300 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Altar U now stands under the large ceiba tree in the middle of the village 
plaza (Group 9), in which conspicuous position, unfortunately, it receives more 
than its share of the destructive attentions of the villagers and their live-stock. 
(See figure 22, d.) Both Maria Melendrez and Jacobo Madrid tell the 
following story of its original provenance, and the circumstances attending 
its removal to the plaza. Formerly it stood with Altar T under a large 
amate tree just west of the plain stela in front (z.e., west) of the high mound 
at the southeastern corner of the village plaza. This amate tree formerly 
stood where now the doorway from the courtyard of the house of Don Juan 
Ramon Cuevas opens into the street running south from the southeastern 
corner of the plaza, which serves to fix the original positions of Altars T and 
U and of Fragment E’ found under the latter. (See figure 22,c.) In 1893, 
shortly after the municipality was organized, Carlos Madrid, then com- 
mandante of Santa Rita, assembled all the villagers, and had them drag 
both Altars T and U from under this amate tree to the center of the plaza, 
where they now stand. 
Altar U is 1.5 meters long, 61 cm. wide, and 91 cm. high. The front 
is carved in the semblance of a grotesque head, and each side with a serpent 
whose gaping jaws inclose a seated human figure. There are also a pair 
of glyph-blocks on each side. The back is entirely covered with the inscrip- 
tion, 10 columns of 5 glyph-blocks each, or 49 for the entire panel, the space 
of one glyph-block, cs, being occupied by an inclusion of harder volcanic rock, 
which the ancient artisans found themselves unable either to reduce or remove. 
A description of this, together with the material of the body of the altar, will 
be found in Appendix I. The top also is entirely covered with glyphs, 8 
columns of 3 glyph-blocks each, or 24 in all. This makes a total of 2+2+49 
+24=77 for the entire monument. 
To read the inscription, one must face the back of the altar, in which 
position only will the columns of glyphs there appear right side up. The 
panel of 24 glyph-blocks on the top is to be read first, and, so far as the writer 
can detect, it is entirely independent of the panel of glyphs on the back, 
although the lower edge of the former touches the upper edge of the latter. 
The sequence of glyphs appears to be as follows: First, the panel on top— 
Al, Bi, A2, B2, A3, B3, Cl, Dl; C2, D2,°C3, D3, etc., throuen Gz, H3. then thee 
glyphs 1, j1, on the left side (facing the back of the monument); then the 
entire panel of 10 vertical columns on the back, which is to be read in pairs 
of columns, thus: K1, L1, K2, L2, K3, L3, K4, L4, K5, L5, M1, N1, etc., through 5, Ts; 
and finally, the last two glyphs on the right side, U1, v1, which close the insce 
tion. The text opens at a1, B1 with a Calendar Round date which is either 
2 Caban o Pop or 3 Caban o Pop. A first-hand study of the day-coefficient 
established the fact that the lower dot is surely numerical, thus limiting the 
number to 2 or 3; and since the stump of the destroyed middle dot in no way 
differs from the stump of the destroyed upper dot, which is known to have 
