The Supplementary Series in The 

 Maya Inscriptions 



By Sylvanus Griswold Morley 



IMMEDIATELY following the Initial Series in Maya 

 texts 1 there occurs a group of glyphs known as the Sup- 

 plementary Series, which has long withstood all efforts 

 toward its decipherment. Mr. J. T. Goodman seems 

 to have been the first to call attention to the group and to point out 

 its probable chronological significance. Writing in 1897, this eminent 

 authority says: 



It is evident enough that its purpose is to fix the position of the date it accom- 

 panies [i.e. The Initial Series] relatively to some other method or methods em- 

 ployed by the Maya to compute time. 2 



And in a later publication 3 the same writer expressed the further 

 opinion that these glyphs showed the relation of the regular chronol- 

 ogy to one from the foundation of each particular city, that it was in 

 short an ab urbes conditd reckoning, starting from a different date in 

 every city. 



In 1901 Mr Charles P. Bowditch suggested the name Supplemen- 

 tary Series for the group and pointed out that the glyphs of which it 

 is composed always stand close to the month sign of the Initial Series 

 terminal date, the meaning of which, he believed, they might "supple- 

 ment". 4 



Both of these hypotheses are doubtless correct in a general way, 

 though neither attempts a close explanation of the group, 8 the mean- 

 ing of which has remained an enigma. 6 



There can no longer be any doubt that the Supplementary Series 



1 As used in the present connection the word "text" is applied only to inscriptions on the 

 monuments or buildings, and not to passages in the codices or illuminated manuscripts. 



2 Goodman, 1897, p. 118. 

 8 Goodman, 1905, p. 647. 



4 Bowditch, 1901, pp. 5, 9, 15, 17, 19, 24; and Bowditch, 1910, p. 244. 



6 In the light of recent investigations it has become necessary to abandon Mr Goodman's later 

 hypothesis that the Supplementary Series are ab urbes conditd reckonings even though they differ 

 in each city. 



• The writer's own connection with the subject dates from 1907, when, at Mr Bowditch's sug- 

 gestion, he took up the study of the Supplementary Series during a year's post-graduate work at 

 Harvard University. The present conclusions, however, are rather more the result of subsequent 

 investigations which are still in progress. 



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