2.19.13.4.0 5 Ahau 3 Pax 11.19.13.4.0 9 Ahau 8 Yax 12.19.13.4.0 8 Ahau 13 Pop If this text is perfectly regular and our calculations are correct, one of these three terminal dates will be found recorded, and the value of the cycle coefficient in A3 can be determined. The terminal date of this Initial Series is recorded in A8-B9 and the student will easily read it as 8 Ahau 18 Tzec. The only difference {206} between the day coefficient and the month coefficient is that the latter has a fleshless lower jaw, increasing its value by 10. Moreover, comparison of the month sign in B9 with _g_ and _h_, figure 19, shows unmistakably that the month here recorded is Tzec. But the terminal date as recorded does not agree with any one of the three above terminal dates as reached by calculation and we are forced to accept one of the two conclusions which confronted us in the preceding text (fig. 77, A): Either the starting point of this Initial Series is not the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, or there is some error in the original text.[181] Assuming that the ancient scribes made no mistakes in this inscription, let us count backward from the recorded terminal date, 8 Ahau 18 Tzec, each of the three numbers 2.19.13.4.0, 11.19.13.4.0, and 12.19.13.4.0, one of which, we have seen, is recorded in A3-B7. Reducing these numbers to units of the first order by means of Table XIII, and deducting all the Calendar Rounds possible from each (see Table XVI), and, finally, applying rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. 139, 140, and 141, respectively), to the remainders, the starting points will be found to be: 7 Ahau 3 Mol for 2.19.13.4.0 3 Ahau 18 Mac for 11.19.13.4.0 4 Ahau 8 Zotz for 12.19.13.4.0 Which of these starting points are we to accept as the one from which this number is counted? The correct answer to this question will give at the same time the value of the cycle coefficient, which, as we have seen, must be 2, 11, or 12. Most Maya students have accepted as the starting point of this Initial-series number the last of the three dates above given, 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, which involves also the identification of the cycle coefficient in A3 as 12. The writer has reached the same conclusion from the following points: 1. The cycle coefficient in A3, except for its very unusual headdress, is almost identical with the other two head-variant numerals, whose values are known to be 12. These three head numerals are shown side by side in figure 52, _t-v, t_ being the form in A3 above, inserted in this figure for the sake of comparison. Although these three heads show no single element or characteristic that is present in all (see p. 100), each is very similar to the other two and at the same time is dissimilar from all other head-variant numerals. This fact warrants the conclusion that the head in A3 represents the numeral 12, and if this is so the starting point of the Initial Series under discussion is 4 Ahau 8 Zotz.