144 THE ARCHAIC MAYA INSCRIPTIONS. 



— are not mere calendars or records of what kind soever. In addition to supporting 

 objects of adoration and supplying necessary chronological information, they explain 

 the rules and practice of mathematics and chronology, and were undoubtedly the means 

 by which the Maya youth were taught ; so we must conclude that temple, stela, altar, 

 or whatever bore an inscription, was designed to meet alike religious, educational, 

 business and all other public requirements. 



That there was an extraordinary stimulus to monument building during the 9th 

 cycle on account of the remarkable calendar conjuncture that occurred in it, is attested 

 by several independent considerations. I have explained elsewhere that at Palenque 

 the periods were reckoned from a different starting-point, so that the date I have been 

 discussing as of such moment to Copan, Quirigua and other cities was of no importance 

 to Palenque. Hence, no mention is made of it in any of the inscriptions of that city, 

 although most of them traverse it, or approach to within a few years of it. The initial 

 dates of Palenque — by which I mean the date indicating the era when the inscription 

 was made — move along undisturbed by any excitement over an epoch-marking event, 

 as if such an occurrence must have been far off in their chronology. One is in the 

 12th cycle of the 53rd great cycle, two are in the 1st cycle of the 54th great cycle, one 

 in the 9th cycle, and the other in the 3rd cycle of the 55th grand cycle. That is — 

 speaking generally, without regard to the difference in katuns and ahaus — they were 

 relatively 2, 8 and 7 cycles apart. In Quirigua there are two unperturbed initial 

 dates, one at the beginning of the 1st. katun of the 9th cycle of the 54th great cycle 

 and the other in the 3rd cycle of the 55th great cycle — 7 cycles apart. And in Copan 

 there is one stela dated in the 13th or beginning cycle of the 55th great cycle. 



The foregoing instances are enough to show that in their normal state of mind the 

 old Mayas were not constantly putting up monuments wholesale. As the range, too, 

 covers a period of over five thousand years, it demonstrates pretty conclusively that the 

 9th cycle of the 54th great cycle could not have been their only era of prosperity and 

 grandeur. They were simply stimulated to unwonted activity during that cycle by a 

 remarkable commemorative occasion — just as England was in the year of the Queen's 

 jubilee and America at her centennium. 



Of course, all the monuments have not been preserved or discovered, and I have not 

 had time to examine entirely what have been photographed or to thoroughly study 

 even those I have seen ; but, taking the result of my conclusions from those I have 

 studied, and applying the principle of general average to the rest, I have arrived at 

 the conviction I have attempted to explain in this chapter. 



