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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



so far as the length of the katun is con- 

 cerned, but by another system of naming 

 the katuns the danger of confusing the 

 260-year cycles is overcome. Dates 

 in the archaic calendar are exact over 

 vast stretches of time. The most valu- 

 able data are found in what is called 

 Initial Series and of these over fifty 

 have been deciphered. The Initial Se- 

 ries is really a number which records the 

 days which intervene between a begin- 

 ning day, in all cases the same, and the 

 day given in the inscription. We count 

 the years from the birth of Christ, the 

 Maya count the days from a beginning 



day that according to our system falls 

 about 3600 b. c. Nearly all the Initial 

 Series dates known occur at the southern 

 cities of the Maya area but one very 

 important date of this sort occurs at 

 Chichen Itza. Indeed it is this date 

 which has made possible a correlation 

 of the archaic Maya calendar with the 

 calendar used in the Books of Chilan 

 Balam. 



But dates that are simply dates mean 

 very little; to be of value they must be 

 associated with events. Now while we 

 can read the dates in Maya inscriptions, 

 we can do verv little with the remaining 



Photo by F. M. Chapman 

 Temple of the Tables showing sculptured door jambs and stone figure used as altar support 



