Studies in Central American Picture-Writing / First Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the / Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 1879-80, / Government Printing Office, Washington, 1881, pages 205-245

by Edward S. Holden

1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30
31	32	33	34	35	36

And the right hand side of the Palenque Cross tablet, as given by Rau in his memoir published by the Smithsonian Institution (1880), has the numbers—

2020	2021	2022	2023	2024	2025
2030	2031	2032	2033	2034	2035
2040	2041	2042	2043	2044	2045
2050	2051	2052	2053	2054	2055
*	*	*	*	*	*
*	*	*	*	*	*
3080	3081	3082	3083	3084	3085

These are consecutive with the numbers which I have attached to the left-hand side, as given by Stephens. Whenever I have stated any results here, I have also given the means by which any one can number a copy of Stephens’s work in the way which I have adopted, and thus the means of testing my conclusions is in the hands of every one who desires to do so.

In cases where only a part of a hieroglyphic is referred to, I have placed its number in a parenthesis, as 1826 see (122), by which I mean that the character 1826 is to be compared with a part of the character 122. The advantages of this system are many: for example; a memorandum can easily be taken that two hieroglyphs are alike, thus 2072=2020 and 2073=2021. Hence the pair 2020—2021, read horizontally, occurs again at the point 2072—2073, etc. Horizontal pairs will be known by their numbers being consecutive, as 2020—2021; vertical pairs will usually be known by their numbers differing by 10. Thus, 2075—2085 are one above the other.

This method of naming the chiffres, then, is a quick and safe one, and we shall see that it lends itself to the uses required of it.

I add here the scheme according to which the principal plates at Palenque have been numbered.

PLATE XXIV (left-hand side).

	37 See 1800	37 See 1800	38 See 1806	39	94	96	98	100	102	104	106
	40	40	41	42	95	97	99=127	101	103	105	107
	43=1810	43a=46a	44	45							108 See 91
	46=1810	46a=43a	47	48
	49		50	51
	52	52a=1820?	53	54			In the middle of the plate at the top. 109 115 110 116 See 2020 111 117 112 118 113 119 114 120
	55	56=1840?	57 See 1802	58
	59	60	61	62=58?
	63	64	65†	66 See 2025
	67 See 1911	68	69	70
	71 See 2020	72=281	73	74
	75	76=67	77	78
	79	80	81	82
	83	84	85	86=56?
	86*	86*	87	88
	89	90	91	92
	93

* Accidental error in numbering here.
† Possibly Muluc—a Maya day; the meaning is “reunion.”