264 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Date 27. 
Date 27 is even more fragmentary than Date 26. It is similar in style 
and arrangement to Dates 25 and 26. Only one stone of it has been found, 
which shows 5 kins 7 Caban. (See plate 26, f, and Gordon, 1902, plate 12, a, 
sixth block.) However, since the day-sign is Caban, the kin coefficient 
must have been 17, that is two more bars and two dots to the left of the one 
on this block. 
It might be objected that since the Initial Series introducing glyphs are 
missing in Dates 25, 26, and 27, it is not safe to regard them as Initial Series. 
This objection, however, can not be sustained. If the periods, particularly 
in Dates 25 and 26, are not parts of Initial Series, the only other kind of count 
they could have belonged to is a Secondary Series. But Secondary Series 
are always presented as ascending, not descending, series, as in these dates; 
that is, in reading from left to right and top to bottom, the kins are recorded 
first, then the uinals, then the tuns, etc., the orders increasing from left to 
right.! The order in Initial Series, on the other hand, is just the reverse, 
namely, the same as in Dates 25 and 26 and probably in Date 27 also. It is 
therefore certain that Dates 25, 26, and probably 27 are parts of Initial 
Series and not parts of Secondary Series. 
Date 28. 
Gordon figures an Initial Series introducing glyph (1902 plate 12, kg, third 
block) which he states came from higher up the slope than the topmost step 
of section fg, figure 37. Consequently its corresponding Initial Series must 
have been on a higher step than the step upon which dates 11, 12, 13, and 
14 were recorded. 
The style of the glyph is late. The tun element is of the late form. 
The variable central element is a kin-sign. This glyph occurs 
just to the right of one of the crouching horizontal figures, 7. ¢., 
in the same relative positions as Dates Io and 11. It is not 
impossible that this introducing glyph may have belonged with Date 26 or 27. 
It could not have belonged with Date 25, as the left side of this latter block, 
preserved in the Peabody Museum, shows a fractured surface, not dressed. 
Numerous other fragmentary dates are scattered all over the court in 
front of Mound 26, the wreckage of the steps in sections ex and yd, figure 37. 
Little or nothing can be done with these. In some cases the days are n iss- 
ing, in others the months. An example of this kind occurs on a fragment 
figured by Gordon in his monograph on the stairway. (See Gordon, 1902, 
plate 12, L, sixth block.) This piece shows a part of the last glyph of the 
Supplementary Series, followed by the month 3 Mol. The most probable 
place for this to have occurred in Cycle 9, since it here ends a lahuntun, is 
9.15.10.0.0 3 Ahau3 Mol. Sucha reading, though likely, can not be proved. 
Another interesting date is part of a Secondary Series (see Gordon, 1902, 
plate 13, D), the kins of which are missing. The first piece begins with 4 or 


1For a discussion of this point, see Morley, 1915, pp. 128, 129. 
