400 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
In the first example above, the inscription starts with the Initial Series, 
9.12.3.14.0, which a single Secondary Series number brings forward to the 
current hotun-ending, 9.12.5.0.0, the contemporaneous date of the monu- 
ment. This is the customary, although not the invariable, practice at 
Copan, where there is usually not more than one intermediate date between 
the Initial Series date and the contemporaneous date. 
The second example begins with the Initial Series, 9.12.10.5.12, which 
three Secondary Series numbers, 5.7.15, 11.8.1, and 2.14.12, reaching 
two intermediate dates, bring forward to the contemporaneous date, the 
lahuntun-ending 9.13.10.0.0, nearly a katun later. 
The third example begins with the Initial Series 9.12.2.0.16, which 
four Secondary Series, 12.10.0, I.1.11.10, 3.8.15, and 4.19 bring forward to 
the contemporaneous date, the katun-ending 9.14.0.0.0. On the front of 
this monument this is recorded as a Period Ending date, but on the side it 
is repeated as an Initial Series. 
The fourth example above begins with an Initial Series, 9.14.13.4.17, 
which one Secondary Series, 13.9.9, brings forward to an important inter- 
mediate date, and which another, 1.16.13.3, also proceeding from the Initial 
Series date direct, brings down to the contemporaneous date, the lahuntun- 
ending 9.16.10.0.0, also repeated as an Initial Series on one of the sides. 
Analyzing these data, we find in every case that the opening date is not 
at the end of any particular period of the Long Count, but is a date which 
was apparently determined by some historical event or astronomical phe- 
nomenon. ‘This odd date is brought forward in every case, however, by one 
or more Secondary Series numbers to the particular hotun-ending which each 
of the above monuments was erected to commemorate. 
Let us examine the case of Stela 3 at Piedras Negras somewhat further. 
The previous hotun-ending at this city, 9.13.15.0.0, was commemorated by 
the erection of Stela 1, and the following hotun-ending, 9.14.5.0.0, by the 
erection of Stela 5. That is, it seems fair to assume Stela 3 must have been 
quarried, transported, erected, and sculptured between 9.13.15.0.0, the 
previous hotun-ending, and its own contemporaneous date, 9.14.0.0.0, five 
years later. But on the other hand, the first two dates on it, 9.12.2.0.6 and 
9.12.14.10.16, are approximately 38 years and 26 years earlier than its con- 
temporaneous date, and thus lie without the hotun which it was erected to 
commemorate, 7.¢., the hotun ending in 9.14.0.0.0. The same condition 
also obtains in regard to the first two dates on Stela F at Quirigua and the 
first two on Stela 24 at Naranjo, both pairs lying without the spans of the 
hotuns these monuments were respectively erected to commemorate. The 
above stele, moreoever, are no exception to the general rule, and it will be 
seen that the contemporaneous dates are quite as frequently recorded by 
Period Ending or Calendar Round dates, particularly in the Middle and 
Great Periods, as by Initial Series, and finally that the Initial Series fre- 
quently precede the corresponding contemporaneous dates by several years 
or decades, and in a few instances even by many centuries. 
