MEXICAN CALENDARS—SPINDEN 
the Maya day count on August 6, 
613 B. C. This basic date was part 
of my original explanation in the 
reduction of Maya chronology in 
1924. Ludendorff’s results coincide 
with those of the table given above, 
although his method of derivation 
might seem too sophisticated for use 
by the early Maya. 
The invention of the tzolkin and the 
decision to use the tun as third place 
value in numerical notation was made 
before the establishment of Baktun 7. 
The word baktun itself means 400 tun. 
The chronological establishment al- 
lowed 7400 tun for the unknown 
past and gave a formal starting point 
for historical reckoning. Actually 
Baktun 7 was not the first authentic 
Maya date, for a tenuous counting 
system extended back to the first 
eclipse of the Maya ephemeris already 
discussed. I write these eras: 
Era of the World: 13-0-0-0-0, 4 Ahau 8 
Cumhu, October 15, 3373 B. C. 
Era of History: 7-O—0-0-0, 10 Ahau 18 Zac, 
August 6, 613 B. C. 
Contemporary documentation is 
lacking. Nevertheless, I located in 
1930 two considerable sequences of 
eclipses on 12 Lamat. These were 
alternately solar and lunar, the first 
series containing the data in the 
break-down of the 11,960-day cycle 
shown above. The first series ran 
from (November) 10, °752>B> G2) to 
May 2, 555 B. C., as regards eclipses 
of the sun. The second series began 
after a lapse of 1,508 calendar years, 
as the equivalent of 1,507 tropical 
years, on May 2, A. D. 952. A grand 
round of the Maya civil calendar 
served here as an eclipse interval! 
This second series of 12 Lamat 
eclipses ran to January 15, A. D. 
1247, embracing the time when the 
Dresden Codex most probably was 
compiled. The explanation of these 
two widely separated historical places 
for eclipses on the same tzolkin days 
is seen in the recession of lunar nodes 
in respect to the double tzolkin. 
When this recession plus an eclipse 
half year amounted to 260 days, 
395 
eclipses were reestablished on their 
old day names. This is why term 10 
of the Lunar table, 31> 11960-+-260, 
makes it possible to handle eclipse 
matter across so many centuries. It 
was Dittrich who showed how the 
Maya themselves could reach the 12 
Lamat 1 Muan eclipse from Maya 
zero. 
Most probably counting days at the 
establishment of Baktun 7 merely 
combined tun numbering with tzolkin 
designation. The days of these eras 
are 4 Ahau and 10 Ahau, respectively. 
These days fall 140 and 160, positions 
after 1 Imix. When the tzolkin was 
established is uncertain. There were 
several eclipses on 1 Imix and others 
on 13 Ahau, one day earlier. 
But almost certainly month positions 
were not assigned to 4 Ahau and 10 
Ahau until after 580 B. C. When the 
Maya organized their civil calendar 
of 365 days, this was arranged to 
depart from the winter solstice, as 
O Pop. 
I return to the construction of 13 
and 7 seen in the names of the eras. 
Seven and thirteen are prime numbers 
which added together make 20, second 
place value in Maya notation of num- 
bers. This combination had a mysti- 
cal connotation for the Maya. The 
word for the 20-day period is uznal, 
derived from wo meaning moon. Sim- 
ple pictures of the moon have the 
value 20 or zero. Undoubtedly the 
moon or month gave rise to the second 
place value in some standardization 
of counting the bead-a-day record. 
It seems likely that the days of the 
sun were registered in shell beads of 
golden color and that white beads 
applied to the moon, Jade beads 
probably were used to mark the year. 
In the Song of the Uinal preserved 
in the Book of Chilam Balam of 
Chumayel, the uinal is given prefer- 
ence in the creation of time and 
matter. 
The uinal was created, the day, as it was 
called, was created, the heaven and earth 
were created, the stairway of water, the 
earth, rocks, and trees; the things of the sea 
and the things of the land were created. 
