This 
was found to contain five beautifully painted pieces of pottery, two being 


1The title of plate 22, c incorrectly reads Altar of Stela 1, instead of Altar of Stela I. 
2“Tt stands at the foot of a wall of steps with only the head and a part of the breast rising above the earth. 
The rest is buried and probably as perfect as the portion which is now visible. When we first discovered it, it 
was buried up to the eyes.” (Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, p. 151) It is there described as Statue T. 
