MOELBT] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS IVI 



fectly justified in assuming that the tun and viinal signs originally 

 stood here. In B4a the kin period glyph is expressed by its normal 

 form and the kin coefficient by a head-variant numeral, the clasped 

 hand of which indicates that it stands for (see fig. 53, s^w).^ The 

 number here recorded is 9.12.10.0.0. 



Reducing this to units of the 1st order by means of Table XIII, 

 we have: 



A3= 9X144,000=1,296,000 



B3 = 12X 7,200= 86,400 



A4a = 10x 360= 3,600 



A4b= OX 20= 



B4a= IX 0= 



1, 386, 000 



Deducting from this number all the Calendar Rounds possible, 73 

 (see Table XVI), and applying to the remainder rules 1, 2, and 3 

 (pp. 139-141), respectively, the date reached by the resulting calcu- 

 lations will be 9 Ahau 18 Zotz. Turning to our text again, the student 

 will have little difficulty in identifying B4b as 9 Ahau, the day of the 

 above terminal date. The form Ahau here recorded is the grotesque 

 head, the third variant j' or k' in figure 16. Following the next 

 glyphs in order, A5-A6, the closing glyph of the Supplementary 

 Series is reached in B6a. Compare this glyph with the forms in 

 figure 65. The coefficient of B6a is again a head-variant numeral, as 

 in the case of the kin period glyph in B4a, above. The fleshless lower 

 jaw and other skull-like characteristics indicate that the numeral 10 

 is here recorded. Compare B6a with figure 52, m-r. Since B6a is 

 the last glyph of the Supplementary Series, the next glyph B6b 

 should represent the month sign. By comparing the latter form 

 with the month signs in figure 19 the student will readily recognize 

 that the sign for Zotz in e or/ is the month sign hsre recorded. The 

 coefficient 18 stands above. Consequently, B4b and B6b represent 

 the same terminal date, 9 Ahau 18 Zotz, as reached by calculation. 

 This whole Initial Series reads 9.12.10.0.0 9 Ahau 18 Zotz, and 

 according to the writer's view, the monument upon which it occurs 

 (Stela 6 at Copan) was the period stone for the hotun which began 

 with the day 9.12.5.0.1 4 Imix 4 XuP and ended with the day 

 9.12.10.0.0 9 Ahau 18 Zotz, here recorded. 



In plate 8, B, is figured tlie Initial Series from Stela 9 at Copan.^ 

 The introducing glyph stands in A1-B2 and is followed by the five 

 period glyphs in A3-A5. The cycle is very clearly recorded in A3, 

 the clasped hand being of a particularly realistic form. Although 



J Texts illustrating the head-variant numerals in full will be presented later. 



2 The preceding hotun ended with the day 9.12.5.0.0 3 Ahau 3 Xul and therefore the opening day of the 

 next hoiun, 1 day later, will be 9.12.5.0.1 4 Imix 4 Xul. 



3 For the full text of this inscription, see Maudslay, 1889-1902: I, pis. 109, 110. 



