324 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
ALTAR Z. 
Provenance: On the terrace between the Eastern and Western Courts 
just east of Temple 11 at the Acropolis, Main Structure. 
(See plate 6.) 
Date: 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau18 Cumhu.! 
Text, (a) photograph: Cone 1896, figures 9-12. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, plate 113, a.? 
(b) drawing: §Maudslay, ibid., plate 112, f-1. 
Morley, 1915, figure 83, d. 
References: Bowditch, 1910, p. 136. 
Gordon, 1896, pp. 13, 42. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, p. 68. 
Morley, 1915, p. 242. 
Altar Z is a small rectangular block of stone 56 cm. long, 46 cm. wide, 
and 76 cm. high. The front is carved with a grotesque head, the back and 
sides with glyphs, 6 glyph-blocks on a side, or 18 in all. This monument was 
excavated in 1893 by the Second Peabody Museum Expedition from near 
the northeast corner of a low mound on the high terrace between the Eastern 
and Western Courts. It faces east. (See plate 6.) 
The inscription opens on the north side (the right facing the altar) 
with a number in Al, B1 composed of 1.8.1; and in the next glyphs but one, 
B2, A3, are the Calendar Round date 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, followed by an ending- 
sign at B3. We have just seen that this date was recorded in Temple 21a 
and on the reviewing-stand in the Western Court, both within a stone’s throw 
of this monument, and further, that Temple 11, even nearer (see plate 6), 
has a date less than 8 years earlier; we are therefore justified in assuming 
that the 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu here recorded is probably, indeed almost cer- 
tainly, 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, although the Katun 17 itself is not 
expressed. If this is true, the starting-point of the number, 1.8.1, in Al, B1 
can be shown by calculation to have been 9.16.18.9.19 12 Cauac 2 Zac, as 
follows: 
9.17. 0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu 
1.8. 1 backward 
9:16.18.9.19 — 12'Ganat 2 Zac 
There are several other glyphs of known form, though of unknown mean- 
ing, on the back and south side. The close connection between this altar 
and Temple 21a and the reviewing-stand in the Western Court is further 
established by the’ number of the same non-calendric glyphs found in 
all three. 
This altar was doubtless dedicated in 9.17.0.0.0, along with other 
monuments and temples erected to commemorate this important katun- 
ending. 
1 For other monuments recording this same hotun-ending, see Appendix VIII. 
2 There is a curious error in Maudslay’s reproduction of this altar. The print published seems to have been 
made from the wrong side of the negative; thus all the coefficients are on the right-hand sides of the glyphs instead 
of the left. Gordon’s photographs, however (1896, figures 9-12), show the correct presentation of both the front 
and north side. 
