THE’ INSCRIPTIONS'UAT COPAN- 
i) 
Go 
i) 
The present text opens with the Initial Series introducing glyph in a1. 
The variable element, instead of being a head, is a complete human figure, 
the lower parts of which, however, are concealed by the tun-sign. The pair 
of comb-like lateral appendages is replaced by a pair of fishes, which, the writer 
has suggested elsewhere, may have been the original form from which this 
element was derived.! The moon-sign appears just behind the human figure. 
The Initial Series is recorded in Bi—a4, as. The cycle-sign is a parrot 
with the clasped hand, the cycle characteristic, as its lower jaw. This parrot 
is bound to the back of a human figure. The head of the latter shows the 
familiar dots of the number 9 on its cheek and a beard on its chin,” and the 
whole glyph-block unmistakably records “g cycles.” The next glyph- 
block, a2, shows two figures, one human, the other bird-like, grappling with 
each other. The former, according to Bowditch, is an eagle.*? The head of 
the human figure has the familiar tun head-dress of the head for 5 and the 
fleshless lower jaw of the head for 10. ‘The position of this glyph-block 
between the cycle in B2 and the tun in B3 Is such as to indicate that it is the 
katun-sign and that “15 katuns” are recorded here. 
The tun and its coefficient appear in B2. The former is again a bird, 
the fleshless lower jaw of which indicates that it is the tun-sign. The latter 
is a human figure with the same kind of a head as the katun coefficient, 
except that the fleshless lower jaw is lacking. ‘There is little difficulty in 
deciphering B2 as “5 tuns.’”” The uinal-sign in 3b is quite clearly a frog, 
the left arm of which is linked with the left arm of ahuman figure. The head 
of the latter has a hand across the lower part of the face, and the whole glyph- 
block therefore reads “o uinals.”’ 
The kin-sign and coefficient appear in B3. The former is a human figure 
with a grotesque head, the latter a human figure with a hand across the lower 
face, giving “‘o kins”’ for the glyph-block. 
The day of the Initial Series terminal date appears in a4. The day-sign 
is Ahau, here represented by a full human figure crouching in the day-sign 
cartouche, around the left side of which another human figure has its left 
arm linked. ‘he head of this latter has a fleshless lower jaw and a truncated 
nose, both characteristics of the head for 10. The whole glyph-block there- 
fore reads “1o Ahau.” 

1 Morley, 1915, pp. 28 and 69. See also Stela C, p. 346. 
2 Although the dots on the lower cheek are the essential characteristic of the head numeral for 9, the beard is 
also a fairly constant feature. 
3 Bowditch (1910, p. 113) makes the following timely suggestions concerning the period glyphs of this text: 
“Tt is to be noted that Nos. 35-37 of the uinal forms represent the frog Uo. The phonetic similarity of this word 
with Uinal or U, meaning moon, is noticeable. It is possible that the parrot’s head No. 30 of the cycle forms 
[nib here] and the eagle’s head No. 27 of the katun forms [a2 here] may have some relation in their phonetic 
values to the Maya names for these periods.” 
The writer believes this point can not be too strongly emphasized. It seems likely that we have in this text 
the original forms of the period glyphs, which in later times, by a process of conventionalization, were reduced to 
simpler elements. ‘Thus, as noted above in the Initial Series introducing glyph, the fin or tail of the fish (the comb- 
like lateral appendages) later replaced the whole fish. In the case of the cycle-sign, the head of the parrot later 
replaced the whole bird, etc. When the study of the Maya hieroglyphic writing reaches the point where its origin 
can be safely sought, the writer agrees with Bowditch that the full-figure glyphs of this text will be found to shed 
much light on the original forms from which the glyphs were derived. 
