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Honduras: 'Stela at Copan' (Mayan Civilization, Central America). Frederick Catherwood (1799 - 1854), Sepia wash over graphite, 1843

Honduras: 'Stela at Copan' (Mayan Civilization, Central America). Frederick Catherwood (1799 - 1854), Sepia wash over graphite, 1843

Copán is an archaeological site of the Maya civilization located in the Copan Department of western Honduras, not far from the border with Guatemala. It was the capital city of a major Classic period kingdom from the 5th to 9th centuries CE. The city was located in the extreme southeast of the Mesoamerican cultural region, on the frontier with the Isthmo-Colombian cultural region, and was almost surrounded by non-Maya peoples.

Copan was occupied for more than two thousand years, from the Early Preclassic period to the Postclassic. The city developed a distinctive sculptural style within the tradition of the lowland Maya, perhaps to emphasize the Maya ethnicity of the city's rulers.

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