238 THE INSCRIPTIONS, AT? COPAN, 
Or again, Mound 26 is now 25.9 meters high, and the steps of its stair- 
way average about 30.5 cm. in height. On this basis it would have required 
85 steps of equal height to reach the present top. But Gordon assumes 
that the height of this mound has been reduced during the course of the 
centuries, by gradual erosion as well as by landslides on its north and west 
sides, by about I.5 meters, in which case the total number of steps would have 
been 90 or thereabouts.! 
Another line of evidence is that afforded by the so-called “bird symbol,” 
which was a regularly recurring ornament on the balustrades at intervals 
of every 5 steps. After the stairway had been completely excavated it was 
found that 30 of these “bird symbols” had been recovered; which, allowing 
15 for each side, makes a total of not less than 75 steps (5 X15) for the entire 
stairway.” But in the collapse of such a monumental construction it is highly 
probable that a few of them, at least 4, or possibly even 6, were destroyed. 
If so, this would bring the total number of steps up to 85 or 90, approximately 
the same number reached by the other estimates. | 
Still a fourth line of evidence gives about the same result. At regular 
intervals, along the central line of the stairway from top to bottom, were 
seated human figures of heroic size each built up of several pieces of stone. 
Only one of these, however, was found in situ, all the others having fallen to 
the bottom when the stairway collapsed. Its feet rest on the tenth step from 
the bottom and the upper lip of its enormous animal head-dress is about level 
with the fifteenth step, making the figure equal to 6 steps or 1.83 meters in 
height. Although only one of these was found in situ, parts of four others 
were recovered during the course of the excavations, and it is certain that 
originally there were at least five, if not more. If the top of the lowest of 
these five seated figures, 7. ¢., the only one im situ, is on a level with the 
fifteenth step from the bottom, the top of the fifth figure, assuming equal 
spacing between all, must have been on a level with the seventy-fifth step; 
and if one figure was lost or broken when the stairway collapsed, a natural 
enough occurrence in view of the tremendous mass of masonry which fell, 
this would add another 15 steps, making a total of go, as reached in the other 
estimates. It is not improbable, therefore, that 90 is a close approximation 
of the original number of steps in the Hieroglyphic Stairway. 
Built against the middle of the base is an altar 1.52 meters high, 3.2 
meters wide, the top extending forward 2.13 meters, on the level of the 
tread of the fifth step. Gordon® suggests that this probably bore the same 
relation to the seated figures stretching above it as do the altars found in 
front of the stele to their respective stele. In its entirety this construction 
was undoubtedly the most magnificent at Copan, and it probably marks 
the apogee of aboriginal sculpture on the American continent. 

1 This assumption seems reasonable, in view of the fact that although Maudslay found a number of beveled 
roof-stones on the slopes of Mound 26, the top itself was so eroded that he could not find even the foundations of 
the temple to which these had belonged. (See Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, p. 30.) 
2 Gordon, 1902, pp. 160, 161. 
3 [bid., pp. 158, 159. 
