The Discovery of Mayan Ruins

George Gordon sits next to a figure seated on a throne on the Hieroglyphic Stairway, Copan, Honduras, 1900.

Photograph of Copán taken by A.P. Maudslay.

Zoomorph B (also known as Monument 2), south face, date 780 AD. Discovered by Alfred Maudslay.

Stela E, Quiriguá, Guatemala. Photo by Maudslay.

Lorenzo Giuntini and assistants creating a plaster mold of Zoomorph P at Quirigua, Guatemala, 1883.

Zoomorph P at Quirigua, Guatemala, 1883.

Stela 1 at Copan, Honduras, as found by Alfred P. Maudslay, 1880s. A Honduran man stands next to the stela for scale.

Stela D (also known as Monument 4), dated AD 766. “The inscription on each side of the Stela is headed by an initial series of six squares of picture-writing”, Alfred Maudslay noted of this monument.

Stela D, dated AD 766. The figure depicted on the craving is that of K’ak’ Tiliw Chan Yopaat, ruler of Quirigua in the mid-eighth century.

Zoomorph G, dated AD 785. The monument is now understood by scholars to represent a “Waterlily Jaguar” with human figures wearing headdresses emerging from both ends.

Quiriguá, a man standing with his right hand resting on Stela E, east side. 1894.