210 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Fragment Y’ is 25 cm. long and 20 cm. high. It was found in a stone 
wall near the house of Pablo Urrutia, north of the road leading from the 
Main Structure to the village in the general vicinity of Group 8. Part of 
one glyph only has been preserved, which is very clearly Glyph C of the 
Supplementary Series. (See figure 35.) Note the moon-sign, hand, and 
head elements, all components of this sign. It is impos- 
sible to tell from this piece whether it had been part of a 
stela, altar, or some mosaic. The carving is clear, and 
the relief rather lower than that of the Great Period, 
for which reason it has been assigned to the Middle 
Period. In fact, the only certain thing about this frag- 
ment is that originally it accompanied an Initial Series. 

a Sane ae. Fic. 35.—Inscription 
This is so because Supplementary Series are never re- on Fragment Y’. 
corded without accompanying Initial Series, and the 
single sign preserved is surely Glyph C of the Supplementary Series. 
The history of Copan during the Middle Period may be summarized 
briefly as follows: Old Copan (Group 9), the chief settlement of the region 
in the Early Period, doubtless carried over into the Middle Period as a place 
of first importance. Indeed, before the final concentration at the Main 
Structure took place there was even a more extended occupation of the 
valley, and more distant settlements were established. 
As early as 9.11.0.0.0 the branch of the Maya living in this region had 
accumulated sufficient reserves of labor and food, and found themselves 
possessed of adequate administrative machinery to warrant a considerable 
territorial expansion. On this latter date no less than 7 stele and their 
accompanying altars were erected in almost as many outlying settlements, 
varying in distance from 1 to 14 kilometers from Old Copan. At Hacienda 
Grande, 3.5 kilometers west (Group 13), in the neighborhood of Stele 12 
and 10, on the hills east and west of Old Copan (Groups 3 and 12 respec- 
tively), in the valley itself at the Main Structure, 2 kilometers east of Old 
Copan, the last soon to become the principal center in the whole surround- 
ing region, at Stela 13, 8.5 kilometers distant, near the modern village of 
Santa Rita (Group 2), and finally 14 kilometers off at Santa Rita itself 
(Group 1), settlements had been founded and were flourishing. In short, 
the intensive occupation of the whole valley was at last under way. 
With the resources of the surrounding country under control, the next 
step seems to have been the selection of a site for the religious and govern- 
mental center of the tribe, 7. ¢., the capital. For some unknown reason Old 
Copan does not appear to have been considered as worthy of this honor. 
Perhaps the site was not large enough. At least, it was not able to hold 
its own from this time on, either in size or in the number of its sculptured 
remains as compared with the group 2 kilometers farther east, that is to 
say, the Main Structure proper. This latter group may have been 
founded some time during the Early Period, since the complexity 
