INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GREAT PERIOD. 245 
by the terminal date are fulfilled are 9.7.5.0.8 8 Lamat 6 Mac and 9.7.17.3.8 
7 Lamat 6 Mac. But the uinal coefficient can not be 3, and, moreover, the 
first reading is exactly the same as Date 2. In view of these facts, the 
only reading at all probable here is the first suggested above: 
A Initial Series introducing glyph 
Ba 9g cycles 
Bb 7 katuns 
Ca” **s*tuns 
cb O.uinals 
pa 8 kins 
pb = 8 Lamat 
Ha 6 Mac 
The purpose here would appear to have been to have Step E open with 
the same date, declared as an Initial Series, as the closing date on D, the next 
step above. How far this practice may have extended to other steps on the 
stairway it is now impossible to say, owing to the destruction of the greater 
part of the inscription, but such appears to have been the case here at the 
bottom, at least. Gordon suggests two readings for this date: 9.8.8.6.5 
7 Chicchan 8 Mac and 9.8.12.7.5 11 Chicchan 8 Mac, favoring the former.! 
However, since each demands that the katun coefficient be 8 instead of 7 as 
actually recorded, both may be rejected. 
Dates 4 AND 5.? 
Dates 4 and 5, at the end of Step EF and the beginning of Step F, are 
almost entirely effaced, and exact decipherment is difficult, if indeed not 
impossible. The interpretation suggested depends upon the postulate just 
noted, that the closing date on Step E is the same as the opening date on 
Step F, and connected by the Secondary Series in N-Q (Step E) with the 
Initial Series date at the beginning of Step E. We have already seen that 
such a relation exists between the beginning and closing dates on Step D 
and the opening date on Step E, and if this same relation obtains between 
Dates 4 and 5, it is possible to reach three readings for each of them, one of 
which must be correct under the postulate. The accuracy of this postulate 
is by no means established, and since the glyphs are badly effaced, this read- 
ing, although probably correct, should be accepted with reservation. 
Passing over Hb-M (Step E), we reach in N-Q a Secondary Series followed 
by a date at sb, ta(?). ‘The former is composed of katuns, tuns, uinals, and 
kins, of which only the tun coefficient in p is certain. This is 9. The uinal 
coefficient in o is a head variant and is clearly above 10. The best 
readings are 14, 16, or 17. The katun coefficient is a small head of 
human aspect. As will appear in connection with Date 5, if our pos- 
tulate is correct, this coefficient must be either 1, 2, or 3. A day-sign is 
recorded at sb, the coefficient of which is best as 1, 2, or 3, and there may be 
a month-sign at ‘Ta, although this is doubtful. If so, the best reading of its 
coefficient is also I, 2, or 3. 


1 Gordon, 1902, pp. 171, 172. 2 Gordon (1902. p. 172) calis this Date 3. 
