184 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
inscriptions dating from lahuntun-endings, and its record in no other kind 
of texts, sufficiently establishes its identity and meaning as given here.’ 
Following this in 87a is the day 8 Ahau, which, the writer believes, was 
recorded here because it was the day on which the current katun ended, 
namely, 9.13.0.0.0 8 Ahau 8 Uo. This same practice seems to have obtained 
elsewhere in the Maya area, notably at Quirigua and Palenque, and, as the 
writer has noted elsewhere, it may possibly be a forerunner of the u kahlay 
katunob or series of the katuns, which was the method of counting time and 
recording events used by the Maya at a much later period, 7. ¢., in the New 
Empire in Yucatan? Other glyphs of familiar form but unknown meaning 
appear throughout this text; p4a u. h. is 3 katuns and Bed I. h. the month- 
sign Kankin. There are 13+9-+9=31 glyph-blocks in all, the Initial Series 
introducing glyph occupying the space of 4 glyph-blocks. Stela 6 marked 
the next hotun in the Long Count after Stela I and its altar. 
WEB IW WK] | QS KIN 
Fic. 33.— Inscription on side of altar of Stela 6. 

There is a rectangular altar associated with this stela, which still shows 
traces of glyphs on its sides. (See figure 33.) It is 1.6 meters long, 43 cm. 
high, and 70 cm. wide. The long sides have three vertical bands, one at 
each end and one in the middle, dividing each long side into two panels, 
each having 6 glyph-blocks or 12 to a side. One end is destroyed. The 
other has 6 glyph-blocks. If the destroyed end was similarly treated, there 
were 36 glyph-blocks on this altar originally. The top is plain and there 
are no bands on the preserved end. 
Unfortunately erosion and defacement have advanced so far that it is 
impossible to decipher the date, although ai is clearly the Initial Series 
introducing glyph, followed by the cycle coefficient in Bia. This is a head- 
variant, probably 9, although the details of the head are effaced. The 
cycle-sign, Bib, and the katun coefficient, a2a, are destroyed. The katun- 
sign shows quite clearly in a2b. The tun coefficient and part of the tun-sign 
are preserved in B2. ‘The coefficient is again a head-variant numeral of 
unknown form, though it may be 13. The uinals and kins were recorded at 
c1 and c2 respectively and are entirely effaced. The day of the Initial 
Series terminal date is at pi. Faint traces of the bottom of the day-sign 
cartouche and the head-variant coefficient are all that are left of it. 

1 See Morley, 19172, p. 197 and plate 2, for a discussion of this glyph. 
2 See Morley, 1915, pp. 79-85, and Appendix IT. 

a ee eS 
ea -E ~ a. 
OO —— 
