THE HOTUN. 573 
monuments conforming to it. In some places, notably at Piedras Negras and 
Quirigua, the custom of marking every hotun-ending by the erection of a stela was 
rigidly adhered to, but more often only the lahuntun and katun-endings were thus 
commemorated, and in some places the custom even seems to have changed from 
time to time, as at Naranjo, for example. 
Turning next to the New Empire, we find not only archzologic evidence of the 
prevalence of this custom, both on the monuments and in the codices, but also 
direct documentary proof thereof in the post-conquest sources, Spanish as well as 
native. 
Mention has been made elsewhere that the contemporaneous date of the 
Chichen Itza lintel was originally assumed to have been declared by the Initial 
Series 10.2.9.1.9 on its under side, but that in 1918 the writer was able to show that 
it was declared by the Period Ending date on the front instead, which records the 
lahuntun-ending 10.2.10.0.0 2 Ahau 13 Chen.! This is shown in figure 87, where 
the inscription on the front of this lintel is represented. The first glyph, a1, is the 
lahuntun-sign, here shown in a very unusual manner. Instead of the regular 
lahuntun-sign (see figure 82), Al is composed of the “winged-Cauac” variant of 
the tun-sign with a coefficient of 10, making the whole glyph 10 tuns or a lahuntun. 
The last glyph on the front, 12, declares the day on which this lahuntun ended, 
namely, 2 Ahau, and the glyph just above, 11, the day of the Initial Series terminal 
date, 9 Muluc, 331 days earlier. a1, 12, therefore, may be interpreted as ‘‘un 10, 
ending on the day 2 Ahau,” which, in conjunction with the Initial Series on the 
under side, indicates that the lahuntun 2 Ahau here intended was 10.2.10.0.0 
2 Ahau 13 Chen, thus conforming to the regular practice. The Chichen Itza 
lintel is the earliest hotun-marker known in the New Empire. 
The next occurrence on a New Empire monument is Stela 1 at Tuluum (see 
figure 85). The contemporaneous date of this monument also was first thought 
to be declared by the Initial Series, which Howe correctly deciphered as 9.6.10.0.0 
8 Ahau 13 Pax.” In 1918, however, the writer found a missing fragment of this 
stela, giving a later Period Ending date, which, with other glyphs on the back (see 
figure 88, a and b), indicates that its contemporaneous date was the lahuntun- 
ending 10.6.10.0.0 7 Ahau 18 Yaxkin instead, exactly 1 cycle later than its Initial 
Series, and about 80 years later than the Chichen Itza lintel.? (Note the lahuntun- 
sign in figure 85 at Als, and in 88, b, at a2, and the day 7 Ahau in figure 85 at al6, 
in 88, a, at A2, and in 88, b, at al.) Thus the Tuluum stela is also seen to conform 
with this practice. 
We have already seen that Initial Series dating fell into disuse in the New 
Empire, being replaced by Period Ending dating. So it is not surprising to find our 
next example from the Cave of Loltun near the modern village of Oxkutzcab, 
northern Yucatan, recorded as a Period Ending date, a Katun 3 Ahau. On a 
vertical wall at the Hunacab entrance of this cave there is sculptured a large deity, 
ruler, priest, or warrior, 3 meters high, with a ceremonial staff in his right hand 
and a club (perhaps an atlatl or spear-thrower) in his left hand. (See figure 86.) 
Above and to the left is a panel of 3 glyph-blocks, the first of which is the day 3 
Ahau. The whole composition is doubtless to be interpreted as the ending of 
some Katun 3 Ahau, the anthropomorphic figure being the deity or ruler who 
presided over the particular katun recorded. 
Turning to the u kahlay katunob on page 503 we will see that in all probability 
this Katun 3 Ahau was the one which ended in 1379 A. D., that is, the only one after 
the end of the League of Mayapan, corresponding to ‘he Initial Series 12.1.0.0.0 
1Morley, 19184, p. 274. 2Howe, IQII, p. 546. 
3Morley, op. cit., pp. 274, 275. See also Morley, 1916a, pp. 338, 339, and 1917, pp. 190, 192, 193, 201, 202. 

