Commentary on the Maya Manuscript in the Royal Public Library of Dresden

by Ernst Wilhelm Förstemann

The second sign is found only on these pages and here not less than eleven times, possibly with the addition of the

effaced sign in 6b and 27b which may have been the same hieroglyph. The eleven places in which it occurs are as follows:—3b, 15b, 17b, 23b, 24b, 29b, 40b, 44b, 49a, 51b and 63b. Two different prefixes are added to it; one in the first two and the last two places and also in the last but two joined with Kin, and the other in the six middle places. Of the eleven groups, 17 and 24, 44 and 51 are 7 groups apart, 3 and 17, 15 and 29, 49 and 63 are 14 groups apart, 23 and 44 are 21 groups apart, and hence 23 and 51 are separated by 28 groups or 1 year. Group 40 alone is not concerned with these intervals of seven or multiples of seven.

Now, how far may all these periods of time be due to accident and how far to design? Accident alone is quite out of the question. The frequent repetition of the sun-sign in groups 49, 50 and 51 on pages 54b and 55b, seems to me to refer to the conjunctions of the sun with certain stars, which occur at intervals of thirteen days.

Pages 58—59.

This section is also based on a series occupying the whole of page 59, which contains nothing but number and day signs. This series has the difference 78, which we found once before on page 44. There the starting-point was III Lamat, here it is the day XIII Muluc, probably coming in the year XIII Muluc, as in Cort. 40b, as I shall have occasion to suggest later. The series extends, with the usual errors and variations, in four divisions from top to bottom. The days, which are always two days behindhand, owing to the number 78, in 780 again reach the day XIII Muluc, at which point the succeeding members remain stationary, since from here on the difference is always 780 or a multiple of it. 780 days are, however, the apparent time of the revolution of Mars, which is the only planet now left to be discussed, the subject of pages 46-50 having been Venus and the sun, and of pages 51-58, Mercury and the moon with incidental treatment of Saturn and Jupiter. With 780 as its difference, the series ascends to 19 × 780 = 14,820, and then continues with this large number as its difference until the series is lost in the effaced passages.

Curiously enough, however, directly under the line containing the 14,820, there is a new series composed of nine members, or ten counting the suppressed starting-point. But this starting-point is again the day IX Ik, the difference, as proved by the annexed days, is again 78 and the series ends with 780. Thus the starting-point is the only difference between the two series. The principal series contains all the even and the secondary series all the uneven days. Can the starting-point of the revolution of Mars have been determined according to different principles? Is it possible that in one case the beginning of the planet's retrogression was adopted as the starting-point, and in the other case the date on which the planet, after completing its retrograde course, again reached the degree of right ascension at which it had begun its retrogression? This is a difficult matter to decide, since the period of the retrogression of Mars fluctuates between 62 and 81 days. The interval from IX Ik to XIII Muluc is 147 and in reversed order 113 days.

It can hardly be assumed that the 19 of the IX 19 or IX Ik is connected with the 19 × 780 mentioned above or with the 19 + 19 + 19 + 21 into which the 78 is divided on pages 44-45, or finally with the 19, which four times forms the principal part of the sub-divisions of 65 on pages 33-34.

Numbers amounting to millions accompany this series in the usual way. Two of these are on page 58, viz:—1,426,360 and 1,386,580; but with the sign of the sixth day, which is important here, between them. Below these numbers, however, are two month dates:—first the normal date IV Ahau 8 Cumhu and, if I have correctly restored the effaced number before the month sign, which in its turn is indistinct, the second is XIII Muluc 2 Zac, which would fall in the year VIII Muluc. The encircled numbers also occur here. They are set down beside the lower number of seven figures. We find here a red 12 with a black 1 inserted, below this a black 7 and below this again, enclosed in a red band, a black 11, which I regard as also representing the value of a red number. We shall find a similar instance among the serpent numerals. Then we have here 1. 7. 11. = 511 and 12. 11. = 251. But 511 = 260 + 251 and 251 is the interval between XIII Muluc and IV Ahau.