Mexican Copper Tools: The Use of Copper by the Mexicans Before the Conquest; and the Katunes of Maya History, a Chapter in the Early History of Central America, With Special Reference to the Pio Perez Manuscript.

by Philipp J. J. Valentini

§3. In this time also took place the discovery of the Province of Ziyan-caan or Bacalar; the 4th Ahau and the 2d Ahau and the 13th Ahau, or sixty years they had ruled in Ziyan-caan when THEY CAME HERE. During these years of their government of the Province of Bacalar occurred the discovery of the Province of Chichen-Itza. These are years 60.

As the first section closed with the arrival at Chacnouitan, which took place upon the 2d Ahau, it was to be expected that the second section would continue the sequence of Ahaues so as to connect with the necessarily following 13th Ahau. But we see that it begins with the 8th Ahau, follows with the 6th and closes with the 2d Ahau.

Before taking notice of the accounts given in these two paragraphs let us first ascertain what Ahaues were left out between the 2d Ahau, at the end of the first section, and the 8th Ahau, with which the second section begins. According to the rule above given on the alternating Ahaues, the missing ones would be the following: The (13), (11), (9), (7), (5), (3), (1), (12), and (10th) Ahau. Of these nine Ahaues, or 180 years, the author had nothing in mind to tell us. No event of significance appears to have taken place. Perhaps the wanderers had to rest to gather strength before attempting further conquests. Moreover, this time belongs to the most ancient epochs of Maya history, and information regarding it was so dim and so obscure that it appeared to the author as of no account. The chronological sequence thus being established, let us now turn to the contents of the two section, 2 and 3. They begin with the 8th Ahau and close with the 13th Ahau. As to the events happening within the 8th, 6th, 4th, 2d and 13th Ahau, they indeed do not appear in the wished for sequence. But the sequence, as will be shown, can be established without making interpolations. It will be noticed that in section 2 the 4th Ahau is not mentioned. After having quoted the 8th and 6th Ahau, the author passes over this 4th Ahau and mentions the arrival of Ajmekat, belonging to the family of the renowned Tutul Xiu, who seems to have led in the conquests of Bacalar and Chichen-Itza, which are recorded in section 3, as happening in the 4th, 2d and 13th Ahau. That these conquests must be counted into the epoch mentioned with the names 8th, 6th, 4th, 2d and 13th Ahau is clearly expressed by the words, “in this time,” so that no mistake can take place as to the intimate connection with the arrival of Ajmekat. We learn moreover that the time which the conquerors remained in the province of Chacnouitan is said to have been 99 years. These 99 or 100 years cover exactly the time represented by the above five Ahaues, and when reading at the end of the 3d paragraph that they had ruled 60 years in Ziyan-caan Bacalar, it becomes clear that these 60 years are not years that follow the 99 years, but that they were the last years of the 99 mentioned. The two sections supplement each other, and from them the following impression is conveyed, that Chacnouitan was the territory situated southwest of the shores of the great lagoon of Bacalar. The wanderers had been waiting during eleven Ahaues, from the 13th to the 4th Ahau, before they made an attack against the possessors of Bacalar. An attempt to take it appears to have been made during the 8th, 6th and 4th Ahaues, and only accomplished in the 2d Ahau, through the arrival or help of Ajmekat, who led them further on to the discovery or conquest of Chichen-Itza, in the 13th Ahau.

The difficulty of interpreting the two sections is removed as soon as we view them in the light of the reasons given, not as two distinct epochs of which the one follows the other, as Señor Perez does (see commentary), but as belonging to one and the same epoch from the 8th to the 13th Ahau. It must not be so much questioned what the author ought to have done in order to represent his history in a logical way, and on account of his omissions cast a doubt upon the whole record, as how to use what he has left to construct a system from these elements, and to avail ourselves unhesitatingly of the help of the chronological sequence of Ahaues, which is and will remain the only reliable thread to lead us through and out of the labyrinth.

Commentary of Señor Perez.—“The manuscript informs us that at the 8th Ahau a colony of Toltecs under their leader Holon Chantépeuh, marched out from the city of Tulapan, and that in their wanderings they spent 4 Ahaues, 8, 6, 4, 2, till they came to Chacnouitan, which happened in the first year of the 13th Ahau. To doubt this is not possible, for this statement is the beginning and foundation of all later dates. According to my calculation which I will explain hereafter, it was from the year 144 to 217, which is 97 and not 81 years, as the manuscript reports, for if we compute the Ahaues with 24 years, as we have shown, and include the first year of the Ahau following as the time of their arrival, then the account makes 97 years. They stayed in Chacnouitan with Ajmekat Tutul Xiu during the remaining years of the 13th Ahau, until the 2d Ahau.

These Ahaues, as we have explained, should follow in the order 13, 9, 7, 5, and not 13, 6, 8, 2, for this latter list represents earlier Ahaues, and as they represent different epochs they can only be expressed by the same figures after the expiration of 312 years, thereby clearly showing the error.

It is likewise asserted that they remained 99 years in Chacnouitan, which could not have been true, for this would have made 119 actual years, or only 95 years if we reckon only four Ahaues, without the second, for if we regard the succession we miss the 4th Ahau, which the manuscript has left out. But the manuscript does not count four but five Ahaues, as it reckons an Ahau at 20 years, the five Ahaues less one year make the aforesaid 99 years.”

§4. The 11th Ahau, 9th, 7th, 5th, 3d and 1st Ahau, or 120 years, they ruled in Chichen-Itza, when it was destroyed, and they emigrated to Champutun where the Itzaes, holy men, had houses.

Years 120.

§5. The 6th Ahau they took possession of the territory of Champutun, the 4th Ahau, 2d, 13th, 11th, 9th, 7th, 5th, 3d, 1st, 12th, 10th and 8th, Champutun was destroyed or abandoned. The Itzaes reigned two hundred and sixty years in Champutun when they returned in search of their homes, and they lived for several Katuns in the uninhabited mountains.