![]() She surmised that the glyph that appears next to the earliest date on the stela, informally dubbed the "upended frog" glyph, referred to the birth of the king, and the glyph that appears next to the second date, dubbed the "toothache" glyph, referred to the day when the king ascended the throne. Proskouriakoff noticed that some of the dates on each stela in a series were identical to each other, and that they were always followed by the same glyph. However, Proskouriakoff believed that these scenes symbolized a king ascending the throne, and that the other stelae in each series marked the passing of a five-year period, called a hotun, during the king's reign. At the time, most scholars believed the stelae were records of astronomical events and the figures in the niches were gods. Glyphs, including some that referred to specific dates, were carved in various places on the monuments. Below the niche the carvings depicted footprints ascending a ladder. Above each niche were carvings of astronomical signs and a grotesque bird figure. Inside that niche was the image of an elaborately costumed person sitting on a cushion. ![]() Her research showed that the stelae could be separated into seven "series," each of which began with a stela that had a niche carved into it. In 1960, art historian Tatiana Proskouriakoff published a systematic study of the glyphs on more than 40 large rectangular monuments called stelae that had been erected at Piedras Negras. Some of the most important clues that led to deciphering ancient Maya glyphs came from the carved stone monuments at Piedras Negras and Yaxchilan.
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