348 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
13 Muan. The remaining glyphs on the south side are either effaced or 
undecipherable. The question at once arises, what is the relationship (if 
any) between these three dates, the two 6 Ahau 18 Kayabs in a2d, a3a and 
A7b, asa and 6, 7, or 8 Ahau 13 Muan in a9; and further, have these two dates, 
6 Ahau 18 Kayab, one and the same position in the Long Count? 
Fortunately the number recorded in As, a6 is very clearly 11.14.5.1.0, 
and since this is not an exact number of Calendar Rounds, it can not be 
the distance from an earlier 6 Ahau 18 Kayab to a later one, and we can 
therefore answer the latter question with a definite negative; and a2), a3a 
and a7b, asa therefore must refer to one and the same date in the Long Count. 
It remains, however, to establish the relationship between 6 Ahau 18 
Kayab and 6,7,or8 Ahau 13 Muan, and to account for the number 11.14.5.1.0. 
Bowditch was the first to point out that this number exactly connects 
the dates 6 Ahau 18 Kayab and 6 Ahau 13 Muan;! and it must be admitted 
that no other reading will develop any relationship whatsoever between this 
number and these dates. This coincidence is in itself so striking that the 
writer regards Bowditch’s explanation as correct. It should be noted, 
however, that a close study of the original shows the two outside dots of the 
day coefficient are, and apparently always have been, plain. The middle 
dot, though slightly eroded, looks just like the two outside ones, and indeed, 
were it not for the fact that the calculations so plainly indicate 6 instead of 8 
here, the latter would be the preferable reading. Perhaps the outside dots 
were painted a different color, as suggested for the coefficient of the great- 
great-cycle-glyph in a2a above. 
Although the number 11.14.5.1.0 doubtless connects these two dates, 
there is no indication in the passage as to the position of either in the Long 
Count, since the corresponding Initial Series or Period Ending (if either date 
closed an even period) is wanting. Indeed, only two facts may be gathered 
from the text in this connection: 
(1) 6 Ahau 18 Kayab is the starting-point and 6 Ahau 13 Muan the terminal 
date of the count; and 
(2) A very long period of time, over 4,600 years, separated these two dates 
from each other. 
We have already seen, however, that when two dates separated by a 
vast stretch of time are recorded on the same monument, the earlier date 
never indicates the present time of the monument and thus the terminal 
date is never extended far into the future, but that, on the contrary, the 
later date corresponds roughly with the time the monument was erected. 
If this is the case here, 6 Ahau 13 Muan would indicate approximately the 
present time of Stela C; and since the treatment of Stela C is manifestly 
very late, this 6 Ahau 13 Muan must be sought for some time during the 
Great Period. 

1 Bowditch, 1910, p. 134. 
