MORLET] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 59 



Such confusion indeed is only to be expected from a system of count- 

 ing time and recording events which was so loose as to permit the occur- 

 rence of the same date twice, or even thrice, within the span of a 

 single hfe ; and when a system so inexact was used to regulate the lapse 

 of any considerable number of years, the possibihties for error and 

 misunderstanding are infinite. Thus it was with Aztec chronology. 



On the other hand, by conceiving the Calendar Rounds to be in 

 endless repetition from a fixed point of departure, and measuring 

 time by an accurate system, the Maya were able to secure precision 

 in dating their events which is not surpassed 

 even by our own system of counting time. 



The glyph which stood for the Calendar 

 Round has not been determined with any 

 degree of certainty. Mr. Goodman believes 

 the form shown in figure 22, a, to be the sign 

 for this period, wliile Professor Forstemann 

 is equally sure that the form represented by « b 



h of this figure expressed the same idea. fig. 22. signs for the calendar 

 This differeuce of opinion between two an- f:^^'i:^'Zt!,':lT'^'' 

 thorities so eminent weU illustrates the pre- 

 vailing doubt as to just what glyph actually represented the 52- 

 year period among the Maya. The sign in figure 22, a, as the writer 

 will endeavor to show later, is in all probability the sign for the great 

 cycle. 



As will be seen in the discussion of the Long Count, the Maya, 

 although they conceived time to be an endless succession of Calendar 

 Rounds, did not reckon its passage by the lapse of successive Calendar 

 Rounds ; consequently, the need for a distinctive glyph which should 

 represent this period was not acute. The contribution of the Calendar 

 Round to Maya chronology was its 18,980 dates, and the glyphs 

 which composed these are found repeatedly in both the codices and 

 the inscriptions (see figs. 16, 17, 19, 20). No signs have been found 

 as yet, however, for either the haab or the tonalamatl, probably 

 because, hke the Calendar Round, these periods were not used as 

 units in recording long stretches of time. 



It will greatly aid the student in his comprehension of the discussion 

 to foUow if he will constantly bear in mind the fact that one Calendar 

 Round followed another without interruption or the interpolation of 

 a single day; and further, that the Calendar Round may be likened 

 to a large cogwheel having 18,980 teeth, each one of which repre- 

 sented one of the dates of this period, and that this wheel revolved 

 forever, each cog passing a fixed point once every 52 years. 



