Deducting from this number all the Calendar Rounds possible, 73 (see Table [XVI]), and applying rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. [139], [140], and [141], respectively) to the remainder, the terminal date reached will be 7 Ahau 3 Cumhu. Referring again to plate [15], B, for the sequence of the glyphs in this text, it is clear that the day of this terminal date should be recorded in 6, immediately after the kins of the Initial-series number in 6. It will be seen, however, in plate [15], A, that
glyph 6 is effaced, and consequently the day is missing. Passing over 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11, in A and B of the plate named, we reach in the lower half of 12 the closing glyph of the Supplementary Series here shown with a coefficient of 10. Compare this form with figure [65]. The month glyph, therefore, should follow in the upper half of 13.[[165]] This glyph is very clearly the form for the month Cumhu (see fig. [19], g', h'), and it seems to have attached to it the bar and dot coefficient 8. A comparison of this with the month coefficient 3, determined above by calculation, shows that the two do not agree, and that the month coefficient as recorded exceeds the month coefficient determined by calculation, by 5, or in Maya notation, 1 bar. Since the Initial-series number is very clearly 9.13.10.0.0, and since this number leads to the terminal date 7 Ahau 3 Cumhu, it would seem that the ancient scribes had made an error in this text, recording 1 bar and 3 dots instead of 3 dots alone. The writer is inclined to believe, however, that the bar here is only ornamental and has no numerical value whatsoever, having been inserted solely to balance this glyph. If it had been omitted, the month sign would have had to be greatly elongated and its proportions distorted in order to fill completely the space available. According to the writer's interpretation, this Initial Series reads 9.13.10.0.0 7 Ahau 3 Cumhu.
The opposite face of the above-mentioned monument presents the same interlacing scheme, though in this case the glyph bands cross at right angles to each other instead of diagonally.
The only other inscription in the whole Maya territory, so far as the writer knows, which at all parallels the curious interlacing pattern of the glyphs on the back of Stela J at Copan, just described, is Stela H at Quirigua, illustrated in figure [71].[[166]] The drawing of this inscription appears in a of this figure and the key to the sequence of the glyphs in b. The introducing glyph occupies position 1 and is followed by the Initial Series in 2-6. The student will have little difficulty in identifying 2, 3, and 4 as 9 cycles, 16 katuns, and 0 tuns, respectively. The uinal and kin glyphs in 5 and 6, respectively, are so far effaced that in order to determine the values of their coefficients we shall have to rely to a large extent on other inscriptions here at Quirigua. For example, every monument at Quirigua which presents an Initial Series marks the close of some particular hotun in the Long Count; consequently, all the Initial Series at Quirigua which record these Katun endings have 0 for their uinal and kin coefficients.[[167]] This
absolute uniformity in regard to the uinal and kin coefficients in all the other Initial Series at Quirigua justifies the assumption that in the text here under discussion 0 uinals and 0 kins were originally recorded in glyphs 5 and 6, respectively. Furthermore, an inspection of the coefficients of these two glyphs in figure [71], a, shows that both of them are of the same general size and shape as the tun coefficient in 4, which, as we have seen, is very clearly 0. It is more than probable that the uinal and kin coefficients in this text were originally 0, like the tun coefficient, and that through weathering they have been eroded down to their present shape. In figure [72], a, is shown the tun coefficient and beside it in b, the uinal or kin coefficient. The dotted parts in b are the lines which have disappeared through erosion, if this coefficient was originally 0. It seems more than likely from the foregoing that the uinal and kin coefficients in this number were originally 0, and proceeding on this assumption, we have recorded in glyphs 2-6, figure [71], a, the number 9.16.0.0.0.
Fig. 71. Initial Series on Stela H, Quirigua: a, Mat pattern of glyph sequence; b, key to sequence of glyphs in a.
Reducing this to units of the first order by means of Table [XIII], we have:
| 5 = | 9 × | 144,000 = | 1,296,000 |
| 6 = | 16 × | 7,200 = | 115,200 |
| 7 = | 0 × | 360 = | 0 |
| 8 = | 0 × | 20 = | 0 |
| 9 = | 0 × | 1 = | 0 |
| ———— | |||
| 1,411,200 | |||