THE TIME PERIODS OF THE MAYAS" 



By E. Forstemann 



Nature suggested only periods of 20 days to the Maya, because 

 these they could count on their fingers and toes, in four divisions of 

 five each. From this the representation in writing of all numbers up 

 to 20 followed as a matter of course. 



The second thing they obsei-ved was that the sun, and with it the 

 vegetation, returned to its former condition after about eighteen of 

 such 20-day periods. From this resulted the most ancient solar year, 

 consisting of 800 days, which hi later periods was always preserved 

 by the exceptional position of the 5 intercalary daj^s, but soon ceased 

 to be practically employed. 



Upon this is based the numeral system which was subsequently in 

 use, in wliich the unit of the second degree is 20 and that of the third 

 degree 360. That of the fourth degree (7,200) and that of the fifth 

 (144,000) had little or no relation to the actual year, and were prob- 

 ably added later without regard to the length of the year, although 

 the fourth degree may have given rise to the erroneous statement that 

 the Mayas counted by ahaus of 20 years. 



These various units were governed by ^'arious gods called " lords 

 of the cycle""; see "Lord of the C3^cle '' in Thomas's Study of the 

 Manuscript Troano, page 29. We find the heads of these lords of 

 the cycles of 144,000, 7,200, :')C)0, and 20 days, for instance, at the 

 beginning of the inscription on the Cross of Palenque (A and B, 

 3 to 6), together with the glyphs representing these periods. The 

 fifth period, the single day, has no head of a deity, but, quite appi'o- 

 priately, only the instrument of numeration, a hand with its five 

 fingers. The earliest of the inscriptions at (\)pan, given in Mauds- 

 lay's book, contain similar figures, and these beginnings plainly give 

 us the dates of the inscriptions. 



The Dresden codex shows a decided improvement on this method, 

 inasmuch as the heads of the lords and the glyphs are omitted as 



" Die Zeitperioden der Mavas, (Jlobtis, v. 03, n. 2, 1803. 



493 



