The Long Count.

Typical Mayan Inscription.

Many early monuments of the Mayas have inscriptions with an enlarged Introducing Glyph containing a variable element indicating the title or principal subject matter of the inscription. Next follows the number of elapsed days from the epoch of a Mundane Era. This starting point is uniformly the day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu and the complete Initial Series date not only states the number of elapsed days, but also the name and number of the day reached and its position in a Mayan month.

The Initial Series is normally followed by a Supplementary Series which concerns the lunar calendar, and often there are numbers of days to be added to or subtracted from the Initial Series date: these are called Secondary Series. Also Period Ending dates are used, these being merely abbreviated dates which correspond to indicated round numbers in the day count.

The Initial Series analyzed inPlate XXIIIactually records the number 1,401,217. This number does not, however, reach the day 12 Caban declared immediately after it or the month position 5 Kayab recorded in glyph 10b. When 13 tuns are corrected to 12 tuns on the theory that the sculptor did not follow copy, we do reach 12 Caban 5 Kayab. Another check comes when we add the Secondary Series of 2423 days and reach 4 Ahau 13 Yax ending an even katun.

Initial Series dates are especially common on stelÃ¦ at cities of the First Empire, mostly located in the southern part of the Mayan Area. While it is impossible to read much of the texts which accompany these dates neverthelessit is a remarkable fact that when we arrange the monuments in their artistic order we find that the inscribed dates in the great majority of cases fall in the same order. This leads us to conclude that the dates are practically contemporaneous with the carving and setting up of the monuments. Now the above is especially true when the inscription gives a simple Initial Series date. When more than one date is given the historic one appears in most instances to be the latest, but in a few instances it appears to be a specially emphasized intermediate date. In addition, then, to contemporaneous dates there are some that refer to the past and others that refer to the future.

Some writers have assumed that the stelÃ¦ and other inscribed monuments were primarily time markers set up at the end of hotun (or five year) periods. This seems an unnecessarily narrow view. We can demonstrate that some inscriptions deal with astronomical facts covering long stretches of time. It is also apparent that many of the sculptures represent conquests and it is extremely likely that portraits of actual rulers are to be seen in certain carvings. It would be too much to expect events to happen regularly at the end of time periods and as a matter of fact we find at different cities repeated dates that do not occupy such positions. These repeated dates would seem to recall events of special importance to the city in question.

The running co-ordination between the apparent order of the artistic styles and inscribed dates permits us to measure very accurately the rate of change in art which was rapid, indeed, at certain times. The style of carving, on the other hand, enables us to put into definite 52 year periods manyof the calendar round datesâ€”if these are to be regarded as contemporaneous. The result is that for the First Empire, as it has been called, there is an exceedingly accurate chronology. After the fall and abandonment of the great southern cities dates are rare and we have to fall back upon remnants of history preserved after the coming of the Spaniards.

Mayan hieroglyphs resemble the Egyptian and Chinese hieroglyphs only in being â€œsacred writingâ€ that is not based upon an alphabet. The styles and symbols are entirely different. No Rosetta Stone has yet been discovered to give us inscriptions in more than one system of writing in Central America. The great use of hieroglyphic inscriptions on monuments was characteristic of the earlier period of Mayan history and at a later time the writing was reduced to books. Bishop Landa obtained what he supposed was a Mayan alphabet, but what he really obtained was a list of signs representing among other sounds the particular sounds he had asked for.

The phonetic use of syllables rather than of simple sounds or letters is probably an important feature of Mayan writing. Many hieroglyphs are pictographic and consist of abbreviated pictures of the thing intended or of some object connected with it. Often a head stands for the entire body. The following list practically exhausts our knowledge of Mayan hieroglyphs:â€”

1. The signs for the twenty named days of the calendar.2. The signs for the nineteen months of the Mayan year.

1. The signs for the twenty named days of the calendar.

2. The signs for the nineteen months of the Mayan year.

3. The face signs for numbers from zero to nineteen inclusive.4. Period glyphs in two styles for place values in the numerical notation.5. The symbols for the four directions and for the colors associated with them.6. The hieroglyphs of several gods and ceremonies.7. The symbols of Heaven and Earth, the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and a few astronomical phenomena such as conjunctions.8. Hieroglyphs for special times of the year such as solstices and equinoxes.9. Signs meaning era, or base from which a numerical count is made, completion, etc.

3. The face signs for numbers from zero to nineteen inclusive.

4. Period glyphs in two styles for place values in the numerical notation.

5. The symbols for the four directions and for the colors associated with them.

6. The hieroglyphs of several gods and ceremonies.

7. The symbols of Heaven and Earth, the Sun, Moon, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and a few astronomical phenomena such as conjunctions.

