MORLEY— MAYA SUPPLEMENTARY SERIES 



Although interest in Glyph C centers in the two series of numer- 

 ical coefficients attached to it, the head variant and the bar-and-dot 

 numerals, in order even to approximate the probable significance of 

 these, it is first necessary to examine the other two constant elements, 

 the hand and moon-sign. 



The hand throughout the Maya inscriptions has the general 

 significance of "completion" or "ending". Thus it is extensively used 

 in Period Ending Dates to indicate that the period which is recorded 

 nearby with its closing date has come to an end. 1 Thus it is also 

 used in the head variant of the cycle-sign to signify completion. It 

 is interesting to note in this connection that in the Archaic Period 

 the hand as signifying completion appears to have been used with 

 other time periods beside the cycle. For example, on the Leyden 

 Plate which dates from the latter part of Cycle 8 (8 . 14 . 3 . 1 . 12, ap- 

 proximately 40 A.D.), it is found in the head variant of the katun 

 sign. Another early example is from Stela P at Copan (9.9. 10. 0.0, 

 about 350 a.d.). These unusual cases are probably due to the fact 

 that at the early time when they were sculptured, the hand had not 

 yet become finally and inseparably associated with the head variant 

 of the cycle-sign, but might still be attached to other head variants 

 to give them the idea of completion. A later example from the Middle 

 Period is found in a tun sign on the southern side of Stela J at Copan 

 (9 . 13 . 10 . o . o, approximately 430 a.d.). 2 



Again, in Initial Series it is sometimes used to represent the 

 coefficient o, the underlying idea being that the period to which it 

 is attached is involved zero times; in other words, the even end of 

 some higher period has been reached and no start made in the next. 

 The analogy to the use of o in our own decimal notation is so apparent 

 that further explanation is unnecessary. Zero, completion, end, or 

 close, all had the same connotation to the ancient Maya who recorded 

 their chronology in terms of elapsed time, 3 and the symbol conveying 

 this basic idea is undoubtedly the hand. The hand in Glyph C there- 

 fore probably indicates that some period has come to its end — but 

 what? The answer would appear to lie near at hand in the variant 

 of the moon-sign always at the right of Glyph C. 



This element, as already pointed out, differs slightly from the same 

 element in Glyph A in having two or three small dots instead of one 

 large one. It has already been shown that the moon element in 

 Glyph A stands for the number 20, and with its two coefficients of 



1 Both Mr Bowditch and the writer have described this method of dating in detail. See 

 Bowditch, 1910, pp. 178-190 and pi. xix; and Morley, 1915, pp. 77-79, 222-245. 



2 See Bowditch, 1910, pi. xm — Periods — Face signs, Tun No. 34. 



3 See Morley, 1915, pp. 46-47. 



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