268 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
stand between two sets of six steps each, none of which begins with an Initial 
Series. Assuming for the moment that this establishes an approximate 
proportion of the two which will hold for the rest of the stairway, we can 
suppose twelve non-Initial Series steps went with the three steps presenting 
Dates 15, 16, and 17; and on the grounds of chronologic proximity, that all 
fifteen steps of this section probably came from just above the steps in situ, 
1.e., from the lower half of ex, figure 37. We have seen further that Dates 
18, 19, and 20 probably came from just above Dates 15, 16, and 17, and 
allowing for this trio of Initial Series steps, the same number of non-Initial 
Series steps as above, we will have another fifteen steps reaching above the 
fifteen steps containing Dates 15 to 17, as coming from the upper half of 
ex, figure 37. This makes a total of 45 steps for the dates of the early group, 
or about half the stairway. Moreover, if the proportion of steps beginning 
with Initial Series to those not beginning with Initial Series, found in the 
steps in situ at the base, obtains elsewhere on the stairway, we may conclude 
that the dates of the early group were all recorded on the lower half of the 
stairway. And further, judging from the parallel afforded by Dates 1, 3, 
and 5 in section ce, it seems not unlikely that Secondary Series at the right 
halves of the thirty steps in section ex, connected the 6 Initial Series at their 
left ends, one with another. 
In addition to the chronologic proximity and the probable positional 
proximity of these several dates, however, they present close stylistic 
affinities, which indicate that all came from the same part of the stairway, 
and that part probably the lower half. These stylistic criteria are: 
1. Treatment of the Initial Series introducing glyph.—All of the same type. Tun 
element early form, upper line curving, 1.¢., concentric with top; 
double-lined elements in the lower part; sometimes with dots above 
and below. 
2. Arrangement.—Always the same. ‘The cycles and katuns in the second 
glyph-block; the tuns and uinals in the third; the kins and day in the 
fourth. 
3. Coefficients —Always bar-and-dot numerals usually placed above the signs 
they modify. The bars are thick and frequently show an inner 
double line. 
4. Period glyphs.—The cycle-sign always the head-variant; the katun-sign 
always the normal form. The rest vary. 
In these features the glyphs of the early Initial Series differ materially 
from those of the later Initial Series (p. 270), and on stylistic grounds alone 
it is necessary to place them in a different chronologic group than that of the 
later dates. 
Summing up the evidence afforded by the presentation, style, chronology, 
and provenance of the dates of the early group, it is probable that a// of them 
came from the lower half of the stairway; and all probably are to be assigned 
to Katuns 5 tog inclusive. Finally, since not one records either a hotun o1 
tun ending like the stele, for example, it is inferable that they refer to actual 
astronomic or historic events which occurred during the Early Period. 
