352 THE INSCRIPTIONS APT :COPAN, 
Stela H stands in the Great Plaza at the Main Structure, a few meters 
east of and facing Stela A. Stephens gives it the letter S in his map.' It is 
3.66 meters high, 1 meter wide, and about the same in depth. ‘The front or 
west face is sculptured with the figure of a woman of heroic size in very high 
relief, which stands almost free of the body of the stela. The head-dress and 
feather drapery of the figure extend around on and completely fill the two 
sides. The back is occupied by a grotesque bird-figure at the top, a gro- 
tesque mask in the middle, and a panel of 8 glyph-blocks in two columns at 
the bottom, the whole being surrounded by a beautiful border of feather- 
work tassels hanging from rosettes. On the basis of this arrangement of the 
design, Stela H is to be referred to Class 6, the same as Stele D and M. 
Catherwood’s original drawing of this monument, considered by some 
to be the finest at Copan, is in the Peabody Museum of Harvard University. 
It.is sepia in tone and shows Stela H standing in the dense forest which still 
covered the valley when Stephens visited the site in 1839. 
Catherwood’s portrayal is accurate and conveys a forceful idea of the 
original. He has faithfully rendered the expression of serenity and dignity, 
so characteristic of the faces on the Copan stele, and his delineation of the 
details of the clothing shows painstaking care. Similarly his drawing of the 
back of Stela F, the original of which is also in the Peabody Museum, is so 
accurate that it is possible to decipher the date inscribed there from it. 
The inscription on Stela H is very short—only 8 glyph-blocks, not more 
than 16 glyphs—and only the first glyph-block (A1) presents calendrical matter. 
This records the Calendar Round date 4 Ahau 18 Muan. This date occurred 
but once in the Great Period and there at the end of an even tun, namely, 
9.17.12.0.0 4 Ahau 18 Muan, which strongly suggests that this is the 
Initial Series intended to accompany it. 
This same Calendar Round date, however, occurs on another monu- 
ment here in the Great Plaza, namely, on Stela A at c2, although here its 
position is fixed by means of the corresponding Initial Series as 9.14.19.5.0 of 
the Long Count, just 1 Calendar Round previous to the position suggested 
above for Stela H. Since 4 Ahau 18 Muan is the only date on Stela H, it 
follows almost of necessity that it designated the time of erection of the 
monument; and furthermore, since the same date occurs on another monu- 
ment less than 20 meters off (Stela A), with the Initial Series 9.14.19.5.0, it 
would at first appear that this was also the Initial Series of the same Calendar 
Round date on Stela H. 
A careful consideration of the evidence, however, shows that this is 
probably not the case. In the first place, Stela H is far superior in style to 
Stela A. Indeed, such are the technical advances of the former over the 
latter that both could not have been carved at the same time. There are, 
moreover, at. least three other surely dated monuments here at Copan, 
Stele D, M, and N, all later hotun-markers than Stela A, which stand be- 
tween Stela A and Stela H in the stylistic sequence. On stylistic grounds, 
1 Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, map facing p. 133, and pp. 149, 150. 
