436 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
Mani, and doubtfully to 9.13.0.0.0 on the basis of the chronicle in the 
Tizimin manuscript. 
One other point in connection with figure 69 remains to be discussed. 
The small stela found by Spinden and the writer at El Pabellon on the west 
bank of the Usumacinta River in 1914, bearing the early date 9.10.0.0.0, 
has been regarded as belonging to the same settlement as Altar de Sacrificios 
on the opposite side of the river a kilometer above. This is an early date, 
and since there are two other monuments at Altar de Sacrificios not more 
than 10 years later, as well as a considerable number of mounds, the latter 
not being found at El Pabellén, and since it is unlikely that at this early 
date there would have been two different settlements so close together, El 
Pabell6n and Altar de Sacrificios have been grouped together as one settle- 
ment in figure 69. 
. As already stated, figure 69 shows that Uaxactun is the oldest Maya 
city known (8.14.10.13.15), and in addition it would appear to have been 
occupied longer than any other, 492 years. Tikal comes next in length of 
occupation, 381 years (9.2.13.0.0); and if it is assumed that the earlier stele 
there (Stele 8 and 9g for example) carry back the monumental sequence 
at least 52 years earlier, 7.¢., to the beginning of Cycle 9, as the writer believes, 
its period of occupation is 433 years. But, as we have already seen, these 
two cities are not more than 25 or 30 kilometers apart, and were doubtless 
inhabited by people of the same tribe, and were possibly under one ruler. 
If so, we may group them together in this comparison, and extend the occu- 
pation of Uaxactun-Tikal to 541 years, 1. ¢., from 8.14.10.13.15 to 10.2.0.0.0. 
Copan, although at least a century and probably a century and a half 
later than Uaxactun-Tikal, comes next both in antiquity (9.2.10.0.0) and in 
length of occupation, surely 325 years, or 345 years if the date suggested for 
of Stela 20 is accepted as correct (9.1.10.0.0). 
For the next 120 to 140 years Copan and Uaxactun-Tikal appear to 
have been the only centers of the Maya people; indeed, only three other 
cities, so far as known, were founded in the Early Period—Piedras Negras 
in 9.8.15.0.0! and Naranjo and Altar de Sacrificios-El Pabellon in 9.10.0.0.0, 
just at the close of the period. 
A survey of the Maya culture area at the end of the Early Period shows 
only five centers of population in existence, although the distribution of these 
is such as to indicate that even at this early date the general region of the Old 
Empire had been fairly well defined, Copan being on the southeastern frontier, 
Uaxactun-Tikal and the newly founded Naranjo in the northern part, and 
Piedras Negras and Altar de Sacrificios-E] Pabell6on in the western part (see 
plate 1); and we may doubtless regard these cities, with the exception possibly 
of the last, as capitals in their respective sections, centers from which the 
occupation of the surrounding regions was effected. 

1 There isa possibility that the earliest date at Piedras Negras may be 60 or 70 years earlier than this, Stela 29 
possibly dating from as early as 9.5.15.0.0 or 9.5.5.0.0. This monument is fragmentary and its date has not been 
exactly deciphered as yet. 
