Which of these starting points are we to accept as the one from which this number is counted? The correct answer to this question will give at the same time the value of the cycle coefficient, which, as we have seen, must be 2, 11, or 12. Most Maya students have accepted as the starting point of this Initial-series number the last of the three dates above given, 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, which involves also the identification of the cycle coefficient in A3 as 12. The writer has reached the same conclusion from the following points:
1. The cycle coefficient in A3, except for its very unusual headdress, is almost identical with the other two head-variant numerals, whose values are known to be 12. These three head numerals are shown side by side in figure [52], t-v, t being the form in A3 above, inserted in this figure for the sake of comparison. Although these three heads show no single element or characteristic that is present in all (see p. [100]), each is very similar to the other two and at the same time is dissimilar from all other head-variant numerals. This fact warrants the conclusion that the head in A3 represents the numeral 12, and if this is so the starting point of the Initial Series under discussion is 4 Ahau 8 Zotz.
2. Aside from the fact that 12 seems to be the best reading of the head in A3, and consequently that the starting point of this number is 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, the writer believes that 4 Ahau 8 Zotz should be selected, if for no other reason than that another Initial Series has been found which proceeds from this same date, while no other Initial Series known is counted from either 7 Ahau 3 Mol or 3 Ahau 18 Mac.
BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 57 PLATE 16
INITIAL SERIES AND SECONDARY SERIES ON LINTEL 21, YAXCHILAN
As we have seen in discussing the preceding text, from the east side of Stela C at Quirigua (fig. [77], A), the Initial Series there recorded was counted from the same starting point, 4 Ahau 8 Zotz, as the Initial Series from the Temple of the Cross at Palenque, if we read the latter as 12.19.13.4.0. This coincidence, the writer believes, is sufficient to warrant the identification of the head in A3 (fig. [77], B) as the head numeral 12 and the acceptance of this Initial Series as proceeding from the same starting point as the Quirigua text just described, namely, the date 4 Ahau 8 Zotz. With these two examples the discussion of Initial-series texts will be closed.
Texts Recording Initial Series and Secondary Series