8. Hieroglyphs for special times of the year such as solstices and equinoxes.

9. Signs meaning era, or base from which a numerical count is made, completion, etc.

Some of these have recently been solved, thanks to mathematical and astronomical calculations, others rest on the calendarial forms given by Landa. There are some phonetic elements in Mayan writing and some ideographic elements. It seems likely that the gist of the Mayan inscriptions which deal with history will be solved in somewhat the same fashion as those that deal with astronomy. The matter is, however, most perplexing. So far not a single place name or personal name has been definitely recognized and translated. In spite of the hundreds of glyphs recovered at the sites called Copan and Palenque, for instance, we do not know the real names of these cities or even their symbols. We may expect to find signs referring to tribute and common objects of trade and others referring to birth, death, establishment, conquest, destruction, and other fundamentals of individual and social existence. These signs, taken with directives, connectives,and dates, would make possible the recovery of the main facts of history. There seems no possibility of purely literary inscriptions. While progress necessarily will be slow there is no reason for despair and without doubt the greater portion of Mayan inscriptions will finally be deciphered.

Fig. 46. Hieroglyphs of the Four Directions: East, North, West, South.

Fig. 47. Hieroglyphs containing the Phonetic Elementkin:a-b,kin;c,li-kin;d,chi-kin;e-f,yax-kin;g,kan-kin.

As an example of the phonetic use of signs in the building up of hieroglyphs let us take the common signkin, meaning â€œsun.â€ This sign appears regularly in the glyphs for the world directions east and west, the Mayan names beinglikinandchikin, and also in the month signYaxkin, and sometimes in that forKankin. It also appears as the sign for the lowest period in the time count having the value of a single day and calledkin(Fig. 47). Now this kin sign also appears in many undeciphered hieroglyphs and in some of these it seems likely that it has a phonetic value. Other signs with definite values in several glyphs areyax,tun,zac, etc. This general method of writing is seen in more decipherableform among the Aztecs. The glosses of the early priests that have proved so great a help in the case of the Aztecan writing are absent from the few Mayan documents.

Only three ancient Mayan books or codices are known to exist and these are more or less incomplete. They have all been reproduced in facsimile and are known by the following names: Dresden Codex, Peresianus Codex, Tro-Cortesianus Codex.

These illuminated manuscripts are written on both sides of long strips of amatl paper, folded like Japanese screens. The paper was given a smooth surface by a coating of fine lime and the drawings were made in black and in various colors. From the early accounts we know that books were also written on prepared deerskin and upon bark. Concerning their subject matter we are told that the Mayas had many books upon civil and religious history, and upon rites, magic, and medicine. The three books named above have been carefully studied. They treat principally of the calendar and of associated religious ceremonies.

A page of the Dresden Codex containing some interesting calculations is reproduced herewith. The numbers with the digits one above the other are transcribed in two diagrams. In the upper diagram the bar and dot numerals are simply put over into Arabic numerals and the Mayan system of periods or positions is retained. In the lower diagram these numbers are reduced entirely to the Arabic system. The columns are lettered at the top, the hieroglyphs are counted off in sixteen rows at the left and the separate groupings of numbers are shown in five sections at the right.

Among the hieroglyphs the Venus sign is especially prominent. At the base of column B is given a number in five periods that, counted from the normal beginning day 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu leads again to this day which is recorded at the bottom of column A. The long number in column C, similarly counted from 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu, leads to 1 Ahau 18 Kayab, recorded at the bottom of B. The day 1 Ahau 18 Uo is reached by another calculation which will be explained later. At the base of A is a number in three periods which amounts to 2200. Not only is this the difference between the long numbers in B and C (1,366,560 - 1,364,360 = 2200) but it is also the number of days by which 1 Ahau 18 Kayab precedes 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu. In other words we deal in this passage with the end of the seventy-second calendar round after the original 4 Ahau 8 Cumhu and with a new point of departure 2200 days earlier, which is some way involved with the calendar of Venus.

Let us now make a new beginning in the lower left hand corner of this page. In G5 we find the number 2920 which as we have already seen is exactly the number of days consumed in eight years of 365 days or five synodic revolutions of Venus of 584 days. We will now see how the Mayan scholars arrived at 13 Ã— 2920 or 37,960, the calendar round of Venus. If we proceed towards the left in section 5 we find the second number, F5, is 5840 which equals 2 Ã— 2920, the third is 8760 or 3 Ã— 2920, and the fourth is 11,680 or 4 Ã— 2920. The addition is continued in sections 4 and 3 till we reach 35,040 or 12 Ã— 2920. To be sure the scribe made a slight error in one place, writing a 5 for an 8 but this is caught up by the day signs 9 Ahau, 4 Ahau, 7 Ahau, 12 Ahau, etc., that fall at regular intervals of 2920 days.

