792 MAYAN CALENDAR SYSTEMS [ETH. ANN. 19 
MR GOODMAN’S SYSTEM OF MAYAN CHRONOLOGY 
First, I will explain briefly Mr Goodman’s interpretation of the 
ancient Mayan system of chronology. It must, however, be borne in 
mind that his ‘tarchaic chronological calendar” or system is distinct 
from the well-known Mayan calendar system comprising years of 365 
days and 18 months, 52-year cycles, ete. 
Attention has already been called to his time periods from the day 
up to and including the cycle, and also to the fact that these are iden- 
tical with the orders of units in the Mayan system of notation, a fact 
which seems to negative the idea that they should be called time peri- 
ods. These periods, with his names and the values assigned them, 
are as follows: 
1 day. 
20 days make 1 chuen. 
18 chuen make 1 ahau. 
20 ahaus make 1 katun. 
20 katuns make 1| cycle. 
13 cycles make 1 great cycle. 
73 great cycles make the grand era. 
If we follow him carefully throughout his work, it becomes apparen’ 
that. after he had arrived at the conclusion that the orders of units or 
steps in notation were veritable chronologic periods, it was a natural 
consequence that he should conceive the idea that the system must reach 
back to a number or period that would round out evenly as a great 
common multiple of all the lower factors. This is apparent from the 
following passage near the commencement of his paper: ' 
Ii, as is probable, a more satisfactory answer should be found by many in the 
assertion that I am in error as to such an era, and I be asked how I know that it 
exists, my reply would be that it is self-evident. Its existence is established by all 
the certainty of mathematical demonstration. The evidence of the inscription does 
not go hand in hand with us to the ultimate destination, but it leads us far on the 
journey, and leaves us only when it has pointed out an unmistakable way to the final 
goal, which an intellectual necessity compels us to reach before we can rest satisfied. 
The inscriptions show us that every separate chronological period must be rounded 
out to completeness before the calendar itself can be complete. We see the years, 
ahaus, and katuns come back to their respective starting-points, thus rounding out 
the periods of which they are the units. Of necessity the eycles and great eycles 
must do the same, else the system would be an incomplete creation, without form 
and void. No fair-minded person, I think, will contend that the Mayas elaborated 
almost to its conclusion a design not only susceptible of but inviting the most perfect 
finish and then willfully or blindly left it disproportioned and awry. If they did not 
do this—a thing alien and repugnant to human nature—then their grand era embraces 
374,400 years. There are two unmistakable indices pointing to this conclusion. The 
moment the cycle and great cycle appear upon the scene we know by the unchange- 
able law governing the calendar that they must go forward until they commence 


1The Archaic Maya Inscriptions, p. 6. 
