SCOPE OF THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION. 33 
The great expansion of interest in the Maya field following these spec- 
tacular advances in the decipherment of the Maya hieroglyphic writing, 
and corresponding advances in the whole general field of Middle American 
archeology, have led to the establishment of courses of instruction in these 
subjects at some of the larger American universities, notably at Harvard, 
where this work is now in its second decade under Dr. A. M. Tozzer. 
The writer’s previous publications on the Maya inscriptions have been 
confined to brief articles on special phases of the subject, and to a text-book 
entitled An Introduction to the Study of the Maya Mieroglyphs, published as 
Bulletin 57 of the Bureau of American Ethnology in 1915, a work especially 
designed to meet the requirements of the beginner.! 
SCOPE OF THE PRESENT INVESTIGATION. 
The present investigation is limited to a consideration of the chrono- 
logical data found in the Copan inscriptions. In the present state of knowl- 
edge it has appeared inadvisable to extend the research beyond this point 
into the realm of the undeciphered glyphs, since too little is yet known 
about them even to approximate their meanings. 
So far as they have been deciphered, however—and it is now possible to 
read about one-half of the characters—the Maya inscriptions have been 
found to deal exclusively with the counting of time. Brinton, with his usual 
acumen in such matters, clearly perceived this important truth 25 years 
ago, and inhis Primer of Mayan Hieroglyphics gave it precise expression: 
“The frequency and prominence of these elementary numerals in nearly every 
relic of Mayan writing, whether on paper, stone, or pottery, constitute a striking 
feature of such remains, and forcibly suggest that by far the majority of them have 
one and the same purpose, that is, counting; and when we find with almost equal 
frequency the signs for days and months associated with these numerals, we become 
certain that in these records we have before us time-counts, some sort of ephemer- 
ides or almanacs. This is true of all the Codices and of nine out of ten of the 
inscriptions. Here, therefore, is a first and most important step gained toward the 
solution of the puzzle before us.’”” 
Unlike the inscriptions of every other people of antiquity, the Maya 
records on stone do not appear to have been concerned—at least primarily— 
with the exploits of man, such as the achievements of rulers, priests, or 
warriors—in short, with the purely personal phenomena of life; on the con- 
trary, time in its many manifestations was their chief content. 
The Maya priesthood, in whose hands exclusively rested the knowledge 
of the hieroglyphic writing, conceived time more elaborately than any other 
people the world has ever known at a corresponding stage of general culture. 
They observed and recorded its more obvious phenomena, the apparent 
revolutions of the Sun, Moon, Venus, and possibly other planets, solar 
eclipses, planetary configurations; and, most important of all, they accom- 
plished its exact measure: the accurate toll of the passing days. Of first 


1Morley, 1915. For the writer’s shorter articles see the bibliography. 2Brinton, 1895, p. 18. 
