INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OP MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 



93 



Fig. 47. Sign for in the inscription.s. 



peiisable. Indeed, any numerical system which rises to a second 

 order of units requires a character which will signify, when the need 

 arises, that no units of a certain order are involved; as zero units and 

 zero tens, for example, in writing 100 in our own Arabic notation. 



The character zero seems to have played an important part in Maya 

 calculations, and signs for it have been found in both the codices and 

 the inscriptions. The form found in the codices (fig. 46) is lenticu- 

 lar; it presents an interior dec- 

 oration which does not follow 

 any fixed scheme.^ Only a 

 very few variants occur. The 

 last one in figure 46 has clearly 

 as one of its elements the nor- 

 mal form (lenticular). The 

 remaining two are different. 

 It is noteworthy, however, 

 that these last three forms all 

 stand in the 2d, or uinal, place 

 in the texts in which they occur, though whether this fact has 

 influenced their variation is unknown. 



Both normal forms and head variants for zero, as indeed for aU 

 the numbers, have been found in the inscriptions. The normal 

 forms for zero are shown in figure 47. They are common and are 

 unmistakable. An interesting origin for this sign has been suggested 



by Mr. A. P. Maudslay. On 



pages 75 and 76 of the Co- :"••.*'•.; •' /' ': '.'••'• 



dexTro-Cortesiano^ the260 '''*/"•.'"•• •''.■•'.••''.■'•' '•'''.''•'■.'': 



days of a tonalamatl are 

 graphically represented as 

 forming the outline shown 

 in figure 48, a. Half of this 

 (see fig. 48, h) is the sign 

 which stands for zero (com- 

 pare with fig, 47) . The train 

 of association by which half 

 of the graphic representa- 

 tion of a tonalamatl could 

 come to stand for zero is 

 not clear. Perhaps a of figure 48 may have signified that a complete 

 tonalamatl had passed with no additional days. From this the sign 

 may have come to represent the idea of completeness as apart from 

 the tonalamatl, and finally the general idea of completeness applica- 



1 This form of zero is always red and is used with black bar and dot numerals as well as with red in the 

 codices. 



! It is interesting to note in this connection that the Zapotec made use of the same outline in graphic 

 representations of the tonalamatl. On page 1 of the Zapotec Codex FdjervSry-Mayer an outline formed 

 by the 200 days of the tonalamatl exactly like the one in flg. 48, a, is shown. 



Fig. 48. Figiu'e showing possible derivation of the sign for 

 in the inscriptions: a, Outline of the days of the tonalamatl as 

 represented graphically in the Codex Tro-Cortesiano; 6, half 

 of same outline, which is also sign for Oshown in fig. 47. 



