instead, barbara and bill fash think it might symbolize a family or region on the king's council. what we think is they were sending in their head person, their head person of the mat, to be here at the main community house in the central part of the site core. and here they were conferring and meeting with the head ruler at the time. keach: so this fish, like the other glyphs between the mats, might name a member of the king's council. but these glyphs have also been interpreted as religious icons. the symbolism is not specific enough to confirm that the building is indeed a council house. archaeologists cast a still wider net to look at other evidence of life in eighth century copan. 18 rabbit had been captured and killed. the hieroglyphic staircase was built by his successors in an attempt to restore their prestige. was the council house also a reaction to the death of 18 rabbit ? moving away from the royal center, archaeologists turn their attention to the important families of the copan valley. how powerful were the heads of these lineages ? might they have sat in council wit

keach: project artist barbara fash works with students to reconstruct a complete picture of the fragments. i think it looks good. keach: fash drew a reconstruction of the sculptures on the building's facade. quality work like this usually adorned only the palaces of maya kings, but here was significant non-royal wealth. did it belong to the lineage as a whole, or to one individual ? the final clue was found inside. these large raised platforms covered with white plaster are the sleeping benches once used by the lineage head. this was the palace of a nobleman surrounded by the small houses of his poor relatives. webster: we've got the other end over here. we've got a lot of the stones. keach: how did the lineage head rise so dramatically above his low-ranking kin ? individuals or groups usually acquire power by gaining control of an essential but scarce resource. webster and sanders want to identify that resource and understand how it was controlled. in agricultural societies, the scarce resource is either water or land. webster and sanders wonder -- might modern land use help explain the

artist barbara fash has been drawing each glyph on the stairway in an effort to reassemble them in correct order. fash: we've been doing this now for over the past 10 years, recording what's left of the hieroglyphic stairway. as you can see, it's deteriorating very rapidly, and we're losing very important information. what we're hoping to do is be able to put it in order, and that way we'll be able to have a better idea of what the hieroglyphic stairway actually said. keach: fash's work is already paying off. it is now clear that this is a kind of ancient media blitz -- a stone billboard recalling all the great deeds of copan's kings, including eighteen rabbit. it was propaganda, and it was probably effective. the royal dynasty continued, and the king who built the stairway lived a long and prosperous life. but to william fash, the king is trying to compensate for a serious problem. the mere fact that he would have to go to such enormous lengths and produce this grandiose statement just to regain the confidence of his people to me does not show strength in the system. to me it indicates a