390 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Not content with this ornate feature of decoration, in the broad current 
of flamboyancy now in full swing, door-jambs were next subjected to hiero- 
glyphic treatment (Temples 26, 11, and 18), and possibly also exterior 
cornices (Fragment Z’ at Group 4). But at last the end was at hand. This 
costly process of intellectual exhaustion, leading so surely to decadence and 
ultimate futility, was stopped at its most brilliant moment probably by that 
same catastrophe which overwhelmed all the cities of the Old Empire about 
10.2.0.0.0, but which appeared at Copan three-quarters of a century earlier. 
About the middle of Katun 16, coincident indeed with the important 
date 9.16.12.5.17 6 Caban 10 Mol, the mastery of technical processes be- 
came so complete that contemporary esthetic ideals were released from all 
practical limitations of material or treatment, and at once soared to flam- 
boyant heights; and during the closing half century of the city’s history 
(9.16.10.0.0 to 9.19.0.0.0) this tendency carried sculpture into a variety of 
new media and led eventually to a condition which was only saved from 
decline by the abandonment of the region and the migration of its inhabi- 
tants elsewhere. 
