500 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
chronology with that of our own Christian Era will be complete, and if this method 
and procedure are correct, the age of the Old Empire cities will have been ascertained 
more accurately than the age of any cities of antiquity in the Old World. 
In 1900 Mr. E. H. Thompson, working under the auspices of the Peabody 
Museum of Harvard University, uncovered at the ruins of Chichen Itza in northern 
Yucatan (see plate 1), in that part of the city known as Old Chichen Itza, a very 
remarkable hieroglyphic text inscribed on the front and under side of a stone lintel. 
This was found to present no less than the Initial Series 10.2.9.1.9 9 Muluc 7 Zac, 
and was the first count of its kind discovered in Yucatan. Indeed, since then only 
two others have been found, so that at the present time there are only three Initial 
Series known throughout the length and breadth of the peninsula.! 
The importance of this discovery can not be overestimated. It was the first 
definite proof that Initial Series dating had carried over into the New Empire at 
all, and the date which it records is such as to indicate that it was practically 
contemporaneous with the closing dates of the Old Empire cities in the south. 
Indeed, subsequently (1918), the writer discovered a Period Ending date on the 
. front of this lintel, 331 days later than its Initial Series date, which shows that it 
was exactly contemporaneous with the latest date in the south, namely, the lahun- 
tun-ending 10.2.10.0.0 2 Ahau 13 Chen on Stela 2 at Quen Santo; and it may be 
assumed that this lintel originally came from a temple that had been dedicated on 
that lahuntun-ending.’” 
Granting the truth of this assumption, now generally admitted, the problem 
of correlating the Old and New Empire chronologies, that is, the Initial Series and 
the u kahlay katunob, then resolved itself into finding out, first, on how many different 
lahuntun-endings 2 Ahau Chichen Itza had been occupied, and second, which one 
of these had 10.2.10.0.0 for its corresponding Initial Series number. 
But in the u kahlay katunob, no lahuntun-endings are recorded, only the katun- 
endings, and, therefore, before we can attempt to fit this particular lahuntun into 
its proper place in the u kahlay katunob, it is first necessary to ascertain in just what 
katun 10.2.10.0.0 2 Ahau 13 Chen fell. This was katun 10.3.0.0.0 1 Ahau 3 Yaxkin, 
or, as it would have been recorded in the u kahlay katunob, simply Katun 1 Ahau. 
Our first step, therefore, is to find all the Katuns 1 Ahau in the u kahlay katunob on 
page 499 during which Chichen Itza is declared to have been occupied. 
It will be found that there are five Katuns 1 Ahau in this table; but since 
Chichen Itza was not even discovered until nearly a century after the first one had 
passed (Katun 1 Ahau, ending in 373.915 A. D.), and since the third one (Katun 1 
Ahau, ending in 886.453) occurred at a time when Chichen Itza is clearly stated to 
have been abandoned, only the second, fourth, and fifth occurrences concern us 
here, namely: 
Katun 1 Ahau, 630.184 A. D. 
Katun 1 Ahau, 1142.722 A. D. 
Katun 1 Ahau, 1398.991 A. D. 
If our method and procedure have been correct up to this point, one of these 
three Katuns 1 Ahau is 10.3.0.0.0 1 Ahau 3 Yaxkin, in which the lahuntun-ending 
10.2.10.0.0 2 Ahau 13 Chen fell. Let us next substitute this Initial Series for each 
of the above three Katuns 1 Ahau, and note the effects of the resulting correlations. 


'This one at Chichen Itza, that on Stela 1 at Tuluum, and the one on the back wall of the Temple of the 
Initial Series at Holactun (Xcalumkin). This Chichen Itza lintel, Stela 9 at Uaxactun, and the Tuxtla Statuette, 
are, in the writer’s opinion, the three most important texts in the Corpus Inscriptionum Mayarum. 
*Although this lintel itself dated from the earliest period of the city’s occupation, it was found in a position 
clearly indicating secondary usage in a temple of the Toltec or Nahua Period, supported by a pair of large Atlan- 
tean figures. These Atlantean figures were a purely Nahuan development, and could hardly have been made 
until about 6 centuries after the lintel itself was carved. 
ln I Bei ee 
