Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history : twenty-four papers / by Eduard Seler [and others] ; translated from the German under the supervision of Charles P. Bowditch.

  • Seler, Eduard, 1849-1922.
Date:
1904
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history : twenty-four papers / by Eduard Seler [and others] ; translated from the German under the supervision of Charles P. Bowditch. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    522/838 (page 398)
    the sake of economizing space. He wrote the numerals 7, 2, and 14 in black one under the other, and joined to the 14 a red 5, leaving no space between. Now, this 5 neither signifies an independent number nor does it together with the 14 designate 19, but it denotes that besides the 14 a 19 is to be understood. Thus we must read here 7, 2, 14, 19, the same group that is found on page 63.® This explana- tion is confirmed by the fact that the two other groups on page 31 (6, 1 and 0, 17) also occur on pages 62 and 63. The significance of these groups becomes more apparent if we recognize the fact that the red circles refer not merely to the numerals which they surround, but to the entire group, and that they are attached to only one or two numerals in the group for the sake of economy of space or for calligraphic purposes. Thus each 'group constitutes one single number, which is to be read according to the rule stated by me on page 5 of my Erläuterungen. The numbers are as follows: Page 24, 2,200; page 31, 121, 17, 51,419; page 43, 352; page 45, 30; page 58, 511; page 62, 456, 121; page 63, 235, 17, 51,419; page 70, 606, 1,646, 86, 208. To these sixteen numbers I add four more, which, it is true, have no red circles in the manuscript, but which, according to my firm convic- tion, are without a circle only because the space is limited, their pur- pose being exactly the same as that of the other numbers under dis- cussion. These four numbers are the following: 1. Page 70, fourth column. ]5, 9, 15, 14 (I place the figures side by side, not one under the other) =111,554. 2. Page 70, fourth column, written in red between the front numerals. 14, 2, 1G, 12 (here I correct the 16 to 14, as in the penultimate numeral an error of two units is quite natural owing to the Maya system of numera- tion) — 101,812. 3. Page 73, fourth column. 11, 11, 15, 14=83,474. 4. Page 73, fifth column. 4, 16, 8, 12=34,732. To speak briefly, each of these twenty numbers is intended to be subtracted from a large number standing near it, in order that the remainder shall denote a certain day likewise standing near by. I shall at once proceed to explain this matter more in detail. The Large Numbers On page 36 of my Erläuterungen is to be found a list of many numbers, some of which, it is true, wTere incorrectly read at the time, but they exhibited the remarkable circumstance that almost all of them lay between a million and a million and a half. I think I have come considerably nearer the solution of the riddle, which has hith- erto seemed absolutely insoluble, by the hypothesis that each of these The 5 appears to be a correction by the original scribe. C. T.