274 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Returning to the Hieroglyphic Stairway once more, we find that we are 
nearly at the end of our decipherable dates, Dates 26 (?), 13, 14, and 11 
following 9.15.6.14.6 in less than six years. Doubtless, as already suggested, 
other dates, now missing, filled the remaining thirteen years the stairway was 
under construction. And finally, in 9.16.5.0.0 the stairway was probably 
completed and put into formal use along with Stela M, the first hotun-marker 
that had been erected for twenty years. 
The almost total destruction of this magnificent inscription constitutes 
a well-nigh irreparable loss to the student of the Maya hieroglyphic writing. 
It was an epitome of the principal events which befell one of the greatest 
Maya cities during the greatest period of the Maya civilization. Whether 
these events are of an historical nature, as we all hope, or whether they record 
the more abstract phenomena of astronomy, as yet remains in doubt. 
Judging from the tenor of the deciphered glyphs, it must be admitted that 
the second explanation appears the more likely at the present time. How- 
ever, the writer believes that while much of the data recorded in this in- 
scription, indeed in all the Maya inscriptions, must necessarily be astronomic, 
some historical residuum, however small, still awaits the decipherer, and 
that eventually this text, as well as most others, will be found to contain 
some fragment of ancient Maya history. 
TEMPLE 26. 
Provenance: On the summit of Mound 26, of the Acropolis, Main 
Structure, now entirely destroyed. (See plate 6.) 
Date: g.16.5.0.0 8 Ahau 8 Zotz? (?) 
References: Gordon, 1902, pp. 153, 154, 163, 166, 167. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. I of text, p. 30 
Not a vestige, even a foundation-stone, of Temple 26 remains in situ. 
Says Gordon in this connection: 
“Tn its present condition the pyramid rises almost to a point, leaving apparently 
but little space on top for a building, but as the top has been reduced in size by 
landslides, and building stones as well as sculptures were found overlying the 
slopes, and the level ground below, there is every reason to believe that a building 
of some sort once stood there, though not a trace of it remains in position.” 
Maudslay, however, offers more positive evidence of the former existence of 
a structure on the summit of this mound, having found several beveled stones, 
so highly characteristic of Maya roof construction, lying on its slopes.’ 
There is no doubt, indeed, but that many of the elaborately sculptured 
stones found not only in the débris at the base of the Hieroglyphic Stairway, 
but also scattered in the court just in front of it, came not from the stairway 
itself, but from some construction on the summit of Mound 26. 
Gordon believes the great macaw heads (Gordon, 1902, plate 13, s, and 
pp. 18, 19) found in the court in front of, and not underneath, the débris of 


‘ For other monuments recording this same hotun-ending, see Appendix VIII. 
2 Gordon, 1902, pp. 153, 154. 3 Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, p. 30. 
