222 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [ium.. 57 



it Ls possible to regard as being contemporaneous. Hence, it is not 

 improbable that it might refer to the founding of the city or some 

 similar event, though this is of course a matter of speculation. The 

 fact, however, that 9.14.13.4.17 12 Caban 6 Kayab is the earliest 

 date on four different hotun-markers shows that it was of supreme 

 importance in the history of Quirigua. This concludes the discus- 

 sion of texts showing the use of Secondary Series with Initial Series. 



Texts Recording Period Endings 



It was explained in Chapter III (p. 77) that in addition to Initial- 

 series dating and Secondary-series dating, the Maya used still 

 another method in fixing events, which was designated Period-ending 

 dating. It was explained further that, although Period-ending dating 

 was less exact than the other two methods, it served equally well for 

 all practical purposes, since dates fixed by it could not recur until 

 after a lapse of more than 18,000 years, a considerably longer period 

 than that covered by the recorded history of mankind. Finally, the 

 student will recall that the katun was said to be the period most 

 commonly used in this method of dating. 



The reason for tliis is near at hand. Practically all of the great 

 southern cities rose, flourished, and fell within the period called Cycle 

 9 of Maya chronology. There could have been no doubt throughout 

 the southern area which particular cycle was meant when the "cur- 

 rent cycle" was spoken of. After the date 9.0.0.0.0 8 Ahau 13 Chen 

 had ushered in a new cycle there could be no change in the cycle 

 coefficient imtil after a lapse of very nearly 400 (394.250 -h) years. 

 Consequently, after Cycle 9 had commenced many succeeding gen- 

 erations of men knew no other, and in time the term '^ current cycle" 

 came to mean as much on a monument as "Cycle 9." Indeed, in 

 Period-ending dating the Cycle 9 was taken for granted and 

 scarcely ever recorded. The same practice obtains very generally 

 to-day in regard to writmg the current century, such expressions as 

 July 4, '12, December 25, '13, being frequently seen in place of the 

 full forms July 4, 1912, A. D., December 25, 1913, A. D.; or again, 

 even more briefly, 7/4/12 and 12/25/13 to express the same dates, 

 respectively. The desire for brevity, as has been explained, prob- 

 ably gave rise to Period-ending dating in the first place, and in this 

 method the cycle was the first period to be eliminated as superfluous 

 for all practical purposes. No one could have forgotten tlu^ number 

 of the current cycle. 



When we come to the next lower period, however, the katun, we 

 find a different state of affairs. The numbers belonghig to this 

 period were changing every 20 (exactly, 19.71 + ) years; that is, three 

 or four times in the lifetime of manv individuals; hence, there was 



