| A6 = | 10 × | 20 = | 200 |
| A6 = | 10 × | 1 = | 10 |
| —— | |||
| 210 | |||
The first assumption is that this number is counted forward from the terminal date of the Initial Series, 3 Ahau 3 Yax, and performing the operations indicated in rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. [139], [140], and [141], respectively) the terminal date reached will be 5 Oc 8 Uo. Now, although the day sign in B6b is clearly Oc (see fig. [16], o-q), its coefficient is very clearly 1, not 5, and, moreover, the month in A7a is unmistakably 18 Kayab (see fig. [19], d'-f'). Here then instead of finding the date determined by calculation, 5 Oc 8 Uo, the date recorded is 1 Oc 18 Kayab, and consequently there is some departure from the practices heretofore encountered.
Since the association of the number 10.10 is so close with (1) the terminal date of the Initial Series, 3 Ahau 3 Yax, and (2) the date 1 Oc 18 Kayab almost immediately following it, it would almost seem as though these two dates must be the starting point and terminal date, respectively, of this number. If the count is forward, we have just proved that this can not be the case; so let us next count the
number backward and see whether we can reach the date recorded in B6b-A7a (1 Oc 18 Kayab) in this way.
Counting 210 backward from 3 Ahau 3 Yax, according to rules 1, 2, and 3 (pp. [139], [140], and [141], respectively), the terminal date reached will be 1 Oc 18 Kayab, as recorded in B6b-A7. In other words, the Secondary Series in this text is counted backward from the Initial Series, and therefore precedes it in point of time. This will appear from the Initial-series value of 1 Oc 18 Kayab, which may be determined by calculation:
| 9. | 18. | 15. | 0. | 0 | 3 Ahau 3 Yax |
| 10. | 10 | ||||
| 9. | 18. | 14. | 7. | 10 | 1 Oc 18 Kayab |
This text closes on the south side of the monument in a very unusual manner (see pl. [18], B). In B3a appears the month-sign indicator, here recorded as a head variant with a coefficient 10, and following immediately in B3b a Secondary-series number composed of 0 uinals and 0 kins, or, in other words, nothing. It is obvious that in counting this number 0.0, or nothing, either backward or forward from the date next preceding it in the text, 1 Oc 18 Kayab in B6b-A7a on the north side of the stela, the same date 1 Oc 18 Kayab will remain. But this date is not repeated in A4, where the terminal date of this Secondary Series, 0.0, seems to be recorded. However, if we count 0.0 from the terminal date of the Initial Series, 3 Ahau 3 Yax, we reach the date recorded in A4, 3 Ahau 3 Yax,[[192]] and this whole text so far as deciphered will read:
| 9. | 18. | 15. | 0. | 0 | 3 Ahau 3 Yax |
| 10. | 10 | backward | |||
| 9. | 18. | 14. | 7. | 10 | 1 Oc 18 Kayab |
| 0. | 0 | forward from Initial Series | |||
| 9. | 18. | 15. | 0. | 0 | 3 Ahau 3 Yax |
The reason for recording a Secondary-series number equal to zero, the writer believes, was because the first Secondary-series date 1 Oc 18 Kayab precedes the Initial-series date, which in this case marks the time at which this monument was erected. Hence, in order to have the closing date on the monument record the contemporaneous time of the monument, it was necessary to repeat the Initial-series date; this was accomplished by adding to it a Secondary-series date denoting zero. Stela K is the next to the latest hotun-marker at Quirigua following immediately Stela I, the Initial series of which marks the hotun ending 9.18.10.0.0 10 Ahau 8 Zac (see pl. [6], C).
Mr. Bowditch (1910: p. 208) has advanced a very plausible explanation to account for the presence of the date 9.18.14.7.10 1 Oc 18 Kayab