MORLEY] INTRODUCTION TO STUDY OF MAYA HIEROGLYPHS 225 



end is here recorded. This date corresponds to the Initial Series 

 9.15.0.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Yax. 



Cases where tun endings are recorded are exceedingly rare. 

 The bare statement that a certain tun, as Tun 10, for example, had 

 come to its end left much to be desired in the way of accuracy, since 

 there was a Tun 10 in every katun, and consequently any given tun 

 recurred after an interval of 20 years; in other words, there were 

 three or four different Tun lO's to be distinguished from one another 

 in the average lifetime. Indeed, to keep them apart at all it was 

 necessary either to add the particular katiui in which each fell or to 

 add the date on which each closed. The former was a step away 

 from the brevity which probably prompted the use of Period-ending 

 dating in the first place, and the latter imposed too great a task on 

 the memory, that is, keeping in mind the 60 or 70 various tun end- 

 ings which the average lifetime included. For these reasons tim- 

 ending dates occur but rarely, only when there was little or no doubt 

 concerning the particular katim in which they fell. 



In plate 21, F, is figured a tun-endmg date from the tablet in the 

 Temple of the Inscription at Palenque.^ In glyph 1 appears an ending 

 sign showing the hand element and the grotesque flattened head (for 

 the latter see fig. 37, i, r, u, v), both common ending signs. The 

 remaining element, another grotesque head with a flaring postfix, is 

 an unusual variant of the tun head found only at Palenque (see fig. 

 29, h). The presence of the tun sign with these two ending signs 

 indicates probably that some tun ending follows. Glyphs 2 and 3 

 record the date 5 Ahau 18 Tzec, and glyph 4 records Tun 13. We 

 have here then the record of a Tun 13, which ended on the date 

 5 Ahau 18 Tzec. But which of the many Tun 13s in the Long Count 

 was the one that ended on this particular date ? To begin with, we are 

 perfectly justified in assuming that this particular tun occurred some- 

 where in Cycle 9, but this assumption does not aid us greatly, since 

 there were twenty different Tun 13s in Cycle 9, one for each of the 

 twenty katuns. However, in the full text of the inscription from 

 which this example is taken, 6 Ahau 3 Chen is the date next preceding, 

 and although the fact is not recorded, this latter date closed Katun 8 

 of Cycle 9. Moreover, shortly after the tun-ending date here under 

 discussion, the date "3 Ahau 3 Zotz, end of Katun 9," is recorded. It 

 seems likely, therefore, that this particular Tun 13, which ended on 

 the date 6 Ahau 18 Tzec, was 9.8.13.0.0 of the Long Coimt, after 

 9.8.0.0.0 but before 9.9.0.0.0. Reducing this number to units of the 

 first order, and applying the several rules given for solving Initial 

 Series, the terminal date of 9.8.13.0.0 will be found to agree with the 

 terminal date recorded in glyphs 2 and 3, namely, 5 Ahau 18 Tzec, 



> See Maudslay, 1S89-1902: iv, pi. 60, glyphs M1-N2. 

 43508°— Bull. 57—15 15 



