Was the Beginning Day of the Maya Month Numbered Zero (or Twenty) or One?Bowditch, Charles P. (Charles Pickering)
History
Was the Beginning Day of the Maya Month Numbered Zero (or Twenty) or One?
Bowditch, Charles P. (Charles Pickering)
Maya calendar
In the Inscriptions there are not very many cases where the month has
the zero or twenty sign attached to it, and there are still fewer cases
where this occurs in a position where the question can be decided from
the context as to whether the 0 or 20 is the last day of one month or
the beginning day of the next month.
On the inscription of the Temple of the Cross at Palenque, however, we
have a month date which is 5 Ahau 3 Tzec. This is on R S 10. On R 8 to
9 we find 1.16.7.17., if the thumb with the katun glyph means 1, as it
almost surely does. Counting forward this number of days from 5 Ahau 3
Tzec, we should reach 5 Caban 20 Zip if the month begins with 1, or 5
Caban 0 or 20 Zotz if the beginning day is 0 or 20. On S 12 R 13 is 5
Caban 0 or 20 Zotz. The form of the number glyph cannot fail to recall
that of the similar glyphs in the Dresden Codex.
De Rosny has given in his "Compte-Rendu d'une Mission Scientifique,"
published in the "Mémoires de la Société d'Ethnographie," an admirable
reproduction of the wooden inscription which came from Tikal. On Plate
12 of this work we find on A B 1, 3 Ahau 3 Mol, and on B 2 A 3, we have
2.11.12. By counting forward this number of days from 3 Ahau 3 Mol we
reach 6 Eb 0 or 20 Pop, if the month begins with 0 or 20, but 6 Eb 5
Uayeb if the month begins with 1. This is a particularly strong case,
for the month is surely Pop and the number is certainly not 5, and is
like those of the manuscripts and of the Temple of the Cross, which we
have just commented on and which are in all probability 0 or 20.
Again, on a part of a doorway in El Cayo, on C D 3 we find 13 Cimi 19
Zotz; on H 3 G 4 is a number which seems to be 8.18.6. Counting forward
we reach 9 Eb 20 Uo, if the month begins with 1, or 9 Eb 0 or 20 Zip,
if the months begin with 0 or 20. Although the glyphs for Uo and Zip
resemble each other, yet the date on I J 1 is clearly 9 Eb 0 or 20 Zip.
It should be said, however, that the number on H 3 G 4 is somewhat
effaced and very unusual, in showing 18 uinals, and that there is
another date 5 ? 3 Yaxkin on E F 3.
On the other hand the inscription of the Temple of the Cross shows us
on D 3 C 4, 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, and on D 5 C 6, is 1.9.2., which is equal
to 1 year 177 days. Counting forward this number of days from 4 Ahau 8
Cumhu we reach 13 Ik 20 Mol, if the month begins with 1, or 0 or 20
Chen, if the month begins with 0 or 20. On C D 9 we find 13 Ik ? Mol.
However, on D 13 to C 15 we have the long number 1.18.3.12.0., which
counted forward from 13 Ik 20 Mol brings us to 9 Ik 15 Zac, which is
not found anywhere near by. But if we count forward this number from 13
Ik 0 or 20 Chen, we should reach 9 Ik 15 Ceh, which is found on E F 1.
It would seem, therefore, that the glyph for Mol had been carved in
error for that of Chen.
Other cases where 0 or 20 probably occur before the month sign are the
following:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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