INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GREAT PERIOD. 335 
On the south side, which is the front, there are two vertical columns of 
4 glyph-blocks each, or 8 in all. Facing these are 4 human figures—z on 
each side of the glyph-panel—seated cross-legged on other glyphs, after the 
same fashion as those on Altars L and Q and the step in Temple 11. 
On the east side there are 4 other figures, also seated cross-legged, facing 
to the left, all grotesque animals except the last. The first may be the bat 
and the third the jaguar. On this side only the jaguar and the human figure 
are seated on glyphs. 
The west side is the counterpart of the east side. Here again there are 
4 figures seated cross-legged, but facing to the right instead of to the left. 
Again the first 3 are grotesque animals or birds, and the last again an anthro- 
pomorphic figure. The first is a parrot. -On this side only the human 
figure is seated on a glyph. 
On the back or north side are two animal figures, each seated on a 
glyph and each holding a glyph in its hand. If the design on the four sides 
of Altar T were presented as a single band with the panel of 8 glyph-blocks 
on the south side at the middle, it would be seen that 6 figures face this 
panel on the left and 6 on the right, and at each end would be a single animal 
figure, with its back to the other 6. When these two ends are joined the 
last two figures face each other and form the southern side. (See fig. 47.) 
This is an advance in bilateral 
symmetry over the arrange- 
ment of the 16 figures on Altar 
Q, 10 of which face in one direc- 
tion and 6 in the other. 
There are 6 other figures, 
all human, distributed over the 
top of the altar, 3 on the left 
and 3 on the right of the croc- 
odile. Indeed, so far as the 
general scheme of the design 
is concerned, it is bilaterally 
symmetrical with reference to an axis drawn through the back-bone of the 
crocodile. Such an axis has ro figures on each side of it, or 20 for the 
entire altar, a very significant number to the ancient Maya, being no less 
than the unit of progression of their entire numerical system. ‘This is also 
the number of the similar figures on the step in Temple 11, and four more 
than the number on Altar Q. 
It is not the purpose of the writer to go into the possible symbolism of 
these 20 figures; it may be pointed out in passing, however, that the human 
figures—the first, second, and sixth on each side—are of much the same 
type as the ones on Stela B, Altars S, L, and Q, and the step in Temple 11. 
This type of seated human figure was a development of the Great Period at 
Copan, and was copied also at Quirigua, on Altars L, Q, and R. Altar T 

Fic. 47.—Design and inscription on back of Altar T. 
