430 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
1. Many of the Aztec codices, which were doubtless patterned after Maya 
models originally, are wholly historical in character. 
2. The Books of Chilan Balam, actual Maya redactions in the Spanish script 
of native Maya originals now lost, contain chronicles which are obviously copies of 
historical records in the Maya hieroglyphic writing. 
3. The direct statements of the Spanish chroniclers of the sixteenth and 
seventeenth centuries to the effect that the Maya had the practice of recording their 
history in their books. (See pp. 42, 43.) 
Whatever may have been the nature of this event, whether historical 
or astronomical, it was of sufficient importance that, 20 years later, its first 
katun anniversary, 9.17.12.5.17, although not a tun, hotun, lahuntun, or 
katun-ending, was commemorated by the erection of two monuments 
(Altar T and Stela 8) and possibly by a temple or hieroglyphic stairway 
(Fragment E’). 
After Stela N the hotun-endings at Copan appear to have been marked 
by larger constructions, such as Temple 21a or the Reviewing-stand in the 
Western Court, or by altars, the subsequent stele apparently being devoted 
to the record of tonalamatls, Calendar Rounds or other unusual counts. 
But the Acropolis was now nearing completion; as we have already 
seen, both the Eastern and Western Courts being finished in 9.17.0.0.0, 
and the last monument in the latter being erected either on the following 
hotun-ending, 9.17.5.0.0, or I5 years later, 9.18.0.0.0 (?).' Moreover, the 
occupation of the city itself was also now drawing to an end. In the tonala- 
matl from 9.17.12.0.0 to 9.17.12.13.0 the last five stele at Copan were erected, 
four in the Great Plaza at the Main Structure and the fifth a kilometer west 
of Old Copan at Group Io. 
This particular tonalamatl was of unusual importance, as has already 
been pointed out, since within its space fell the first katun anniversary of 
the important date 9.16.12.5.17. Two stele, C and H, were dedicated at the 
beginning of this tonalamatl, a third, Stela 8, commemorates the first katun 
anniversary of 9.16.12.5.17, and two others, F and 4, being dedicated at its 
end in 9.17.12.13.0, the latter being not only the latest but also the most 
beautiful of all the Copan stele. 
The three latest dates at Copan are the hotun-endings, 9.18.0.0.0, 
9.18.5.0.0, and 9.18.10.0.0, recorded on Altars W, Gs, and G, respectively, 
after which there are no later monuments, the inscriptions cease, the record 
becomes a blank, and the curtain falls for the last time on the scene of Maya 
activity in the valley, and indeed in the whole surrounding country. 
Doubtless the city was occupied for a few years longer, but some time 
during the next 20 years and before the beginning of Cycle 10 both Copan 
and Quirigua, and indeed most of the other Old Empire cities, were aban- 
doned, never to be reoccupied, and the Maya again set forth on another 
long exodus which finally brought them to other lands, other destinies, 
and five centuries later to their renaissance. 
1 The provenance of the monument presenting this date, Altar W, is doubtful. (See page 364). 
