These are in the Temple of the Cross at Palenque and on the east side of
Stela C at Quirigua. In these two cases, if the long numbers expressed in
terms of cycles, katuns, tuns, uinals, and kins are reduced to kins, and
counted forward from the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, the starting point of Maya
chronology, in neither case will the recorded terminal day of the Initial
Series be reached; hence these two Initial Series could not have had the
day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu as their starting point. It may be noted here that these
two Initial Series are the only ones throughout the inscriptions known at
the present time which are not counted from the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu.[77]
However, by counting _backward_ each of these long numbers from their
respective terminal days, 8 Ahau 18 Tzec, in the case of the Palenque
Initial Series, and 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, in the case of the Quirigua Initial
Series, it will be found that both of them proceed from the same starting
point, a date 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, exactly 13 cycles in advance of the starting
point of Maya chronology. Or, in other words, the starting point of all
Maya Initial Series save two, was exactly 13 cycles later than the starting
point of these two. Because of this fact and the fact that the cycles were
numbered from 1 to 13, inclusive, as shown above, Mr. Bowditch and Mr.
Goodman have reached the conclusion that in the inscriptions only 13 cycles
were required to make 1 great cycle.
It remains to present the points against this hypothesis, which seem to
indicate that the great cycle in the inscriptions contained the same number
of cycles (20) as in the codices:
1. In the codices where six orders (great cycles) are recorded it takes 20
of the 5th order (cycles) to make 1 of the 6th order. This absolute
uniformity in a strict vigesimal progression in the codices, so similar in
other respects to the inscriptions, gives presumptive support at least to
the hypothesis that the 6th order in the inscriptions was formed in the
same way.
2. The numerical system in both the codices and inscriptions is identical
even to the slight irregularity in the second place, where only 18 instead
of 20 units were required to make 1 of the third place. It would seem
probable, therefore, that had there been any irregularity in the 5th place
in the inscriptions (for such the use of 13 in a vigesimal system must be
called), it would have been found also in the codices. {110}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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