1881.] Motes on the Codex Troano, and Maya Chronology. 721 
the first in the Ahau Katun; besides attributing only twenty 
years to the Ahau. That both these suppositions are erroneous, 
will appear by an analysis of a date which has been given us by 
a Maya writer preserved by Perez and referred to by Professor 
Thomas. This date is that of the death of Ahpula. A false 
translation of this important quotation, led Gallatin to suspect an 
error in the original; but it is entirely correct and intelligible as 
it stands. The text runs thus: ‘ 
_ “In the 13th Ahau Chief Ahpula died. Six years were want- 
ing to complete the 13th Ahau. This year was counted towards 
the east of the wheel, and began on the 4th Kan. Ahpula died 
on the 18th day of the month Zip, on the gth Imix; and that it 
may be known in numbers it was the year 1536.” 
Side by side to this must be put a very precise date given by 
Bishop Landa, and corroborated by native writers. It is to the 
effect that “the Spaniards arrived at the city of Merida in the 
year of the nativity of our Lord 1541, which, said the Indians, 
was precisely in the first year of the period of Eleven Ahau.” 
Here, then, are two dates which should be reconciled. It 
looks difficult, at first sight. Counting six years back from 1541, 
brings us to 1 535, not 1536, and Valentini therefore supposes 
that the Maya chronicler had in view the official incorporation 
of Merida (Jan. 6, 1 542)—though what that would have had to do 
with the fixed principles of Maya chronology, he does not make 
clear, 
In reality, there is no contradiction at all. The Maya year did 
not begin January 1 as does ours, but Fuly 16, at or about the time 
of the transit of the sun by the zenith in the latitude of Merida. 
Hence the Maya chronicler identified the 6th year from the end 
of the Ahau with 1536, because the greater part and the latter 
part of that Ahau year was actually in A. D. 15 36. In point of 
fact, Chief Ahpula, whoever he’ was, died Sept. 11, 1535, O-S. 
Having fixed this date beyond peradventure, I shall take 
another step. The Ahau Katun of 312 years, divided into 13 | 
Periods of 24 years each, embraces 6 Kin Katuns of 52 years 
each; yet owing to the properties of the different numbers, the 
first year of any Ahau will not coincide with the first year of any 
Kin Katun except at the beginning of the Ahau Katun; and 
from the date of this coincidence the Ahaus were reckoned deg7n- 
- ning with the 13th (as Perez positively and correctly states). 
Referring again to Chief Ahpula’s death, the chronicler states 
VOL. XV.—No. Ix, 50 