Page 24 Dresden Codex.

Diagram showing partial reduction of Mayan numbers into Arabic numbers in the calculation shown on page 24 of the Dresden Codex (Plate XXIV).

Diagram showing complete reduction into Arabic numbers of the calculation shown on page 24 of the Dresden Codex (Plate XXIV).

From section 3, the calculation jumps to section 1 where the numbers in the original are partly destroyed. They have, however, been restored with perfect assurance since the days in all instances are 1 Ahau and therefore must be separated by multiples of 260 days. The number in G1 has been restored as 5-5-8-0 or 37,960 or 13 Ã— 2920. It contains 260 an even number of times and therefore every successive period of 37,960 days begins with the same day, 1 Ahau. It also equals 13 Ã— 8 Ã— 365 days or 104 years and 13 Ã— 5 Ã— 584 days or sixty-five revolutions of Venus.

Fig. 48. Mayan Ceremony as represented in the Dresden Codex. The figure at the left beats a drum while the one on the right plays a flageolet. The sound is indicated by scrolls. The head on the pyramid is that of the Maize God and it rests upon the signcaban, meaning earth.

The three numbers to the left in F1, E1, and D1 are respectively 2, 3, and 4 times 37,960. The last number, 151,840 days is therefore equal to 416 years or exactly 8 calendar rounds of 18,980 days.

The numbers in section 2 are more difficult to explain but they possibly have to do with corrections and correlations of astronomical periods. If we add to 1 Ahau 18 Kayab the number of days in E2, (68900), we arrive at a day 1 Ahau 13 Mac. This day is prominent in more detailed calculations elsewhere in the Dresden Codex. If we add to the same 1 Ahau 18 Kayab the number in D2 we arrive at 1 Ahau 18 Uo recorded at the bottom of C. Space permits no further explanation but the reader will see from the foregoing the method of experiment and cross checking that must be applied to the decipherment of the Mayan manuscripts. Fortunately, the relationships of numbers are absolute and the coincidences between the recorded numbers and astronomical periods are too close and frequent to be dismissed as accidental.

In addition to rational calculations dealing with astronomy one sees in the Mayan manuscripts many arrangements of thetzolkinsupposed to bring to light good and bad days and to forecast events. A section of the Dresden Codex showing a condensedtzolkinis presented along with a diagram of its parts. At the top and right are seventeen hieroglyphs containing the symbols of the four directions, and of at least three of the principal gods. At the right is a column of five day signs with the number 3 at the head of the column. The permutation is divided into five parts of fifty-two days each and each part is subdivided into four groups of thirteen days each. It begins with 3 Akbal, the day sign at the top of the column, and after the four subdivisions of thirteen days each have been counted we arrive at the day 3 Men, the second day sign in the column. The count is repeated till the 260 days have been exhausted and we come back again to 3 Akbal. In the diagram the red numbers of the codex are represented by Roman numerals and the black numbers by Arabic numerals. Since the count in this example begins with 3 and the addition is always 13, or exactly one round of numbers, the resultant days always have the number 3.

(a) Detail of the Dresden Codex showingTzolkinused in Divination.

(b) Analysis of the aboveTzolkin, according to FÃ¶rstemann.

The three pictures of gods give us an inkling into the significance of this particular table of chances. All of the gods carry thekanor maize sign in their hands. The first god is the benevolent rain god and the third is the benevolent sun god. Between them is seated the malevolent goddess of floods with a serpent on her head. The maize god is not shown but his hieroglyph is given. Thistzolkinprobably deals with agriculture and may be an attempt to determine lucky days for planting.

The day for day correlation rests broadly on the placing of the date on the Lintel of the Initial Series at Chichen Itza in the first occupation of that city according to the chronicles. More specifically it rests upon statements in Mayan and Spanish documents relating to the completion of tuns and katuns in the never-languishing day count. Also consideration must be given the so-called Year-Bearers, these being the first days of current years which furnish the designations for such years. Bishop Landa has a specimen Mayan year with its equivalent days in the Spanish calendar; this is the year 12 Kan corresponding to 1553-1554 A. D. and the day 12 Kan is found in the Long Count position 12.9.17.9.4, 12 Kan 2 Pop, July 26, 1553, Gregorian Calendar.

The zero of the Mayan day count, reached by subtracting 12.9.17.9.4 or 1,799,104 days from the position declared above, is shown to be October 14, 3373 B. C. in the backward projection of the Gregorian calendar. The Gregorian readings are preferable to the Julian because they preserve the actual times in the tropical year, but it is sometimes useful to use the days of the Julian Period which can always be found by adding 489384 to the Mayan number.

