700 MAYAN CALENDAR SYSTEMS [ETH. ANN. 19 
announces certain discoveries in regard to the signification and use of 
characters in the inscriptions, which, if verified, will materially modify 
previous opinions in regard thereto and will bear on future attempts at 
interpretation of the inscriptions; he also announces other discoveries 
tending to show that the opinions hitherto held in regard to the Maya 
time system are erroneous in many respects; and since these announce- 
ments form part of Mr Maudslay’s great work, Biologia Centrali- 
Americana, a review of the entire subject would seem timely. 
The present paper will be limited to an examination of the time 
and numeral symbols, time counts and time systems of the Mayan 
tribes, as indicated by the codices and inscriptions, and will avoid, so far 
as is possible, rediscussion of points considered as satisfactorily settled 
previous to the appearance of Mr Goodman’s memoir entitled The 
Archaic Maya Inscriptions (1897). The discussion will be based on a 
personal examination of the Dresden codex and the inscriptions, the 
former in Dr Férstemann’s photographic reproduction and the latter 
chiefly in the magnificent photographic (autotype) reproductions by 
A. P. Maudslay in the archologic portion of his Biologia Centrali- 
Americana; but the actual examinations have extended to all the more 
important Mayan inscriptions in the U.S. National Museum, the Pea- 
body Museum in Cambridge, the collection of the American Anti- 
quarian Society in Worcester, the American Museum of Natural 
History in New York, and the Museum of Archeology connected with 
the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia.* The discussion will 
be conducted in the light of the recent discoveries, some of which 
will, as we proceed, appear to be valid and of great importance in the 
study of Central American paleography. As one object in view will 
be to test Mr Goodman’s interpretations, his work will be used in 
analyzing the symbols of the inscriptions and the time systems of the 
Mayan tribes as a basis of comparison in regard to the several points 
of which it treats. I shall therefore have very frequent occasions 
to refer to it, not in the spirit of criticism, but simply in behalf of 
scientific accuracy, as well as of other workers, differing from him 
where I believe he is wrong and agreeing with him where I believe 
he is right. The mode of examination will be, so far as possible, by 
inspection of the glyphs and mathematical demonstration by means of 
the numeral symbols. 
In addition to the objects mentioned as in view in preparing this 
paper, it is expected that the comparisons and examinations to be 
made will show to some degree how far the glyphs found at Copan, 
Tikal, and Palenque, used as time and numeral symbols, agree as to 
form and signification, and how far they agree in these respects with 
the characters of the Dresden codex; and will also show whether or 

1Grateful acknowledgments are made to the officers of these institutions for 
courteous assistance. 
