INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GREAT PERIOD. 237 
2. [hat sometimes, though very rarely, a definite katun was recorded, and 
after it a date not ending that katun, but ending some division of the next katun, 
a point corroborated by an identical case on Altar Q. (See pp. 327, 328.) 
3. The use of the Venus variant of the day-sign Lamat. 
THe HIEROGLYPHIC STAIRWAY. 
Provenance: On the western side of Mound 26 of the Acropolis, facing 
the Court of the Hieroglyphic Stairway, Main 
Structure. (See plate 6.) 
Date: g.16.5.0.0 8 Ahau 8 Zotz.! 
Text, (a) photograph: plates 25 and 27. 
ordon 1902, plates 1-18. 
(b) drawing: plates 26 and 27 and figures 37, 38, 39, 40, and 41. 
Spinden, 1913, plate 20, 3, and 4 (small fragments only). 
Gordon, 1902, figures I-9, 11-13, 15, d, 22, and 25. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, text-cuts on pp. 30 and 32.” 
References: Gordon, 1902. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. I of text, pp. 29-31. 
Spinden, 1913, pp. 160-162 and table 1. 
Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, pp. 134-138. 
The inscription on the Hieroglyphic Stairway of Mound 26 at Copan 
is the longest in the Corpus Inscriptionum Mayarum, containing as many 
as 2,500 individual glyphs, truly encyclopedic as compared with all other 
known texts.° 
The discovery and excavation of this most important construction has 
been fully described by Gordon in a special monograph, and beyond a 
brief word as to its size, character, and present condition, nothing further 
in the way of general description need be given here. 
The Hieroglyphic Stairway, including the broad flanking balustrades 
on either side, is 10.11 meters wide. Of this space, the balustrades take up 
2.13 meters (1.065 meters each) leaving 7.98 meters as the width of the 
stairway proper. When finally excavated it was found that only 10 com- 
plete steps’ and parts of 5 others were in situ at the bottom of the stairway, 
all the upper steps having fallen. 
Concerning the original number of steps in the stairway, Gordon has 
estimated, it appears with considerable accuracy, that there must have been 
about 90.° From the base of the stairway to the summit of Mound 26, 
measured on the slope, is a distance of 38 meters, and since the 16 steps’ now 
in situ measure 7. 62 meters on the slope, this would give 80 as the original 
number of steps in the stairway. 

1 For other monuments recording this same hotun-ending, see Appendix VIII. 
2 Maudslay figures on p. 16 a drawing of one of the sides of Altar D’, which he at first incorrectly identified as 
a fragment from the Hieroglyphic Stairway. Subsequently, however (ibid., pp. 68, 69) he gives its true nature 
and provenance. 
3 The next longest inscription is that on the tablet from the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque. This 
contains 617 glyph-blocks, possibly 1,000 different signs. 
4 Gordon, 1902. 
5 This does not include the bottom step, which is lower and wider than all the others, and is not inscribed with 
glyphs. Unless otherwise stated, this plain bottom step is not included in the various totals following. 
6 Gordon, 1902, p. 161. 
7 This figure includes the plain bottom step. (Gordon, 1902, p. 159.) 
