In the inscriptions, however, there is some ground for believing that only
13 units of the 5th order (cycles), not 20, were required to make 1 unit of
the 6th order, or 1 great cycle. Both Mr. Bowditch (1910: App. IX, 319-321)
and Mr. Goodman (1897: p. 25) incline to this opinion, and the former, in
Appendix IX of his book, presents the evidence at some length for and
against this hypothesis.
This hypothesis rests mainly on the two following points:
1. That the cycles in the inscriptions are numbered from 1 to 13,
inclusive, and not from 0 to 19, inclusive, as in the case of all the other
periods except the uinal, which is numbered from 0 to 17, inclusive.
2. That the only two Initial Series which are not counted from the date 4
Ahau 8 Cumhu, the starting point of Maya chronology, are counted from a
date 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, which is exactly 13 cycles in advance of the former
date.
Let us examine the passages in the inscriptions upon which these points
rest. In three places[75] in the inscriptions the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu is
declared to have occurred at the end of a Cycle 13; that is, in these three
places this date is accompanied by an "ending sign" and a Cycle 13. In
another place in the inscriptions, although the starting point 4 Ahau 8
Cumhu is not itself expressed, the second cycle thereafter is declared to
have been a Cycle 2, not a Cycle 15, as it would have been had the cycles
been numbered from 0 to 19, inclusive, like all the other periods.[76] In
still another place the ninth cycle after the starting point (that is, the
end of a Cycle 13) is not a Cycle 2 in the _following_ great cycle, as
would be the case if the cycles were numbered from 0 to 19, inclusive, but
a Cycle 9, as if the cycles were numbered from 1 to 13. Again, the end of
the tenth cycle after the starting point is recorded in several places, but
not as Cycle 3 of the following great cycle, as if the cycles were numbered
from 0 to 19, inclusive, but as Cycle 10, as would be the case if the
cycles were numbered from 1 to 13. The above examples leave little doubt
that the cycles were numbered from 1 to 13, inclusive, and not from 0 to
19, as in the case of the other periods. Thus, there can be no question
concerning the truth of the first of the two above points on which this
hypothesis rests. {109}
But because this is true it does not necessarily follow that 13 cycles made
1 great cycle. Before deciding this point let us examine the two Initial
Series mentioned above, as _not_ proceeding from the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu,
but from a date 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, exactly 13 cycles in advance of the former
date.
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