INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GREAT PERIOD. 325 
ALTAR G3. 
Provenance: In the Great Plaza at the Main Structure between 
Stela F and H. (See plate 6.) 
Date: g.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu.! 
Text, (2) photograph: Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, plates 116, 117. 
(b) drawing: Ibid, 114, K. 
References: Bowditch, 1910, table 29. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, pp. 49, 69. 
Spinden, 1913, table 1. 
Altar G; is one of a group of three monuments called by Maudslay 
Altars G. Stephens describes this altar and G, and G, as follows: ‘‘a mass 
of fallen sculpture with an altar marked R on the map.’” 
These three sculptures are not only very similar in style, particularly 
G; and G»., which are almost twin pieces, but they differ from every other 
monument in the city, with the single exception of Altar O, which unfortu- 
nately has no glyphs, and can not be dated. 
Curiously enough, although G; and G; are almost identical in size, shape, 
and treatment, the nearest occurrences of their respective Calendar Round 
dates in the Long Count are 25 years apart, while Altars G, and G,, on the 
other hand, though presenting greater stylistic divergences, are within 5 
years of each other. 
Altar Gs is a narrow slab of stone 1.83 meters long, 25 cm. thick, and 
1.09 meters high. The subject portrayed is a double-headed monster of 
serpentine character, whose body arches upward, making a hump in the 
middle. Just below the top of this hump and in the bend of the serpent’s 
body on each side is a panel of 4 glyph-blocks, or 8 for the entire inscription. 
Unfortunately the panel on the south side has entirely scaled off. 
The glyphs on the north side, though badly cracked, are all exceedingly 
clear, and unmistakably record two Calendar Round dates: 7 Ahau 18 Pop 
at Al, B1 and 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu at a2, B2. There are no ending-signs or 
prefixes or period-glyphs present, only these two Calendar Round dates, 
which occurred but twice during the Great Period, namely, at 9.16.15.0.0 
7 Ahau 18 Pop and 9.19.7.13.0 7 Ahau 18 Pop and 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 
Cumhu and 9.19.12.13.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu. It is apparent at a glance 
that the first in each set is the date intended here. To begin with, they 
mark the ends of two successive hotuns in the Long Count, sufficient reason 
alone to accept the earlier reading in each case; and second, both the later 
readings are too late to be historically probable at Copan; and finally, we 
have seen that the later date, 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, is recorded in three other 
places at Copan: Temple 214, the reviewing-stand in the Western Court, 
and Altar Z, where it almost certainly has the Initial Series value, 9.17.0.0.0. 
It can hardly be doubted, then, that Altar G; was erected to commemorate 
the hotun-ending 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, also a katun-ending as well, 
and the record of the previous hotun-ending 9.16.15.0.0 7 Ahau 18 Pop 
1 For other monuments recording this same hotun-ending, see Appendix VIII. 
2 Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, map facing p. 133, and p. 152. 
