428 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
doubtfully dated and unimportant inscribed steps on the southern side of 
Mound 2. Work was doubtless being pushed forward on the whole Acropolis 
complex from 9.14.0.0.0 to 9.16.5.0.0, at which latter date we have seen 
Mound 26, Temple 26, the Hieroglyphic Stairway, and Stela M were all 
completed and dedicated, and during the next 15 years the series of mag- 
nificent temples surrounding the Eastern and Western Courts, 11, 16, 18, 19, 
21, 21a, and 22, were erected, which amply accounts for the almost complete 
absence of inscriptions dating from these 45 years, elsewhere so productive. 
Another factor which may have tended to cut down the output of 
inscriptions at Copan during the closing decade of the Middle Period is 
the possible absorption of her resources in the colonization of the neighboring 
city of Quirigua, probably by emigrants from Copan, in 9.14.13.4.17, and 
additions thereto in 9.15.6.14.6, the latter date being actually recorded at 
both sites. 
All lines of evidence point to this fact. In the first place, Quirigua is 
not more than 60 kilometers north of Copan in an air-line, but is several 
hundred kilometers south of the nearest large Maya city to the north. 
Again, the art and architecture of the two cities are practically identical; 
indeed, the art of Copan and Quirigua shows closer relationship in technique 
as well as in subject-matter than does that of any other two cities in the Old 
Empire. Finally, the dates at Quirigua indicate that it was founded in 
9.14.13.4.17, a fact substantiated in a general way by the art there, which 
shows no archaistic features whatsoever, but even on the earliest monuments 
is already perfected and in full flower. 
The writer believes the earliest monument at Quirigia is Altar M, 
dating either from 9.15.0.0.0 or 9.15.3.2.0, some 7 or I0 years after the city 
was founded. Even assuming that the colonists came fully equipped from 
Copan, it would probably have taken them at least that time to have felled 
the forest, put the land under cultivation, laid out their city, located the 
quarries, taken out and transported the stone, and finally to have carved 
the first monument. Indeed, the first hotun-ending commemorated by the 
erection of a stela was 9.15.15.0.0, 15 years later, although after this latter 
date not a single hotun-ending is omitted in the monumental sequence for the 
next 65 years. 
It appears as not unlikely that the probable foundation of Quirigua by 
colonists from Copan in or about 9.14.13.4.17 withdrew from the mother-city 
a number of her skilled artisans, especially stone-workers, masons, and 
sculptors, and this, coupled with the fact that the work on the Acropolis 
was also drawing heavily on the resources of the tribe, doubtless explains 
the absence of inscriptions from the closing katun of the Middle Period, and 
with few exceptions from the opening katun of the Great Period. 
The century from 9.10.0.0.0 to 9.15.0.0.0 was an important one for this 
southern branch of the Maya. During the previous period the tribe had 
grown beyond the capacity of its original capital at Group 9, and during the 
