BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGYBULLETIN 57 PLATE 23

INITIAL SERIES, SECONDARY SERIES, AND PERIOD-ENDING DATES ON STELA 3, PIEDRAS NEGRAS

The "end of Cycle 10" in glyph 8a is merely redundancy. The writer believes that 9.15.0.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Yax indicates the present time of Altar S rather than 10.0.0.0.0 7 Ahau 18 Zip, and that consequently the latter date was "prophetic" in character, as was the same date on Zoömorph G at Quirigua. One reason which renders this probable is that the sculpture on Altar S very closely resembles the sculpture on Stelæ A and B at Copan, both of which date from 9.15.0.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Yax. A possible explanation of the record of Cycle 10 on this monument is the following: On the date of this monument, 9.15.0.0.0 4 Ahau 13 Yax, just three-fourths of Cycle 9 had elapsed. This important fact would hardly have escaped the attention of the old astronomer-priests, and they may have used this monument to point out that only a quarter cycle, 5 katuns, was left in Cycle 9. This concludes the discussion of Cycle-10 Period-ending dates.

The student will note in the preceding example (fig. [81]) that Initial-series, Secondary-series, and Period-ending dating have all been used together in the same text, glyphs 1-4 recording an Initial-series date, glyphs 6a and 7, a Secondary-series date, and glyphs 7 and 8a, a Period-ending date. This practice is not at all unusual in the inscriptions and several texts illustrating it are figured below.

Texts Recording Initial Series, Secondary Series, and Period Endings

In plate [23] is shown the inscription on Stela 3 at Piedras Negras. The introducing glyph appears in A1 and is followed by the Initial-series number 9.12.2.0.16 in B1-B3. This number reduced to units of the first order and counted forward from its starting point will be found to reach the terminal date 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin, which the student will readily recognize in A4-B7; the "month-sign indicator" appearing very clearly in A7, with the coefficient 9 affixed to it. Compare the day sign in A4 with figure [16], z, and the month sign in B7 with figure [19], k, l. The Initial Series recorded in A1-A4, B7 reads, therefore, 9.12.2.0.16 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin. In C1 D1 is recorded the number 0 kins, 10 uinals, and 12 tuns; that is, 12.10.0, the first of several Secondary Series in this text. Reducing this to units of the first order and counting it forward from the terminal date of the Initial Series, 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin, the terminal date of the Secondary Series will be found to be 1 Cib 14 Kankin, which the student will find recorded in C2b D2a. The Initial-series value of this latter date may be calculated as follows:

9.12. 2. 0.16 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin
12.10. 0
9.12.14.10.16 1 Cib 14 Kankin