INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GREAT PERIOD. PAE 
two sets of two each, Nos. 879 and 882, and Nos. 880 and 881. It is barely 
possible a few of the stones may show parts of an Initial Series, but the char- 
acters are so fragmentary that such an identification is hazardous. 
A few of the stones show that some large design surrounded the glyph- 
panels proper; several great parrot (?) claws may be distinguished on one 
or two of the blocks. This is particularly true of some of the fragments in 
the Normal School at Tegucigalpa, where parrot-like claws may be distin- 
guished. Two of the fragments at Tegucigalpa, which fit together, show the 
feet of a human figure placed 180° apart. On either side there are two 
glyph-blocks. It is unfortunate that fragments of the same inscription 
should be so widely separated as the several pieces of this mosaic, since it 
might be possible to fit others together if all were assembled. 
Gordon, who took charge of the Second Expedition after Owens’s death, 
and who was field director of the Fourth Expedition, appears to have 
brought back only the best preserved blocks, and it would seem as though 
there must be others to be found somewhere around the base of Mound 26. 
A search of the eastern slope of this Mound in 1916, however, failed to bring 
any more of them to light, and again we are left to deplore the destruction 
of another priceless text. 
STELA M. 
Provenance: In front of the middle of the base of the Hieroglyphic 
Stairway of Mound 26, of the Acropolis, Main Struc- 
ture, at the eastern end of the court of the same name. 
(See plate 6.) 
Date: 9.16.5.0.0 8 Ahau 8 Zotz.! 
Text, (a) photograph: plate 28, a. 
Gordon, 1902, plate 16, 2 and 3. 
(b) drawing: §Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, plate 74. 
Morley, 1915, figure 68, d. 
References: Bowditch, 1910, p. ror and table 29. 
Goodman, 1897, p. 132. 
Gordon, 1896, pp. 35, 36. 
Gordon, 1902, pp. 164, 185, 186. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, p. 55. 
Morley, 1915, pp. 175, 176. 
Seler, 1902-1908, vol. I, p. 752. 
Spinden, 1913, pp. 159, 162, and table r. 
Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, p. 134. 
Thomas, 1900, pp. 785, 802. 
Stela M now lies prostrate and broken in front of the Hieroglyphic 
Stairway of Mound 26, with which it was originally associated. Stephens 
describes it as “fallen and ruined”’ in his day,” and we may probably assume 
that it has been broken for at least several centuries. Gordon gives its exact 
position with reference to the stairway as “‘in line with the center of the 
stairway and 15’ [4.57 meters] in front of it.”* The flat slab on which it 
rested, as well as the oblong blocks which supported it on four sides, are in 
place. The monument is 3.04 meters high and 76 cm. wide. 

1 For other monuments recording this samc hotun-ending, see Appendix VIII. 
2 Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, p. 134. In Stephens’s nomenclature, Stela M is called Statue E. *Gordon, 1902, p. 164. 
