Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex: with a Concluding Note Upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya GlyphsGates, William
History
Commentary Upon the Maya-Tzental Perez Codex: with a Concluding Note Upon the Linguistic Problem of the Maya Glyphs
Gates, William
Codex Peresianus; Maya language -- Texts; Mayas -- History
These four pages are laid out with three main divisions, upper, middle
and lower. Too much of the upper section is erased for any comment other
than that its arrangement seems to have been parallel in all respects
with the middle section. This latter shows three subsections, the
backgrounds in some cases being red,[24-*] containing each a picture
(probably of a god or a human figure in every instance), surmounted by a
black and a red numeral and by six glyphs, in double column. This gives
12 subsections for the four pages, which we may refer to respectively as
15-_a_, _b_, _c_, etc. Of the initial pairs of glyphs in each subsection
many are complete, and no section is left without the correct traces of
the corresponding glyph for one or other of the positions; so that
although 5 of the 24 glyphs are totally erased, we may safely restore
them all. Other features of the comparative use and frequency of the
glyphs on these pages have already been given.
At the top of each picture is found a black and a red numeral. These
form the consecutive black “counters” or interval numbers, and the
corresponding red day numbers of subdivided tonalamatls, so common in
Dres. and Tro.-Cort. It is customary to find these tonalamatls divided
into fifths or fourths, 52 or 65 days respectively--four or five
trecenas. At the 53rd or 66th day the initial red number is again
reached, and the calculation is (by hypothesis) repeated, starting again
at the left with a new day-sign below the first. Such a column is seen
in the lower part of page 17, where we find 6 Oc, Ik, Ix; these are to
be completed by restoring below an erased Cimi and Ezanab, completing
the 260 days and bringing us around again to 6 Oc. The total of all the
black “counters” in any series must always be some multiple of 13,
usually 52 or 65, as stated. And since each “counter” is the interval
between its adjoining red numbers, wherever a red and a black number are
given, the other red number, whether before or after, can always be
filled in.
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