362 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
STELA C. STELA H. STELA F. STELA 4. 
(1) ETAIS). 18. °2.97512.0 
g. 8.15. 0.0 
9.14.10. 0.0 
9.14.15. 0.0 
9.16-20..0.0 9.15.0. 0.0 
GaOnz,19.0 
9.16.19. 2.0 
Sel bry ese 
G.17.11: 5.0 
9.17.12. 0.0 9.17.12. 0.0 
9.17.12:13.0! Q.17.12.13:05 
Leaving aside the mythological date (1)11.(18).18.2.7.12.0, the earliest 
date in the historic period is the first on Stela 4, 9.8.15.0.0; next comes 
9.14.10.0.0 on Stela F, next 9.14.15.0.0 again on Stela 4, a hotun later than 
the preceding, and exactly 6 katuns later than the opening date on this 
monument. Finally, both Stele F and 4 come together on the next hotun- 
ending, 9.15.0.0.0, which appears as the last date in each. ‘These first five 
dates in the historic period are all recorded on one or the other of the two 
later monuments, and are the only hotun-endings in the entire group of 14 
dates. As we have already seen, the last date recorded on Stele F and 4 is 
the same, 9.15.0.0.0, although on stylistic grounds it is necessary to con- 
clude that Stela F was made first. If Stela F is earlier than Stela 4, then 
9.14.10.0.0 was the first of these hotuns to be recorded, being on Stela F, 
and following this the next katun-ending, 9.15.0.0.0. Stela 4 begins with 
a still earlier hotun-ending, 9.8.15.0.0, whose sixth katun anniversary, how- 
ever, 9.14.15.0.0 (also recorded), lies between the two hotuns on Stela F, and 
finally, the next hotun after 9.14.15.0.0, 1.¢., 9.15.0.0.0, is also recorded on 
Stela 4. This concludes the group of hotun-endings, which, it should be 
remembered, are on the two /ater monuments and not the two earlier ones 
of the group. 
Could the record of these two particular hotuns, 9.14.10.0.0 on Stela 
F and 9.14.15.0.0 on Stela 4, more than 60 years after either of them had 
been the current hotun-ending, be due to the desire on the part of the priests 
to fill an earlier gap in the sequence of the hotun endings? It will be re- 
membered that after 9.13.15.0.0 or 9.14.0.0.0 (the date of Stela 5) no monu- 
ments appear to have been erected until 20 years later, in 9.15.0.0.0 (Stele A 
and B), and that the hotuns 9.14.5.0.0, 9.14.10.0.0 and 9.14.15.0.0 apparently 
were allowed to pass without corresponding markers being erected. Pos- 
sibly the priests thought they could supply this deficiency more than 60 
years later (7.¢., in 9.17.12.0.0 and 9.17.12.13.0) by recording on stele then 
in course of being made, two of these three missing hotun-endings, a naive 
but apocryphal attempt to perfect their records, not without parallel in 
other places at other times. 
Next comes a series of five dates on the earliest monument of the group, 
Stela C, each one of which is important in one way or another. ‘The first, 
1 This date is not recorded, but is not only implied by the calculations, but also demanded by the stylistic 
criteria. 
