| C4 = | 15 × | 7,200 = | 108,000 |
| D3 = | 1 × | 360 = | 360 |
| C3 = | 16 × | 20 = | 320 |
| C3 = | 5 × | 1 = | 5 |
| ——— | |||
| 108,685 | |||
Since all the Calendar Rounds which this number contains, 5 (see
Table [XVI]) may be deducted from it without affecting its value, we can further reduce it to 13,785 (108,685 - 94,900), and this will be the number used in the following calculations.
It was stated (on p. [135]) in describing the direction of the count that numbers are usually counted forward from the dates next preceding them in a text, although this is not invariably true. Applying this rule to the present case, it is probable that the Secondary-series number 15.1.16.5, which we have reduced to 13,785 units of the first order, is counted forward from the date 2 Kan 2 Yax, the one next preceding it in our text, a date, moreover, the Initial-series value of which is known.
Remembering that this date 2 Kan 2 Yax is our new starting point, and that the count is forward, by applying rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. [139], [140], and [141], respectively), to 13,785, the new terminal date reached will be 7 Muluc 17 Tzec; and this date is recorded in C5-D5. Compare C5 with the sign for the day Muluc in figure [16], m, n, and D5 with the sign for the month Tzec in figure [19], g, h. Furthermore, by adding the Secondary-series number 15.1.16.5 to 9.0.19.2.4 (the Initial-series number which fixes the position of the date 2 Kan 2 Yax in the Long Count), the Initial-series value of the terminal date of the Secondary Series (calculated and identified above as 7 Muluc 17 Tzec) can also be determined as follows:
| 9. | 0. | 19. | 2. | 4 | 2 Kan 2 Yax | Initial Series |
| 15. | 1. | 16. | 5 | Secondary-series number | ||
| 9. | 16. | 1. | 0. | 9 | 7 Muluc 17 Tzec | Initial Series of the Secondary-series terminal date 7 Muluc 17 Tzec |
The student may verify the above calculations by treating 9.16.1.0.9 as a new Initial-series number, and counting it forward from 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, the starting point of Maya chronology. The terminal date reached will be found to be the same date as the one recorded in C5-D5, namely, 7 Muluc 17 Tzec.
What is the meaning then of this text, which records two dates nearly 300 years apart?[[185]] It must be admitted at the outset that the nature of the events which occurred on these two dates, a matter probably set forth in the glyphs of unknown meaning in the text, is totally unknown. It is possible to gather from other sources, however, some little data concerning their significance. In the first place, 9.16.1.0.9 7 Muluc 17 Tzec is almost surely the "contemporaneous date" of this lintel, the date indicating the time at or near which it was formally dedicated or put into use. This point is established almost to a certainty by the fact that all the other dates known at Yaxchilan are very much nearer to 9.16.1.0.9 7 Muluc 17 Tzec in point
of time than to 9.0.19.2.4 2 Kan 2 Yax, the Initial-series date recorded on this lintel. Indeed, while they range from 9 days[[186]] to 75 years from the former, the one nearest the latter is more than 200 years later. This practically proves that 9.16.1.0.9 7 Muluc 17 Tzec indicates the "contemporaneous time" of this lintel and that 9.0.19.2.4 2 Kan 2 Yax referred to some earlier event which took place perhaps even before the founding of the city. And finally, since this inscription is on a lintel, we may perhaps go a step further and hazard the conclusion that 9.16.1.0.9 7 Muluc 17 Tzec records the date of the erection of the structure of which this lintel is a part.
We may draw from this inscription a conclusion which will be found to hold good in almost all cases, namely, that the last date in a text almost always indicates the "contemporaneous time" of the monument upon which it appears. In the present text, for example, the Secondary-series date 7 Muluc 17 Tzec, the Initial-series value of which was found to be 9.16.1.0.9, is in all probability its contemporaneous date, or very near thereto. It will be well to remember this important point, since it enables us to assign monuments upon which several different dates are recorded to their proper periods in the Long Count.