Besides the above count, it is well known that the Mayas had a year-and-month count. This consisted in naming each one of the twenty days and in attaching to each of these days one of the numbers 1 to 13. Besides this, each day so numbered was declared to be a given day of a given month and to occur in a year marked by one of the year bearers—as for instance in the Book of Chilan Balam, already quoted, where the day is given as 9 Ymix 18 Zip in the year 4 Kan. Now this day and this year could recur only after the lapse of fifty-two years or 18,980 days.
It should be noted here that in the inscriptions and in the Dresden Codex, the day Ymix was always the day 4, 9, 14, or 19 of any month, showing that the day 1 of the month was Eznab, Akbal, Lamat, or Ben; while in Landa and the Books of Chilan Balam the day Ymix was the day 3, 8, 13, or 18, showing that the day 1 of the month was Cauac, Kan, Muluc, or Ix. That is, the months in modern times began with the day which followed the day with which the months began in more ancient times. As the tables are calculated for the inscriptions, it will be well, in order to facilitate our calculations, to call the day on which Ahpula died the nineteenth of the month Zip, instead of the eighteenth of that month.
Given that the katun consisted of 7200 days, a Katun 13 Ahau could not recur until after the lapse of 13 × 7200 or 93,600 days, and the recurrence of any day marked by the year-and-month count, and occupying any particular place in a given katun, could not occur until after the lapse of a period which is found by finding the least common multiple of the two numbers 93,600 and 18,980. This is 6,832,800 days, which is a period of 360 calendar rounds of 18,980 days or of 52 years each. This is equal to 18,720 years, and, in the method of reckoning shown in the initial dates of the inscriptions, would equal 3 grand cycles, 8 cycles, and 9 katuns, or, to use the method of Goodman, 3.8.9.0.0.0.
I have said that a day marked by the year-and-month count, and occupying any particular place in a given katun, could not recur until the lapse of this long period. This would be true if the day was specified as being a given day in a given tun in a given katun, or even if the day was stated as falling in a given uinal of a given tun in a given katun. But in the case before us the death of Ahpula is said to have taken place in the Katun 13 Ahau when six tuns or years of that katun remained unexpired. Even with this rather loose designation such a day would not recur within a period of 3500 or 4000 years.
The day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu seems to have been regarded as the beginning day of the beginning cycle of some grand cycle. From this day all the initial series of the inscriptions of Copan and Quirigua, of Piedras Negras and Tikal, so far as we know them, count, except one where this day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu is itself given. In this place (on Stela C of Quirigua) 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu is reckoned thus: "Grand cycle glyph .13.0.0.0.0.", while in the Temple of the Cross it is declared to be a thirteenth cycle. As this was the beginning date, there is reason to believe that the beginning cycle of a great cycle received the number 13.
I give here the first and last terms of a list of the beginning days of the Katuns 13 Ahau in a complete round of 18,720 years occurring after the beginning of the grand cycle called by Goodman Grand Cycle 54, which began with 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu. It is of little consequence what particular number is given to the grand cycle, as the whole series forms a continuous count, and I shall therefore follow Goodman, who gives the number 54 to the grand cycle glyphs common to Copan, Quirigua, etc.
If 54.13.0.0.0.0. or the beginning of the grand cycle, called Grand Cycle 54 by Goodman, begins with 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, a Katun 13 Ahau will appear two katuns after this or with the count of
|
|
|
and other Katuns 13 Ahau will follow at intervals of 13 katuns as here given:
|
|
|