MORLEY] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEEOGLYPHS 179 



pare figure 16, h' , i' . The coefficient of A4 is very clearly 4 dots, 

 that is, 4, and consequently this glyph agrees with the day as de- 

 termined by calculation, 4 Ahau. Passing over B4, A5, B5, and A6, 

 we reach in B6 the closing gljrph of the Supplementary Series, here 

 recorded with a coefficient of 9. Compare B6 with figure 65. The 

 month glyph follows in A7 with the coefficient 13. Comparing this 

 latter glyph ^\\ih. the month signs in figure 19, it is evident that the 

 month Kayab (fig. 19, d.'-f) is recorded in A7, which reads, therefore, 

 13 Kayab, Hence the whole text records the Initial Series 9.2.13.0.0 

 4 Ahau 13 Kayab. 



This Initial Series is extremely important, because it records the 

 earliest contemporaneous ^ date yet found on a monument ^ in the 

 Maya territory. 



In plate 11 is figured the Initial Series from the east side of Stela A 

 at Quirigua. ^ The introducing glyph appears in A1-B2 and the 

 Initial-series number in A3-A5. The student will have little diffi- 

 culty in picking out the clasped hand in A3, the oval in the top of 

 the head in B3, the fleshless lower jaw in A4, the mouth curl in B4, 

 as the essential characteristic of the cycle, katim, tun, and uinal 

 heads, respectively. The kin head in A5 is the banded-headdress 

 variant (compare fig. 34, i, j), and this completes the number, which 

 is 9.17.5.0.0. Reducing this by means of Table XIII to units of the 

 first order, we have : 



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

 B3 = 17X 7,200= 122,400 

 A4= 5X 360= 1,800 



B4= Ox 20= 



A5= Ox 0= 



1, 420, 200 



Deducting from this number all the Calendar Rounds possible, 73 

 (see Table XVI), and appl3ring rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. 139, 140, and 141, 



1 As used tliroughout this book, the expression "the contemporaneous date" designates the time when 

 the monument on which such a date is found was put into formal use, that is, the time of its erection. As 

 will appear later in the discussion of the Secondary Series, many monuments present several dates between 

 the extremes of which elapse long periods. Obviously, only one of the dates thus recorded can represent 

 the time at which the monument was erected. In such inscriptions the final date is almost invariably 

 the one designating contemporaneous time, and the earlier dates refer probably to historical, traditional, 

 or even mythological events in the Maya past. Thus the Initial Series 9.0.19.2.4 2 Kan 2 Yax on Lintel 21 

 at Yaxchilan, 9.1.0.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Yaxkin on the west side of Stela C at Qumgua, and 9.4.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 

 Yax from the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, all refer probably to earlier historical or traditional 

 events m the past of these three cities, but they do not indicate the dates at which they were severally 

 recorded. As Initial Series which refer to purely mythological events may be classed the Initial Series 

 from the Temples of the Sun, Cross, and Foliated Cross at Palenque, and from the east side of Stela C at 

 Quirigua, all of which are concerned with dates centering around or at the beginning of Maya chronology. 

 Stela 3 at Tikal (the text here under discussion), on the other hand, has but one date, which probably 

 refers to the time of its erection, and is therefore contemporaneous. 



2 There are one or two earlier Initial'Series which probably record contemporaneous dates; these are not 

 inscribed on large stone monuments but on smaller antiquities, namely, the Tuxtla Statuette and the 

 Leyden Plate. For the discussion of these early contemporaneous Initial Series, see pp. 194-198. 



3 For the full text of this inscription see Maudslay, 1889-1902: n, pis. 4-7. 



