516 THE INSCRIPTIONS AT COPAN. 
1 Eb o Yaxkin on Lintel 9 at Yaxchilan, and 8.14.3.1.12 1 Eb o Yaxkin on the Ley- 
den Plate (see figure 17, a, b, and c, respectively) all may have been Maya New 
Year’s days at onetime. ‘There is some linguistic basis for this belief, since Xul, the 
month immediately preceding Yaxkin, means end or close in Maya, while Yaxkin 
itself means new sun or fresh sun, perhaps indicating the winter solstice, and shortly 
before the birth of Christ the beginning of Yaxkin coincided with the winter solstice 
on the basis of July 16, 1553, being equal to the first day of Pop. ‘The three dates 
in figure 17 under this hypothesis were therefore New Year’s days. 
Coming down to the Great Period of the Old Empire, there are indications 
that by this time the beginning of the Maya haab had become fixed aso Pop. On 
Altar U at Copan we have already seen that two consecutive New Year’s days were 
recorded, 9.15.8.10.12 2 Eb 0 Pop, and 9.15.9.10.17 3 Caban o Pop (see pp. 306, 307); 
and at Tikal there is the New Year’s Day 9.15.12.11.12! 6 Eb o Pop. 
Finally, Caban and Ik are the only two day-signs known which are ever used 
as the variable element in the Initial Series introducing glyph, the former appearing 
in that sign in the Initial Series on the tablet of the Temple of the Foliated Cross at 
- Palenque and the latter in the same position in the same sign on the tablet of the 
Temple of the Cross, also at Palenque. And in this connection it will be remem- 
bered that at Copan and Quirigua these same two day-signs, and especially the 
former, have an importance second only to that of Ahau. Witness the frequency 
of the date 9.16.12.5.17 6 Caban 10 Mol at Copan and of 9.14.13.4.17 12 Caban 5 
Kayab at Quirigua. Indeed, so far as the inscriptions are concerned, there can be 
no doubt but that the days of this group enjoyed a greater importance than all 
other Maya days except Ahau; and further, that the months, and hence the haab 
or 365-day periods, always began either with a day Caban, Ik, Manik, and Eb, the 
first probably being the most important of the four.’ 
Since the years could only begin with one of these four day-signs in the Old 
Empire, it would appear safe to conclude that if the custom of having year-bearers 
prevailed in the Old Empire at all, the year-bearers must have been Ik, Manik, Eb, 
and Caban. This is only indirect evidence, it is true, but in default of direct evi- 
dence bearing thereon, it may probably be accepted as indicating that these four day- 
signs were the dorian or year-bearers in use during the Old Empire. 
At some later time, probably during the New Empire, a shift of one day for- 
ward took place, the Akbal, Lamat, Ben, and Eznab group replacing the Ik, Manik, 
Eb, and Caban group in the opening position of the year. The evidence for this 
change is presented on pages 25 to 28 of the Codex Dresdensis and on pages 19 and 
20 of the Codex Peresianus, both of which probably emanate from Yucatan, and 
probably date from before the fall of Chichen Itza in Katun 8 Ahau, 1182-1201 A. D. 
Nearly 40 years ago Thomas pointed out’ that these pages of the Dresden manu- 
script refer to the ceremonies which took place at the beginnings of the 365-day 
years or haab, which are elaborately described by Landa;* and since there were 
four different day-names with which the year could begin, each one of these pages 
is devoted to the ceremonies proper to one of these four kinds of years. These four 
pages are identical in arrangement. On the left side of each is a column of 26 day- 
signs, all without coefficients. On page 25, the first 13 are Eb, the last 13 are Ben; 
on page 26, the first 13 are Caban, the last 13 Eznab; on page 27, the first 13 are 

1Bowditch (1910, p. 206) gives the Initial Series number of this date as 10.0.18.1.12 6 Eb 0 Pop, but on insufh- 
cient evidence, the writer believes. As a matter of fact, the text on which this Calendar Round date 6 Eb o 
Pop occurs begins with another Calendar Round date, 3 Ahau 3 Mol, which can hardly be other than the lahuntun- 
ending 9.15.10.0.0 3 Ahau 3 Mol, which is less than 3 years earlier than the Initial Series chosen by the writer 
for 6 Eb o Pop. 
*Goodman (1897), in the preface to his Archaic Annual Calendar, also states that although he begins the latter 
with the day Ik, there are strong grounds for believing that the series really began with Caban. 
’Thomas, 1882, pp. 67, et seq. 4Landa, 1881, pp. 81-90. 
