Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices: Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-85, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 253-372Thomas, Cyrus
History
Aids to the Study of the Maya Codices: Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1884-85, Government Printing Office, Washington, 1888, pages 253-372
Thomas, Cyrus
Codex Dresdensis Maya; Maya language
For example, taking the fifth column of numbers (the one having 3 for the
top figure) and counting down nine days from the top number we reach the
number 12. This will be 12 Lamat if a Cauac year, 12 Been if a Kan year,
12 Ezanab if a Muluc year, and 12 Akbal if an Ix year. Therefore it is
necessary in counting to refer always to the year (year column) with
which the count begins. So long as the particular year referred to is
unknown (as is Usually the case, the day series being apparently of
general rather than of special application) it is immaterial which day
column is selected, as the result will be the same with any. This will be
apparent if we bear in mind that, when 260 days with their numbers
attached have been written down in proper order as a series, we have
therein all the possible combinations of days and numbers. This, it is
true, does not give us all the months and years (to include these it is
necessary to write out fifty-two entire years), but the same series of
numerals will be applicable to each of the four year series (Kan, Muluc,
Ix, and Cauac years). As any one of the thirteen figure columns of the
table may be taken as the commencement of a year and any of the four day
columns may be used, it is apparent that we have all the possible
combinations (4 × 13 = 52).
I say above that "it is necessary in counting to refer always to the year
(year column) which the count begins." This I admit does not agree with
the generally received idea of the Maya calendar, upon which Table II is
constructed, as, according to this theory (which I have accepted in my
previous papers), after passing through a year of one series
(corresponding with one of the day columns of the table), we should enter
upon a year of the next series; for example, when the year 1 Kan is
completed we should enter upon the year 2 Muluc.
Although this calendar system seems to have been in vogue at the time of
the conquest and is indicated in one or two of the codices, and possibly
in the one now under consideration, the chronological series of the
latter, as will hereafter appear, do not seem to be based upon it or to
agree with it.
These explanations, with the further statement that the lines in the
codex are to be read from left to right and the columns from the top
downward, except where variations from this rule are noted, will enable
the reader to follow the discussion. Another reason for using a table
with only thirteen columns (though it would be difficult to devise a
combined calendar of any other form) is that the 260 days they contain
form one complete cycle, which, as will appear in the course of this
discussion, was one of the chief periods in Maya time computations.
Examining Plates 33 to 39 of the codex the reader will observe that the
line already alluded to extends continuously through division _c_,
commencing with the two characters over the figure (picture) in the lower
right hand corner of Plate 33.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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