The two rows of hieroglyphs are in the main destroyed. We can still
recognize in the second and third columns of page 51 the signs for end and
beginning, which we often find in the vicinity of numbers; in the second
and third columns of page 52, the sun and moon; in the fourth column, the 8
days of such significance here and in the fifth and sixth, the normal date
IV Ahau 8 Cumhu repeated twice.
As the problem on pages 46-50 was to bring into accord the solar year with
the Venus year and consequently also the Tonalamatl, _i.e._, to combine
365, 584 and 260, so the aim here is first of all to bring the Tonalamatl
into unison with the Mercury year (115). For this purpose the number 11,960
is employed. This is equal to 46 × 260 = 104 × 115, including, therefore
just as many Mercury years as there were solar years in the preceding
section. 11,960 is also 8 × 1495, and this 8 is significant here, for, as
we shall see directly, the day forming the basis of this calculation is XII
Lamat, which comes 8 days after the normal date IV Ahau.
The series given here is based, therefore, on 11,960 and consists entirely
of multiples of this number, which, it is true, are recorded with the usual
irregularity. The members of this series, representing the greatest values,
which are set down in red numbers among the black, are the 31st and 39th
multiples of 11,960, which are separated from each other by 8 × 11,960,
viz:--370,760 and 466,440. All these numbers, of course, denote the day IV
Ahau.
The day XII Lamat as the actual starting-point of the Mercury revolution is
not introduced until we come to the dates placed below the series. Here we
find the days XII Lamat, I Akbal, III Ezanab, V Ben and VII Lamat written
one below the other, and repeated seven times. Each of these days is
separated from the next by 15, and the last of one row and the first of the
next on the left are 200 days apart, hence the whole is equal to 7 × 260 =
1820 days. From XII Lamat begins also the Peresianus, pages 21-22.
Now these dates are connected with the four large numbers, which we find on
page 52, but between the third and fourth, one number corresponding to the
day V Ben is omitted for lack of space.
These four numbers, to which I have added the corresponding dates, are as
follows:--
1,412,848 = XII Lamat I Muan (6 Muluc).
1,412,863 = I Akbal 16 Muan (6 Muluc).
1,412,878 = III Ezanab 11 Pax (6 Muluc).
1,434,748 = VII Lamat I Muan (1 Muluc).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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