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
[41-*] See _Memoranda on the Chilam Balam Calendars_, C. P. Bowditch,
1901. The obscurities of the Chronicles render the questions connected
with Ahpula’s death exceedingly difficult. For instance, the immediate
context in the books of Mani and Tizimin make the date 1536, as given in
numerals, an impossible one. But, if the date as given in _Maya terms_
is to be accepted at all (and it certainly is too specific to be
rejected), then by the long count such a date _must_ have been either
1502, 5350, or 12,786 years after the date of Stela 9, Copan. Mr.
Bowditch favors the lower figure, chiefly because it is the lower, and
thus puts Stela 9 at A. D. 34. To get this date the longest possible
distance from Ahpula’s death to the end of the katun must be used--that
is, “6 tuns short” must be taken to mean “almost 7 tuns short.” I can
only say here that if, in correcting the figures 1536, as demanded by
the immediate context, we make the simplest possible correction, and put
them one katun earlier, 1516, and then take as the unexpired time to the
end of the katun the shortest of the three terms given as possible, or 5
tuns 139 days, bringing the end of Katun 13-Ahau on Jan. 28, 1522, we
not only bring the end of Katun 11-Ahau within the year 1541, as is most
positively stated by the practically contemporary Pech Chronicle, but we
also bring in line nearly all the important events of the Chronicles,
from the fall of Mayapan, ca. 1450, the coming of the Spaniards, and the
smallpox, in 11-Ahau (1521 to 1541), the conversion to Christianity in
9-Ahau, down to Landa’s death (1579) in 7-Ahau; as well as many outside
references. Any other combination requires harsher emendations somewhere
else. But the above choice of the term of 5 tuns 139 days, thus
seemingly called for, means that Stela 9 at Copan is dated, by the long
count, 5350 years before Ahpula’s death, or B. C. 3824. Whether this is
right, is a question for the future.
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