These illuminated manuscripts are written on both sides of long strips of amatl paper, folded like Japanese screens. The paper was given a smooth surface by a coating of fine lime and the drawings were made in black and in various colors. From the early accounts we know that books were also written on prepared deerskin and upon bark. Concerning their subject matter we are told that the Mayas had many books upon civil and religious history, and upon rites, magic, and medicine. The three books named above have been carefully studied. They treat principally of the calendar and of associated religious ceremonies.
A page of the Dresden Codex containing some interesting calculations is reproduced herewith. The numbers with the digits one above the other are transcribed in two diagrams. In the upper diagram the bar and dot numerals are simply put over into Arabic numerals and the Mayan system of periods or positions is retained. In the lower diagram these numbers are reduced entirely to the Arabic system. The columns are lettered at the top, the hieroglyphs are counted off in sixteen rows at the left and the separate groupings of numbers are shown in five sections at the right.
Among the hieroglyphs the Venus sign is especially prominent. At the base of column B is given a number in five periods that, counted from the normal beginning day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu leads again to this day which is recorded at the bottom of column A. The long number in column C, similarly counted from 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, leads to 1 Ahau 18 Kayab, recorded at the bottom of B. The day 1 Ahau 18 Uo is reached by another calculation which will be explained later. At the base of A is a number in three periods which amounts to 2200. Not only is this the difference between the long numbers in B and C (1,366,560 - 1,364,360 = 2200) but it is also the number of days by which 1 Ahau 18 Kayab precedes 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu. In other words we deal in this passage with the end of the seventy-second calendar round after the original 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu and with a new point of departure 2200 days earlier, which is some way involved with the calendar of Venus.
Let us now make a new beginning in the lower left hand corner of this page. In G5 we find the number 2920 which as we have already seen is exactly the number of days consumed in eight years of 365 days or five synodic revolutions of Venus of 584 days. We will now see how the Mayan scholars arrived at 13 × 2920 or 37,960, the calendar round of Venus. If we proceed towards the left in section 5 we find the second number, F5, is 5840 which equals 2 × 2920, the third is 8760 or 3 × 2920, and the fourth is 11,680 or 4 × 2920. The addition is continued in sections 4 and 3 till we reach 35,040 or 12 × 2920. To be sure the scribe made a slight error in one place, writing a 5 for an 8 but this is caught up by the day signs 9 Ahau, 4 Ahau, 7 Ahau, 12 Ahau, etc., that fall at regular intervals of 2920 days.
[Plate XXIV.]
Page 24 Dresden Codex.
Diagram showing partial reduction of Mayan numbers into Arabic numbers in the calculation shown on page 24 of the Dresden Codex ([Plate XXIV]).
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hieroglyphs | 1 | 1 | |||||
| 1 | 15 | 10 | 5 | |||||
| 2 | 1 | 16 | 10 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | 14 | 6 | 16 | 8 | ||||
| 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||||
| 4 | 1 Ahau | 1 Ahau | 1 Ahau | 1 Ahau | ||||
| 5 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| 6 | 5 | 9 | 4 | 1 | ||||
| 7 | 14 | 11 | 12 | 5 | ||||
| 4 | 7 | 8 | 5 | |||||
| 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 9 | 1 Ahau | 1 Ahau | 1 Ahau | 1 Ahau | ||||
| 10 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | |||
| 17 | 9 | 1 | 13 | |||||
| 11 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 0 | ||||
| 12 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
| 13 | 6 Ahau | 11 Ahau | 3 Ahau | 8 Ahau | ||||
| 14 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 4 | |||
| 9 | 9 | 4 | 16 | 8 | 0 | |||
| 15 | 9 | 9 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 10 | ||
| 16 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |||
| 16 | 13 Ahau | 5 Ahau | 10 Ahau | 2 Ahau | ||||
| 6 | 0 | 16 | 1 | 1 | 5 | |||
| 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 4 | 16 | 8 | ||
| 0 | 5 [8] | 6 | 4 | 2 | ||||
| 4 Ahau | 1 Ahau | 1 Ahau | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 8 Cumhu | 18 Kayab | 18 Uo | 7 Ahau | 12 Ahau | 4 Ahau | 9 Ahau | ||