INSCRIPTIONS OF THE MIDDLE PERIOD. 135 
A further inspection of the partially destroyed month-glyph in ao dis- 
aie ey 
closes the fact that its superfix is of this form Gl 
\ 
Ens 
remnant with the signs for the seven months in the above dates, or indeed 
with the signs for all the other divisions of the year, shows that it could 
hardly have been other than the sign for Mac; indeed, this particular superfix 
is the essential and only constant element of the sign for Mac. 
On the basis of this resemblance alone we are probably justified in 
accepting the fifth value above, 7. ¢., 9.10.15.0.0 6 Ahau 13 Mac, as the date 
of this Initial Series, but when we find further that this date is the only one 
of the seven here possible which ends a hotun or even a tun in the Long 
Count, the chances in its favor are enormously increased; and finally, as will 
appear later, when it is found that the closing date on this monument is exactly 
the same as the final dates on Stele 2, 3, 13, and 23, and further, that the Initial 
Series itself is probably the same as the Initial Series of Stela 2, probability 
virtually becomes a certainty. 
It may be objected that a4a, B4a, and asa bear little resemblance to 
known forms for 15, 0, and o respectively. But asa can be nothing but o, 
since the day-sign in Bsb is surely Ahau;? and furthermore, when the kin 
coefficient is 0, the uinal coefficient is almost invariably the same.’ Finally, 
the tun coefficient in a4a is surely 10 or above, being composed of the death’s 
head, 10, and a superfix. In view of the probable accuracy of the reading 
suggested, this sign must stand for the number 15. The superfix is a 
flattened oval in which two parallel horizontal lines appear very clearly. @) 
Since the whole glyph must mean 15 tuns, these lines may be explained & > 
in one of two ways only. Either they are the outlines of a single bar, 5, or 
else they are parts of the interior lines of the tun-sign, which would then 
make this glyph the regular head-variant for 15 (see Bowditch, 1910, plate 17, 
and Morley, 1915, figure 53 b-e). 
1The only constant ele- 
ment in the sign for Mac 
would appear to have been 
the superfix, and even this 
is wanting in the next to 
last variant on the right from Aguas Calientes. (See plate 1.) 
The first and second examples above, from Tikal, Altar 5 and Copan, Altar W, respectively, are the commonest 
form—a grotesque head surmounted by the characteristic superfx. The third and fourth, from Piedras Negras, 
Stela 16, and Naranjo, Stela 14, respectively, have an entirely different main element in which an oval is the most 
conspicuous feature, but with the same superfix as in the first two. The fifth and sixth variants, both from Yax- 
chilan, Lintels 33 and 43 respectively, are again different, though the superfixial element still remains the same 
in each. 
The seventh variant, from Stela 1 at Aguas Calientes, does not have this characteristic superfix, but on the 
contrary resembles very closely the forms for Mac found in the Dresden Codex, one of which from p. 50 of that 
manuscript is shown as the last variant above. Both forms have the same kind of a subfix—a comb-like element— 
and both the same kind of a main element, apparently a variant of the sign for Imix. 
In general, however, the superfix appearing in the first six examples above may be said to be the determining 
characteristic of this glyph, and its presence in agd on Stela 12 establishes, practically beyond doubt, the identity 
of this glyph as a sign for Mac. For other examples of the sign for Mac, see Appendix X, and also Bowditch, igto, 
plates 8 and to. 
2When the day-sign of any date is Ahau, the kin coefficient can only be o. See Morley, 1915, p. 77. 
3That is to say, when a day Ahau was recorded in the inscriptions, it almost always stood at the end of an even 
tun, hotun, lahuntun, or katun of the Long Count, and not at the ends of the intermediate uinals. A few cases 
of the latter, however, are known, as, for example, the Initial Series of Stela 1 (p. 162) and the Initial Series of Stela A 
(pa 220). 
=. A comparison of this 
= 



