In plate [9], A, is figured a photograph of the Initial Series on the front of Stela 11 at Yaxchilan.[[145]] The introducing glyph appears in A1 B1; 9 cycles in A2; 16 katuns in B2, 1 tun in A3, 0 uinals in B3, and 0 kins in B4. The student will note the clasped hand in the cycle head, the oval in the top of the katun head, the large mouth curl in the uinal head, and the flaring postfix in the kin head. The tun is expressed by its normal form. The number here recorded is 9.16.1.0.0, and reducing this to units of the first order by means of Table [XIII], we have:
| A2 = | 9 × | 144,000 = | 1,296,000 |
| B2 = | 16 × | 7,200 = | 115,200 |
| A3 = | 1 × | 360 = | 360 |
| B3 = | 0 × | 20 = | 0 |
| A4 = | 0 × | 1 = | 0 |
| ———— | |||
| 1,411,560 | |||
Deducting from this number all the Calendar Rounds possible, 74 (see Table [XVI]), and applying rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. [139], [140], and [141], respectively), to the remainder, the terminal date reached by the resulting calculations will be 11 Ahau 8 Tzec. The day part of this date is very clearly recorded in B4 immediately after the last period glyph, and the student will readily recognize the day 11 Ahau in this form. Following along the glyphs of the Supplementary Series in C1 D1, C2 D2, the closing glyph is reached in C3b. It is very clear and has a coefficient of 9. The glyph following (D3) should record the month sign. A comparison of this form with the several month signs in figure [19] shows that Tzec is the month here recorded. Compare D3 with figure [19], g-h. The month coefficient is 8. The terminal date, therefore, recorded in B4 and D3 (11 Ahau 8 Tzec) agrees with the terminal date determined by calculation, and this whole text reads 9.16.1.0.0 11 Ahau 8 Tzec. The meaning of the element between the tun coefficient and the tun sign in A3, which is repeated again in D3 between the month coefficient and the month sign, is unknown.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 57 PLATE 9
GLYPHS REPRESENTING INITIAL SERIES, SHOWING USE OF BAR AND DOT NUMERALS AND HEAD-VARIANT PERIOD GLYPHS
In plate [9], B, is figured the Initial Series on an altar in front of Structure 44 at Yaxchilan.[[146]] The introducing glyph appears in A1 B1 and is followed by the number in A2-A4. The period glyphs are all expressed as head variants and the coefficients as bar and dot numerals. Excepting the kin coefficient in A4, the number is quite easily read as 9.12.8.14.? An inspection of our text shows that the coefficient must be 0, 1, 2, or 3. Let us work out the terminal dates for all four of these values, commencing with 0, and then see which of the resulting terminal days is the one actually recorded in A4. Reducing the number 9.12.8.14.0 to units of the first order by means of Table [XIII], we have:
| A2 = | 9 × | 144,000 = | 1,296,000 |
| B2 = | 12 × | 7,200 = | 86,400 |
| A3 = | 8 × | 360 = | 2,880 |
| B3 = | 14 × | 20 = | 280 |
| A4 = | 0 × | 1 = | 0 |
| ———— | |||
| 1,385,560 | |||