Volume 1

Mayan calendar systems / by Cyrus Thomas.

  • Cyrus Thomas
Date:
1900-1904
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: Mayan calendar systems / by Cyrus Thomas. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/158 (page 724)
    days on this year, we reach 9 Ix, the 17th day of Mac, the 13th month of the year 13 Ezanab, which corresponds with the da}^ under the red column. As the columns and totals are precisely as given by Dr Forstemann (Zur Entzifl’erung der Mayahandschriften, 1891, p. 17), we have proof here of the correctness of his system and of the value assigned the several orders of units or time periods which, in one of the series, involves very high numbers, and also proof that they are precisely the same as the time periods used by Mr Goodman in his work, which appeared six years later, with the one exception noted below. In calculating these series. Dr Forstemann has assumed that 20 units of the fifth order make one of the sixth order; or, to use Mr Goodman’s nomenclature, that 20 cycles make one great cycle. Although the latter author counts but 13 cycles to the great cycle, according to the chi’onological system he believes was used b}^ the authors of the inscriptions, he admits that in the Dresden codex the count was 20, which is evident from plate 31, where the place of the fifth order of units (cycles) has the number 19. As the opportunity is afforded here of testing on a higher unit Mr Goodman’s theory that the red oval indicates full count (20 where this is the proper number, or 18 where that is the number), 1 shall use it. As will be seen by reference to page 723 where the series are given, the ahaus of the red series are counted as 0 (naught), when according to Mr Goodman’s theory they should be 20. Let us try the calculation with this number. Subtracting the black from the red as before, the result is as follows: Great Cycles Cycles Katuns Ahaus Chueiis Days 4 6 1 20 13 10 4 5 19 13 12 8 Difference 2 7 12 This difference reduced to days gives 16,942 instead of 9,742, as by the former method. Assuming 4 Eb under the black column, as before, to be the 6th day of the month Pop in the year 13 Lamat, we subtract 360, the remaining days of the year 13 Lamat, from 16,942, and, dividing the remainder by 365, obtain 45 years and an overplus of 157 days—7 months 17 days. By table 3 we find that counting 45 years from 13 Lamat brings us to 6 Ben, the next year being 7 Ezanab. By table 1 we ascertain that the 17th day of the 8th month of this year is 7 Ix. This is wrong, as it should be 9 Ix, the da}^ number being the test in this case, as the addition of even months will nec- essarily bring us back to the same day. This shows Mr Goodman’s theory on this point to be incorrect so far as the Dresden codex is concerned, where this particular symbol is chiefly, if not exclusively, used. Our next example is from plate 62, is, like the preceding, in the