3. That the irregular head in B4 is a uinal head.
4. That the effaced glyph in A5 was a kin sign.
The last three are really certainties, since the Maya practice in recording Initial Series demanded that the five period glyphs requisite—the cycle, katun, tun, uinal, and kin—should follow each other in this order, and in no other. Hence, although the 3d, 4th, and 5th glyphs are either irregular or effaced, they must have been the tun, uinal, and kin signs, respectively. Indeed, the only important assumption consisted in arbitrarily designating the cycle coefficient 9, when, so far as the appearance of A3 is concerned, it might have been either 6, 7, 8, 9, or 10. The reason for choosing 9 rests on the overwhelming evidence of antecedent probability. Moreover, as stated above, if the terminal date recorded agrees with the terminal date determined by calculation, using the cycle coefficient as 9, our assumption becomes a certainty. Designating the above number as 9.6.10.0.0 then and reducing this by means of Table [XIII], we obtain:
| A3 = | 9 × | 144,000 = | 1,296,000 |
| B3 = | 6 × | 7,200 = | 43,200 |
| A4 = | 10 × | 360 = | 3,600 |
| B4 = | 0 × | 20 = | 0 |
| A5 = | 0 × | 1 = | 0 |
| ———— | |||
| 1,342,800 | |||
Deducting from this number all the Calendar Rounds possible, 70 (see Table [XVI]), and applying rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. [139], [140], and [141], respectively) to the remainder, the date determined by the resulting calculations will be 8 Ahau 13 Pax. Turning to our text again, the student will have little difficulty in recognizing the first part of this date, the day 8 Ahau, in B5. The numeral 8 appears clearly, and the day sign is the profile-head h' or i', the second variant for Ahau in figure [16]. The significance of the element standing between the numeral and the day sign is unknown. Following along through A6, B6, A7, B7, the closing glyph of the Supplementary Series is reached in A8. The glyph itself is on the left and the coefficient, here expressed by a head variant, is on the right. The student will have no difficulty in recognizing the glyph and its coefficient by comparing the former with figure [65], and the latter with the head variant for 10 in figure [52], m-r. Note the fleshless lower jaw in the head numeral in both places. The following glyph, B8, is one of the clearest in the entire text. The numeral is 13, and the month sign on comparison with figure [19] unmistakably proves itself to be the sign for Pax in c'. Therefore the terminal date recorded in B5, B8, namely, 8 Ahau 13 Pax, agrees with the terminal date determined by calculation; it follows, further, that the effaced cycle coefficient in A3 must have been 9, the value tentatively ascribed to it in the above calculations. The whole Initial Series reads 9.6.10.0.0 8 Ahau 13 Pax.
Some of the peculiarities of the numerals and signs in this text are doubtless due to its very great antiquity, for the monument presenting this inscription, Stela 9, records the next to earliest Initial Series[[140]] yet deciphered at Copan.[[141]] Evidences of antiquity appear in the glyphs in several different ways. The bars denoting 5 have square ends and all show considerable ornamentation. This type of bar was an early manifestation and gave way in later times to more rounded forms. The dots also show this greater ornamentation, which is reflected, too, by the signs themselves. The head forms show greater attention to detail, giving the whole glyph a more ornate appearance. All this embellishment gave way in later times to more simplified forms, and we have represented in this text a stage in glyph morphology before conventionalization had worn down the different signs to little more than their essential elements.
