ARCHAIC CHRONOLOGICAL CALENDAR. 



The chronological calendar is the Maya method of reckoning time hy ahaus, katuns 

 and cycles. The following tables cover only three out of the seventy-three great 

 cycles constituting the Archaic grand period, they being the only ones to which the 

 dates of the inscriptions relate. Any one desirous of going beyond the range of these 

 three great cycles can readily do so by means of the perpetual calendar appended. 



Each table — the size of which unfortunately necessitates its separation into two 

 parts — embraces a cycle, appropriately numbered at the extreme upper corners of the 

 two pages. The great cycle to which it belongs is shown by the running head above 

 the tables. The katun numbers are indicated by the figures over the columns ; the 

 ahau numbers by the vertical rows of italic figures in the center and at the margins. 



Every single date denotes an ahau, or 360 days ; every column of ahaus, a katun, 

 or 7,200 days; every aggregate of the katun columns, a cycle, or 144,000 days; every 

 thirteen cycles, a great cycle, or 1,872,000 days. The ahaus and katuns are numerated: 

 20, 1, 2, 3, etc., up to 19 ; the cycles, 13, 1, 2, etc., to 12. The reason for this 

 peculiar style of numeration is given in a preceding section. In the inscriptions the 

 great cycles are designated by composite signs about whose significance there may be 

 some question, so I have simply numbered the three here given 53rd, 54th and 55th, 

 in accordance with my theory of their position in the grand era. As the reasons for 

 that theory are given fully elsewhere, it is unnecessary to repeat them here. 



BIOL. CENTR.-AMER., Archaeol. 



