INSCRIPTIONS OF THE GREAT PERIOD. 319 
projects 8 cm. beyond the plane of the riser.and is 19 cm. high. The face 
of this sill is sculptured with a single band of glyphs interrupted by three 
pairs of circular decorative elements (see plate 31), one in the middle of the 
doorway and one at each end. The writer is inclined to regard these ele- 
ments as the familiar sign for Venus, perhaps indicating that this building 
was dedicated to the worship of that planet. Possibly it may even be called 
the Temple of Venus. The glyphs extend half a meter on either side of the 
doorway beyond the jambs. So far as one can now judge, there were no 
other interior sculptures, although the roof has collapsed, carrying with 
it all the masonry above the doorway. 
There are 3 glyph-blocks to the left and 3 to the right of the left and 
right Venus-signs respectively, and 5 glyph-blocks to the left and 5 to the 
right of the middle Venus-sign, making a total of 16 for the entire inscrip- 
tion. (See plate 31.) 
The first decipherable sign is at E, which records the day 6 Ahau. 
Although the next glyph, F, looks like the corresponding month ? Zotz, it is 
not, being the familiar Zotz head with the Ben-Ik superfix; indeed, the month 
corresponding to this day is not recorded. The next decipherable glyph, 1d, 
is just to the right of the middle Venus-sign, and may record 2 Ahau (?). 
The next is N, which records a Secondary Series number composed of tuns, 
uinals, and kins, and following this in od, pa is the Calendar Round date 13 
Ahau 18 Cumhu and an ending-sign at pb. This date occurred but twice 
in the Long Count during the Great Period, namely, at 9.17.0.0.0 and 
9.19.12.13.0. Since the former ends not only a tun but also a hotun and 
katun as well, it was doubtless the value intended here, which we may there- 
fore accept as the date of Temple 21a. 
We would appear to have here, then, a day 6 Ahau, £, preceding 
9.17.0.0.0 13 Ahau 18 Cumhu, od, pa, by the number in nN. Unfortunately the 
coefficients above the uinal and tun-signs in N are almost entirely destroyed. 
One thing, however, is evident at the outset. If the day in £ is 6 Ahau, and 
it can hardly have been anything else, the coefficient to the left of the uinal- 
sign can not be the kin coefficient as usual, but must be the uinal coefficient, 
since 2 counted either forward or backward from Ahau will not reach Ahau. 
It matters not whether 6 Ahau or 13 Ahau be the starting-point. 
The coefficient above the uinal-sign is indistinct, ( \_, but it can hardly 
have been a bar-and-dot numeral, however, with the possible exception of 2, 
which we have seen is an impossible value here. Indeed, the only other 
~ reading left is o, which would agree with the fact that the two days recorded 
are the same. Probably, then, the uinals and kins are 2 and o respectively, 
an inversion of the regular order.! 
The tun coefficient is almost surely under 11. Whatever it is, it must 
be such that when reduced to kins and added to the uinals reduced to kins, 
the remainder after division by 13 will be 7; since 7 is the only number which 



1 See Altar U, a2, for an example of this kind, p. 301. 
