342 THE INSCRIPTIONS UATY COPAN. 
monument, 1.2., 9.16.12.5.17. This close chronologic proximity to the date of 
Altar T strongly indicates that the later date is the contemporaneous date of 
Stela 8. At c3 is 2 katuns, which may indicate that there were only two whole 
katuns left before the last date on the other side, 7. ¢., Cycle Io. 
The inscription on the other side opens with the hotun-glyph in £1, 
followed by 3 katuns and an ending prefix in F1, followed by the date “7 
Ahau 18 Zip End of Cycle 10” in G1, 1, £2, the superfix of the month-sign in 
H1 being on the left of the main element. (See plate 32, b.) Bowditch 
falls into error here, misreading this date as 13 Ahau 18 ?, and on the strength 
of the 3 katuns in F1 and the End of Cycle 10 in £2 he restores the effaced 
month-sign as Cumhu. He thus interprets F1 as 3 katuns, which, if counted 
forward from the date 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu in G1,H1, will reach the End of 
Cycle ro in £2.2. The day coefficient in Gi, however, is unmistakably 7, and 
the month-sign in H1 could only have been Zip or Ceh, as its superfix is 
like that of these two months 457/79 only, the loop at the right showing 
clearly. But we have seen that Cycle 10 ended on the day 7 Ahau 18 Zip, 
and “‘the End of Cycle 10” is actually recorded at £2, just following this date. 
Therefore Gi, Hi, E2 records “7 Ahau 18 Zip, End of Cycle 10.” Moreover, 
this reading conforms with the general Maya practice of first recording a 
distance number (possibly 3 katuns here), then its terminal date (7 Ahau 18 
Zip here), and finally the period, if any, which this date ends (Cycle rohere). 
It is quite possible that the 3 katuns in Fi may have been counted 
from the date 9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, because of the record of the 
hotun-sign in £1. This seems to be the best explanation of this glyph, but 
that Gi,Hi declared the date from which they were counted it is equally clear 
can not have been the case. 
The glyph following “End of Cycle 10” in £2 is a tun-sign made into a 
head; G2,H2 are effaced. ‘The destruction of the latter is particularly to be 
regretted, since it was the day corresponding with the month Ito Zip at £3. 
Although the loss of this glyph of course prevents certain identification, the 
writer wishes to suggest the reading 9.17.12.5.17 4 Caban to Zip for this 
fragmentary date in H2, £3, that is, a date just 5 days earlier than the con- 
temporaneous date of Stela 8 (recorded on the other side), and exactly 
1 katun later than 6 Caban 10 Mol, the starting-point of this monument; 
and finally a date which is actually recorded as the contemporaneous date of 
Altar T. If this is true, it shows a close connection between Stela 8 and 
Altar T, since both start with the date 9.16.12.5.17 6 Caban 10 Mol; both 
have the date 9.17.12.5.17 4 Caban 1o Zip, the first katun anniversary of 
the starting date, and finally both close within 5 days of each other. The 
record of Cycle to here is doubtless purely “prophetic.” It was not 10.0.0.0.0 
7 Ahau 18 Zip when Stela 8 was erected, but occasion was taken to point 
out the fact that this important date was approaching, indeed was less than 
3 katuns distant, in which sense its record here is prophetic. 
1 The ending-sign in this glyph (ES) is the same late form as the corresponding element in the hotun- 
glyph on the west jamb in the north doorway of Temple 11. (See plate 29, d, G8.) 
2 See Bowditch, 1910, p. 179. 
