INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GREAT PERIOD. 
i) 
Ww 
a I 
A Initial Series introducing glyph 
B 9 cycles 
ca 15 katuns 
cb o tuns 
Da Oo uinals 
bb o kins 
Ea 4 Ahau 
ED) ,.39h) ax 
Maudslay’s drawing of the katun coefficient (1889-1902, vol. 1, plate 94, b, 
cau. h.) incorrectly shows 13. The original, however, is perfectly clear, and 
shows that it is composed of three bars, 7. ¢., 15. (See plate 24,0.) 
Passing around to the next side, there is found at Ga, 5 katuns, and at 
H the date 7 Ahau 18 Zip. If 5 katuns are counted forward from 9.15.0.0.0 4 
Ahau 13 Yax, the date reached will be 10.0.0.0.0 7 Ahau 18 Zip; and the 
“End of Cycle 10”’ is in fact recorded at 1a, the first glyph on the remaining 
side. The last three glyphs are unknown, except that ja |. h. may be the 
sign for the planet Venus. A summary of this short text is given below: 
A-E -9.15:0.0.0. ~ 4 Ahau 13 Yax 
H 10. 0.0.0.0 7 Ahau 18 Zip 
1a _— End of Cycle to 
We have here two dates nearly 100 years apart, and the important ques- 
tion at once arises, which indicates the time this altar was made? Which 
of the two was its contemporaneous date? 
In general, when two or more dates are found on the same monument, 
the latest corresponds with the date of erection, that is, the latest is the 
“contemporaneous date.’ When there is only one hotun-ending on a 
monument, it is invariably the date upon which the monument was erected 
or dedicated. The writer knows of no exceptions to this rule. Many 
monuments of this latter kind, however, begin with other dates which are 
earlier than the hotun-endings they commemorate. ‘Take, for example, 
Stela 36, at Piedras Negras, the Initial Series of which is 9.10.6.5.9 8 Muluc 
2 Yaxkin, while its final date is 9.11.15.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Mol, a hotun-ending 
28 years later. Another case in point is that of Stela E at Quirigua, the 
Initial Series on the west side of which is 9.14.13.4.17 12 Caban 5 Kayab, 
while its final date is 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, a hotun-ending 46 years 
later. 
In texts of this character, the final date, if a hotun-ending, is invariably 
the contemporaneous date of the monument. The case is somewhat differ- 
ent, however, when more than one hotun-ending is recorded upon the same 
monument, as here, and it is necessary to examine this condition further. 
Other monuments of this kind, besides Altar S, are: Stele J and 8 here 
at Copan, Zoémorph G at Quirigua, and Altar 1 and Stele 4 and 7 at Piedras 
Negras. The full discussion of these monuments would carry us too far 
afield to attempt here, but the conclusion to which they point may be 
briefly stated as follows: The earlier rather than the /ater hotun-ending in 
such cases is invariably the contemporaneous date, and the /ater one was 
