Take, for example, the right-hand side of the Palenque cross tablet as given by Rau. See our [figure 48], which is Plate LVI of Stephens (vol. ii, p. 345), with the addition of the part now in the National Museum at Washington.
Our system of numbering is here
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 |
| 2030 | 2031 | 2032 | 2033 | 2034 | 2035 |
| * | * | * | * | * | * |
| * | * | * | * | * | * |
| * | * | * | * | * | * |
| 3080 | 3081 | 3082 | 3083 | 3084 | 3085 |
Now pick out the duplicate hieroglyphs in this; that is, run through the tablet, and wherever 2020 occurs erase the number which fills the place and write in 2020. Do the same for 2021, 2022, etc., down to 3084. The result will be as follows:
RIGHT-HAND SIDE OF PALENQUE CROSS TABLET (Rau).
| 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | 2025 | |||||||||||
| 2030 | 2031 | 2032 | 2033 | 2034 | 2035 | |||||||||||
| 2040 | 2041 | 2042 |
| 2025 | 2020 | 2021 | ||||||||||
| 2050 | 2051 | 2034 | 2053 | 2054 | 2055 | |||||||||||
| 2053 | 2061 | 2062 | 2063 | 2064 | 2065 | |||||||||||
| 2070 | 2071 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022? | 2024? |
| ||||||||||
| 2053 | 2020 | 2082 | 2083 | 2025 | 2053 | |||||||||||
| 2021 | 2091 | 2092 |
| 2025 | 2094 | 2095 | ||||||||||
| 3000 | 2023 | 2034 | 2053 | 2033 | 3005 | |||||||||||
| 3010 | 2083 | 3012 | 2024 | 3014 | 2091 | |||||||||||
| 2053 | 3021 | 2023 | 2020 | 3024 | 2024 | |||||||||||
| 2024 | 2025 | 2021 | 3033 |
| 2025 | 2034* | |||||||||
| 2053* | 3021 | 3042 | 3043 | 2035 | 3045 | |||||||||||
| 3050 See 2082 | 2083 |
| 2025 | 2034 | 3054 | 3055 | ||||||||||
| 2024 | 2020 | 2035 | 3063 | 2024 | 2025 | |||||||||||
| 2021 | 2031 | 2020 | 2021 | 2035 | 3045 | |||||||||||
| 3080 | 3081 | 2091 | 2093 | 2020 | 2021 | |||||||||||
14 cases of horizontal pairs; 4 cases of vertical pairs; 102
characters in all, of which 51 appear more than once, so that
there are but 51 independent hieroglyphs.
Here the first two lines are unchanged. In the third line we find that 2043 is the same as 2025, 2044=2020, 2045=2021, and so on, and we write the smallest number in each case.
After this is done, connect like pairs by braces whenever they are consecutive, either vertical or horizontal. Take the pair 2020 and 2021 for example; 2020 occurs eight times in the tablet, viz, as 2020, 2044, 2072, 2081, 3023, 3061, 3072, 3084. In five out of the eight cases, it is followed by 2021, viz, as 2021, 2045, 2073, 3073, 3085.
It is clear this is not the result of accident. The pair 2020 and 2021 means something, and when the two characters occur together they must be read together. There is no point of punctuation between them. We also learn that they are not inseparable. 2020 will make sense with 2082, 3024 and 3062. Here it looks as if the writing must be read in lines horizontally. We do not know yet in which direction.