A3B3 = 1 × 144,000 = 144,000
A4B4 = 18 × 7,200 = 129,600
A5B5 = 5 × 360 = 1,800
A6B6 = 3 × 20 = 60
A7B7 = 6 × 1 = 6
-------
275,466
Deducting from this number all the Calendar Rounds possible, 14 (see Table
XVI), and applying rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. 139, 140, and 141), respectively,
to the remainder, the terminal date reached will be 13 Cimi 19 Ceh. If this
inscription is regular, the day part of the above date should follow in A8
B8, the former expressing the coefficient and the latter the day sign.
Comparing A8 with the head numerals in figures 51-53, it will be found to
be like the second variant for 13 in figure 52, _x-b'_, the essential
element of which seems to be the pendulous nose surmounted by a curl, the
protruding mouth fang, and the large bulging eye. Comparing the glyph in B8
with the day signs in figure 16, it will be seen that the form here
recorded is the day sign Cimi (fig. 16, _h, i_). Therefore A8 B8 expresses
the day 13 Cimi. The month glyph is recorded very irregularly in this text,
since it occurs neither immediately after the Supplementary Series or the
day sign, but the second glyph after the day sign, in B9. A comparison of
this form with figure 19, _u-v_, shows that the month Ceh is recorded here.
The coefficient is 19. Why the glyph in A9 should stand between the day and
its month glyph is unknown; this case constitutes one of the many unsolved
problems in the study of the Maya glyphs. This whole Initial Series reads
1.18.5.3.6 13 Cimi 19 Ceh.
The student will note that this Initial Series records a date 14 days
earlier than the preceding Initial Series (pl. 12, _A_). That two dates
should be recorded which were within 14 days of each other, and yet were
more than 3,000 years earlier than practically all other Maya dates, is a
puzzling problem. These two Initial Series from the Temple of the Sun and
that of the Foliated Cross at Palenque, together with a Secondary-series
date from the Temple of the Cross in the same city, have been thoroughly
reviewed by Mr. Bowditch (1906). The conclusions he reaches and the
explanation he offers to account for the occurrence of three dates so
remote as these are very reasonable, and, the writer believes, will be
generally accepted by Maya students. {183}
[Illustration: FIG. 69. Initial Series showing head-variant numerals and
period glyphs: _A_, House C of the Palace Group at Palenque; _B_, Stela P
at Copan.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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