It should be noted here that in the inscriptions and in the Dresden
Codex, the day Ymix was always the day 4, 9, 14, or 19 of any month,
showing that the day 1 of the month was Eznab, Akbal, Lamat, or Ben;
while in Landa and the Books of Chilan Balam the day Ymix was the day 3,
8, 13, or 18, showing that the day 1 of the month was Cauac, Kan, Muluc,
or Ix. That is, the months in modern times began with the day which
followed the day with which the months began in more ancient times. As
the tables are calculated for the inscriptions, it will be well, in
order to facilitate our calculations, to call the day on which Ahpula
died the nineteenth of the month Zip, instead of the eighteenth of that
month.
Given that the katun consisted of 7200 days, a Katun 13 Ahau could not
recur until after the lapse of 13 × 7200 or 93,600 days, and the
recurrence of any day marked by the year-and-month count, and occupying
any particular place in a given katun, could not occur until after the
lapse of a period which is found by finding the least common multiple of
the two numbers 93,600 and 18,980. This is 6,832,800 days, which is a
period of 360 calendar rounds of 18,980 days or of 52 years each. This
is equal to 18,720 years, and, in the method of reckoning shown in the
initial dates of the inscriptions, would equal 3 grand cycles, 8 cycles,
and 9 katuns, or, to use the method of Goodman, 3.8.9.0.0.0.
I have said that a day marked by the year-and-month count, and occupying
any particular place in a given katun, could not recur until the lapse
of this long period. This would be true if the day was specified as
being a given day in a given tun in a given katun, or even if the day
was stated as falling in a given uinal of a given tun in a given katun.
But in the case before us the death of Ahpula is said to have taken
place in the Katun 13 Ahau when six tuns or years of that katun remained
unexpired. Even with this rather loose designation such a day would not
recur within a period of 3500 or 4000 years.
The day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu seems to have been regarded as the beginning day
of the beginning cycle of some grand cycle. From this day all the
initial series of the inscriptions of Copan and Quirigua, of Piedras
Negras and Tikal, so far as we know them, count, except one where this
day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu is itself given. In this place (on Stela C of
Quirigua) 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu is reckoned thus: "Grand cycle glyph
.13.0.0.0.0.", while in the Temple of the Cross it is declared to be a
thirteenth cycle. As this was the beginning date, there is reason to
believe that the beginning cycle of a great cycle received the number
13.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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