Pauahtun were Atlantean figures who were believed to hold up the sky.
The northwest and northeast corners of Temple 11 once included the largest Pauahtun figures ever carved in the Maya area.
Schele & Freidel write that the huge hands of the Pauahtunob held up images of the Cosmic Monster which arched across the roof entablatures.
William L. Fash, Scribes, Warriors and Kings: The City of Copán and the Ancient Maya, p. 168
Proskouriakoff was the first to note that there were also dozens of fragments of the body of what must have been this gigantic crocodile, once held up by the Pauahtuns, lying around the base of Temple 11.
She continues: "Even in historic times, earthquakes have shaken the ruins, and now the beautifully carved fragments of its buildings lie scattered on the slopes of its pyramids like the pieces of a gigantic jigsaw puzzle in stone."
Part of an archaeologist's job requirements must surely include skill re-assembling complicated three-dimensional puzzles.