At this point there are several checks which the student may apply to his result in order to test the accuracy of his calculations; for instance, in the present example if 115, the difference between 365 and 250 (115 + 250 = 365) is counted forward from position 13 Ceh, position 8 Cumhu will be reached if our calculations were correct. This is true because there are only 365 positions in the year, and having reached 13 Ceh in counting forward 250 from 8 Cumhu, counting the remaining 115 days forward from day reached by 250, that is, 13 Ceh, we should reach our starting point (8 Cumhu) again. Another good check in the present case would be to count backward 250 from 13 Ceh; if our calculations have been correct, the starting point 8 Cumhu will be reached. Still another check, which may be applied is the following: From Table [VII] it is clear that the day sign Ahau can occupy only positions 3, 8, 13, or 18 in the divisions of the year;[[119]] hence, if in the above case the coefficient of Ceh had been any other number but one of these four, our calculations would have been incorrect.
We come now to the final step (see step 5, p. [151]), the actual finding of the glyphs in our text which represent the two parts of the terminal date—the day and its corresponding position in the year. If we have made no arithmetical errors in calculations and if the text itself presents no irregular and unusual features, the terminal date recorded should agree with the terminal date obtained by calculation.
It was explained on page [152] that the two parts of an Initial-series terminal date are usually separated from each other by several intervening glyphs, and further that, although the day part follows immediately the last period glyph of the number (the kin glyph), the month part is not recorded until after the close of the Supplementary Series, usually a matter of six or seven glyphs. Returning to our text (pl. [6], A), we find that the kins are recorded in A5, therefore the day part of the terminal date should appear in B5. The glyph in B5 quite clearly records the day 4 Ahau by means of 4 dots prefixed to the sign shown in figure [16], e'-g', which is the form for the day name Ahau, thereby agreeing with the value of the day part of the terminal date as determined by calculation. So far then we have read our text correctly. Following along the next six or seven glyphs, A6-C1a, which record the Supplementary Series,[[120]] we reach in C1a a sign similar to the forms shown in figure [65]. This glyph, which always has a coefficient of 9 or 10, was designated on page [152] the month-sign "indicator," since it usually immediately precedes the month sign in Initial-series terminal dates. In C1a it has the coefficient 9 (4 dots and 1 bar) and is followed in C1b by the month part
of the terminal date, 13 Ceh. The bar and dot numeral 13 appears very clearly above the month sign, which, though partially effaced, yet bears sufficient resemblance to the sign for Ceh in figure [19], u, v, to enable us to identify it as such.
Our complete Initial Series, therefore, reads: 9.18.5.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Ceh, and since the terminal date recorded in B5, C1b agrees with the terminal date determined by calculation, we may conclude that this text is without error and, furthermore, that it records a date, 4 Ahau 13 Ceh, which was distant 9.18.5.0.0 from the starting point of Maya chronology. The writer interprets this text as signifying that 9.18.5.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Ceh was the date on which Zoömorph P at Quirigua was formally consecrated or dedicated as a time-marker, or in other words, that Zoömorph P was the monument set up to mark the hotun, or 5-tun period, which came to a close on the date 9.18.5.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Ceh of Maya chronology.[[121]]
In plate [6], B, is figured a drawing of the Initial Series on Stela 22 at Naranjo.[[122]] The text opens in A1 with the Initial-series introducing glyph, which is followed in B1 B3 by the Initial-series number 9.12.15.13.7. The five period glyphs are all expressed by their corresponding normal forms, and the student will have no difficulty in identifying them and reading the number, as above recorded.
By means of Table [XIII] this number may be reduced to units of the 1st order, in which form it may be more conveniently used. This reduction, which forms the first step in the process of solving Maya numbers (see step 1, p. [134]), follows:
| B1 = | 9 × | 144,000 = | 1,296,000 |
| A2 = | 12 × | 7,200 = | 86,400 |
| B2 = | 15 × | 360 = | 5,400 |
| A3 = | 13 × | 20 = | 260 |
| B3 = | 7 × | 1 = | 7 |
| ———— | |||
| 1,388,067 | |||
And 1,388,067 will be the number used in the following calculations.
The next step is to find the starting point from which 1,388,067 is counted (see step 2, p. [135]). Since this number is an Initial Series, in all probability its starting point will be the date 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu; at least it is perfectly safe to proceed on that assumption.