In a few cases Cycle-10 ending dates have been found. Some of these are
surely "contemporaneous," that is, the monuments upon which they appear
really date from Cycle 10, while others are as surely "prophetic," that is,
the monuments upon which they are found antedate Cycle 10. Examples of both
kinds follow.
In plate 22, _E_, is figured a Period-ending date from Stela 8 at
Copan.[216] Glyphs 1 and 2 declare the date 7 Ahau 18 ?, the month sign in
glyph 2 being effaced. In glyph 3 is recorded Cycle 10, the cycle sign
being expressed by its corresponding head variant. Note the clasped hand,
the essential characteristic of the cycle head. Above this appears the same
ending sign as that shown in figure 37, _a-h_, and it would seem probable,
therefore, that these three glyphs record the end of Cycle 10. Let us test
this by changing the Period-ending date in glyph 3 into its corresponding
Initial-series number and then solving this for the resulting terminal
date. Since the end of a cycle is here indicated, the katun, tun, uinal,
and kin coefficients must be 0 and the Initial-series number will be,
therefore, 10.0.0.0.0. Reducing this to units of the first order and
applying the rules indicated in such cases, the resulting terminal date
will be found to be 7 Ahau 18 Zip. But this agrees exactly with the date
recorded in glyphs 1 and 2 so far as the latter go, and since the two agree
so far as they go, we may conclude that glyphs 1-3 in plate 22, _E_,
express "Cycle 10 ending on the date 7 Ahau 18 Zip." Although this is a
comparatively late date for Copan, the writer is inclined to believe that
it was "contemporaneous" rather than "prophetic."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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