) is the month coefficient in this text, and that it is an archaic form for 0. He would explain the bar as being merely ornamental. The whole Initial Series reads: 8.14.3.1.12 1 Eb 0 Yaxkin.
The fact that there are some few irregularities in this text confirms rather than invalidates the antiquity which has been ascribed to it by the writer. Dating from the period when the Maya were just emerging from savagery to the arts and practices of a semicivilized state, it is not at all surprising that this inscription should reflect the crudities and uncertainties of its time. Indeed, it is quite possible that at the very early period from which it probably dates (8.14.3.1.12 1 Eb 0 Yaxkin) the period glyphs had not yet become sufficiently conventionalized to show individual peculiarities, and their identity may have been determined solely by their position with reference to the introducing glyph, as seemingly is the case in some of the period glyphs of this text.
The Initial Series on the Leyden Plate precedes the Initial Series on Stela 3 at Tikal, the earliest contemporaneous date from the monuments, by more than 160 years, and with the possible exception of the Tuxtla Statuette above described, probably records the earliest date of Maya history. It should be noted here that Cycle-8 Initial Series are occasionally found in the Dresden Codex, though none are quite so early as the Initial Series from the Tuxtla Statuette.
Passing over the Initial Series whose cycle coefficient is 9, many of which have already been described, we come next to the consideration of Initial Series whose cycle coefficient is 10, a very limited number indeed. As explained in Chapter I, the southern cities did not long survive the opening of Cycle 10, and since Initial-series dating did not prevail extensively in the later cities of the north, Initial Series showing 10 cycles are very unusual.
In figure [75], B, is shown the Initial Series from the Temple of the Initial Series at Chichen Itza, the great metropolis of northern Yucatan. This inscription is not found on a stela but on the under side of a lintel over a doorway leading into a small and comparatively insignificant temple. The introducing glyph appears in A1-B2 and is followed by the Initial-series number in A3-A5. The student will have little difficulty in deciphering all of the coefficients except that belonging to the kin in A5, which is a head-variant numeral, and the whole number will be found to read 10.2.9.1.?. The coefficient of the day of the terminal date is very clearly 9 (see B5) and the month part, 7 Zac (see A6). We may now read this Initial Series as 10.2.9.1.? 9? 7 Zac; in other words, the kin coefficient and the day sign are still indeterminate. First substituting 0 as the missing value of the kin coefficient, the terminal date reached will be 10.2.9.1.0 13 Ahau 18 Yax. But according to Table [XV], position 18 Yax is just 9 days earlier than position 7 Zac, the month part recorded in A6. Consequently, in order to reach 7 Zac from 10.2.9.1.0 13 Ahau 18 Yax, 9 more days are necessary. Counting these forward from 10.2.9.1.0 13 Ahau 18 Yax, the date reached will be 10.2.9.1.9 9 Muluc 7 Zac, which is the date recorded on this lintel. Compare the day sign with figure [16], m, n, and the month sign with figure [19], s, t.
