GOIN SAEED 
ee 
PREFACE. 
It is now just a decade since the writer first visited Copan and began 
collecting the data presented in this memoir, the hieroglyphic inscriptions 
at that site. As originally planned these were to have formed the first 
chapter of a work on the inscriptions of all the Maya cities, but shortly after 
his connection with the Carnegie Institution of Washington it became 
apparent that the inscriptions at Copan alone were sufficient in number to 
merit monographic treatment. 
Meanwhile the scope of the investigation had been broadening in other 
directions. The decipherment of the unknown hieroglyphs had been going 
forward during this period, slowly it is true, but none the less surely, and 
it had become possible to include much new material in the projected mem- 
oir. For example, when the writer first visited Copan in Igto, he had not 
yet identified the hieroglyph for the hotun, and the importance of that 5-year 
period as determining the dates upon which the Maya erected their monu- 
ments was hardly more than suspected, whereas it 1s now known to have 
been one of the most fundamental and far-reaching expressions of the Maya 
civilization. Again in 1910, the meaning of the Supplementary Series was 
still unknown, while today its interpretation as a lunar calendar embody- 
ing certain eclipse data may be accepted without reservation. 
Finally the fact that the Maya were the only people of the New World 
who developed a chronological system of sufficient accuracy to exactly 
measure really vast stretches of time, and who devised.a graphic system of 
sufficient flexibility to record the same, has made advisable an extended 
consideration of Maya history as a whole, and the inclusion in the ap- 
pendices of much more data than those presented by the inscriptions at 
Copan alone. While these inclusions have expanded this investigation 
far beyond the limits of the single chapter originally contemplated, they 
have at the same time made possible a more exhaustive treatment of the 
‘subject, and it is hoped that they will have materially increased the use- 
fulness of this volume in providing a standard cross-section of ancient 
American chronology to which all cultures contiguous to the Maya may 
ultimately be referred. 
In the preparation of this volume the writer has received much valuable 
assistance, and has everywhere encountered the fullest céoperation in the 
prosecution of his researches. He wishes to acknowledge especially his 
obligations to Dr. H. J. Spinden of the American Museum of Natural History, 
Mr. William Gates of Point Loma, California, and Dr. C. E. Guthe of Phillips 
Academy, Andover. To Dr. Spinden he is indebted for many suggestions 
Vv 
