136 THE AKCHA1C MAYA INSCEIPTIONS. 



glyph consisting of a bird's head and two signs for 20 over it probably indicates an 

 initial date — or a substitute for it, as 1 Ahau-18 Zotz would appear to be in this case. 

 The month symbol is wrong here also. It should be Yax instead of Zac. The 

 reckoning which follows: 3 — 6 — 10 — 12x2, from the beginning of the great cycle, 

 to 9 Ik, is correct. It is here the 5 Mol should have gone, that being the month date. 

 The reckonings from this point are the ones to which I have alluded in a preceding 

 section. I think they are carried forward principally by bissextile signs indicating the 

 different numbers of calendar rounds to be added to the brief reckonings notated in 

 the usual style, supplemented by some other signs denoting a specific number of days. 

 Starting from the beginning of the great cycle, the 9th cycle is reached with only what 

 amounts to 3 katuns, 2 ahaus, 4 chuens and 18 days being designated in the ordinary 

 way during that immense stretch of time. Some other method of computation must 

 be made use of, and I can conceive of none but the one I have suggested. As this 

 same style continues to be used after the 9th cycle is passed and there are no more 

 general dates like it to guide us, it is impossible to say how far or to what point the 

 remaining reckonings extend ; but it is likely if they go beyond the 9th cycle that they 

 return to it at the close, as the concluding dates are the same as those in tablets yet to 

 be mentioned. 



Temple of the Sun. 



Initial date : 54 — 1 — 18 — 5 — 3x6 — 13 Cimi-19 Ceh. The month symbol comes 

 after one of the glyphs of the initial directive series. A reckoning of 1 — 2x11, with 

 three unintelligible glyphs following, points to a date which appears to be 1 Caban- 

 10 Tzec ; but as that is not the date to which the intelligible part of the reckoning 

 would lead, both the date and direction are uncertain. Thirteen glyphs follow, some 

 of them of recognizable purport, but the exact meaning of which in this connection I 

 do not know. Then comes a re-statement of the initial reckoning, 1 — 18 — 5 — 3x6, 

 from the beginning of the great cycle, followed by nine glyphs whose use here is 

 unintelligible, though four of them are signs with whose meaning we are acquainted. 

 Next in order comes a reckoning of 9 — 12 — 18 — 5x16 (followed by four glyphs 

 nearly identical with a series in the preceding inscription), from 4 Ahau-8 Cumhu, 

 the beginning of the great cycle, to 2 Cib-14 Mol. This is correct. After five 

 incomprehensible glyphs occurs the date 3 Caban-lo Mol. In the annual calendar 

 the last two dates adjoin each other, but whether the latter is here intended to be the 

 succeeding day, or whether some calendar rounds are indicated by the characters 

 preceding it, is something we are at present unable to determine. Sixteen baffling 

 glyphs follow, and then there is a reckoning of 7 — 6 — 12 X 3 — 12 Ahau-8 Ceh. There 

 are no recognizable directive signs here, but by trial we discover that the reckoning is 

 the distance between 12 Ahau-8 Ceh and 9 Akbal-6 Xul, a date that comes after six 



