METHOD OF TREATMENT. 47 
points. It is thought this method of treatment will make the information 
available here more accessible, and will, at the same time, facilitate use of 
this book as a chronological concordance of the Copan inscriptions. 
An example of one of these synoptic headings follows: 
STELA A. 
Provenance: In the Great Plaza just north of Mound 4, Main Structure. 
(See plate 6.) 
Date: 9.15.0.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Yax. 
Text, (a) photograph: Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1, plates 25, 27-29. 
Spinden, 1913, plate 20, 7 (part only). 
(b) drawing: Maudslay, ibid., plates 26, 30. 
Morley, 1915, plate 7, b. 
Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, 3 plates after p. 158. 
References: Bowditch, 1910, pp. 101, 126, 127, 182, 183, and tables 29 and 31. 
Galindo, 1834, Appendix XI, p. 598. 
Goodman, 1897, p. 129. 
Gordon, 1896, p. 35. 
Gordon, 1902, p. 171. 
Maudslay, 1889-1902, vol. 1 of text, pp. 36-39. 
Morley, 1915, pp. 169, 170. 
Seler, 1902-1908, vol. I, pp. 754,755. 
Spinden, 1913, pp. 158, 159, 162, and table 1. 
Stephens, 1841, vol. 1, p. 158. 
Thomas, 1900, pp. 776, 801. 
Under the first heading are given the location of the monument and 
the corresponding map in this volume where this is shown. 
Under the second heading is given the date of the monument expressed 
in terms of the Maya chronological system. The method followed here in 
transcribing Maya dates into the terms of our own Arabic notation is that 
first used by Bowditch.! 
The largest time-period usually present in a Maya date, the cycle, is 
written first, 7. ¢., to the left; next come the katuns; next the tuns; next the 
uinals; and last the kins, each being separated from the next by a dot, thus, 
9.15.0.0.0, the whole number being read: 9 cycles, 15 katuns, o tuns, 0 uinals, 
andokins. Immediately following this is the terminal date (4 Ahau 13 Yax 
in the present example), reached by counting this period forward from the 
starting-point of Maya chronology. ‘The whole record 9.15.0.0.0 4 Ahau 
13 Yax, therefore, means that, if 9.15.0.0.0 be counted forward from 
the starting-point of Maya chronology, the day reached will be 4 Ahau, the 
14th day of the month Yax, written as 13 Yax in the Maya notation.” 
Maya dates are therefore simply records of periods of elapsed time. It 
is doubtful, indeed, whether the current day, as such, ever was recorded. 
In the present example the 9 cycles, 15 katuns, 0 tuns, 0 uinals, and o kins 
refer to past time, and the closing day of this period, 4 Ahau 13 Yax, was 
probably already past when it was counted. We have an identical practice 
in describing the time of day, that is, in counting hours, minutes, and seconds. 
When we say it is_2 o'clock in the afternoon, in reality the second hour 
after noon has passed, and the third hour is about to commence. In other 
1Bowditch, 1901, p. 1; also Bowditch, 1910, p. 38, note I. *Morley, 1915, pp. 46-48. 
