INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD. 185 
The month of the Initial Series terminal date appears to be the last 
glyph on this side, F2._ The coefficient is either 8 or 13, the month-sign itself 
being all gone but the lower part. The unknown elements in this date are 
too numerous to permit decipherment, though much could have been 
attempted had only the month-sign been preserved. ‘There are no other 
decipherable glyphs on the remaining sides of this altar. 
The stone collar which formerly supported Stela 6 also seems to have 
been sculptured, but the design is too effaced to distinguish any details. 
ALTAR K. 
Provenance: At the western side of the Middle Court near the 
northern end of Mound 6 at the Main Structure. (See 
plate 6.) 
Date: 9.12.16.7.8 3 Lamat 16 Yax. 
Text, (a) photograph: Spinden, 1913, plate 20, 2. 
(b) drawing: §Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, plate 73, a. 
References: Bowditch, 1910, p. 119 and table 31. 
Goodman, 1897, p. 132. 
Gordon, 1896, insert opposite plate I. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, p. 54. 
Spinden, 1913, pp. 162, 163 and table 1. 
Thomas, 1900, pp. 785, 802. 
Altar K was found at the western side of the Middle Court, near the 
northern end of Mound 6. It isasmall rectangular block of stone 81 cm. wide, 
70 cm. broad, and 33 cm. high. The top is plain, the four sides are inscribed 
with glyphs. 
The Initial Series is recorded on what is now the west side, but there is 
considerable doubt as to whether this altar is im situ. The Initial Series 
introducing glyph is in a1. The variable element is the sign for the planet 
Venus and is the earliest occurrence of this glyph as such, so far 
as the SINE writer knows, in the Copan texts. Cycle 9 is recorded in 
Bl. The katun coefficient, A2a, is partially effaced. Enough remains, 
however, to show that it was above 10 and under 15; two bars show distinctly, 
and the upper dot, which is numerical. This reduces the katun coefficient 
to three possibilities, 12, 13, or 14. The ‘ll tun coefficient, B2a, is 16. The 
uinal coefficient, cia, is 7, although it looks more like Io at first sight. 
Maudslay shows it as almost effaced, but it is clearly above 5 and below 11. 
A close examination of the original established the presence of two numeri- 
cal dots with a plain intervening space @] and one bar. The kin coefficient, 
pia, is clearly 8 and the day coefficient, || c2a, clearly 3. The day-sign itself, 
c2b, is unfamiliar, but since the kin @J coefficient is surely 8, it can only 
be Lamat. 
The last glyph of the Supplementary Series, Glyph A, appears in F2 
(south side), and this is followed by the month-sign in G2. The month-sign 
coefficient is clearly 16,'! and the month-sign itself either Chen, Yax, Zac, or 


1 Maudslay (1889-1902, vol. 1, pl. 73, 4, glyph 14) shows a coefficient of above 15. The original is sufficiently 
preserved here to show that it is 16. 