Now Mayan history does not reach back to the zero date which must be regarded as a theoretical beginning or Mundane Era. The earliest object with a contemporary date is the Tuxtla Statuette with May 16, 98 B. C. It appears, however, that the really historic beginning of the day count was 7.0.0.0.0, 10 Ahau 18 Zac, August 6, 613 B. C. The calendar of months was probably inaugurated in 580 B. C. when 0 Pop, New Yearâ€™s day, coincided with the winter solstice. A third era, 9.0.0.0.0, 8 Ahau 13 Ceh, February 10, 176 A. D., is the one used in the Mayan chronicles.

The first astronomical checks which develop from the correlation explained above are dates which reach the equinoxes, solstices, etc., further marked by special hieroglyphs which are to be explained as ideographs of these stations in the natural year. For instance the most emphatic date in the three famous temples of the Sun, the Cross, and the Foliated Cross at Palenque is one written 9.12.18.5.16, 2 Cib 14 Mol, September 23, 430 A. D., which coincides with the autumnal equinox. In connection with this repeated date we find two glyphs both ofwhich are admirable ideographs of the equinox. One is Ahau, a face explained as that of the Lord of Day, but here half covered with starry eyes, and the other is the Kin or sun symbol, half darkened with cross-hatching. At Comitan a round number date exactly coinciding with the equinox has a variant of this second ideograph.

Other strong proofs concern Venus and the Moon. Hieroglyphs of these heavenly bodies are found in combination with dates and these later actually reach significant phases of the planets in question. For Venus the phase chosen is commonly the first appearance as Morningstar four days after inferior conjunction, or what is known as the heliacal rising. Records of the Moon are prominent when a new or full phase coincides with a round number in the day count.

One of the most interesting pieces of evidence in support of the correlation explained above has to do with a giant sun dial at Copan. Two stelÃ¦ stand on opposite sides of the valley establishing a line which runs about 9 degrees north of west. When observation is made from the eastern marker the sun sets behind the western stone two times during the course of a year, once shortly after the vernal equinox and once shortly before the autumnal equinox. Now the Mayan chronicles state that the calendarial New Year was â€œcounted in orderâ€ during a certain Katun 13 Ahau which extended from 491 A. D. to 511 A. D. Altar U at Copan was observed to record two New Yearâ€™s dates equaling April 9 in conjunction with another date, equaling September 2, 503 A. D., and falling in the required interval covered by Katun 13 Ahau. These dates were such as might be reached by just such a base line as exists at Copan and it was first believed that they were exactly reached by it. Careful reconsideration of the evidence in the inscriptions and a re-survey of the line of sight led to the interesting conclusion that the sun dial of Copan was originally set up in 392 A. D. to give sunset coincidences on April 5 and September 6. About 490 A. D. the stones were re-adjusted to give the April 9 and September 2 which are recorded on Altar U and still later a third and present arrangement was effected giving April 12 and August 30. Each pair of dates is â€œreciprocalâ€ in the sense that one member marks the same interval after the Spring equinox that the other does before the Fall equinox. The shifting seems to have been decided upon by astronomical congresses, and the purpose was to fix propitious times of planting the crops.

Fig. 49. Diagram of the Astronomical Base Line at Copan giving readings at April 9 and September 2. Slight shifts were made in this line: at an early time it was arranged to read April 5 and September 6 and at a later time April 12 and August 30.

Other Mayan observatories at Uaxactun and Chichen Itza have lines of sight which mark exactly the positions of the sun (the summer solstice, etc.), and all in all the evidence deduced from these observatories is in complete agreement with the correlation of the Mayan and Christian time counts originally effected on the evidence in sixteenth century documents.

The base line at Copan yielded accurate data on the exact length of the tropical year, a period varying by a difficult fraction from 365 full days. The tropical year is the time measured by the revolution of the earth around the sun and by the recurring seasons. No agricultural people could neglect this natural time period with its obvious relation to planting and harvest.

Reference has already been made to the notational 360 day year (tun) of the Mayas and to their formal calendar year (haab) of exactly 365 days. The calendar year kept running ahead of the true year by the accumulating amount of the days which we intercalate on leap years but the Mayas wisely made no such intercalations since to have done so would have thrown their day count out of gear with the moon and other planets and the somewhat defective calendar based upon these minor heavenly bodies. Therefore the months of the Mayan year like those of the ancient Egyptian year slowly moved through the seasons. But the Mayas calculated an almost exact correction for the excess of the true year over the vague 365 day year. This excess amounts to about .24 of a day and their correctionseems to have been one day in four years for short periods while for long periods they made 29 calendar rounds (1508 calendar years or 550,420 days) equal 1507 tropical years. This is a remarkably accurate adjustment, much closer, in fact, than that of our present Gregorian calendar. This great cycle is comparable to the 1460 year Sothic cycle of the Egyptians in so far as that relates to the flooding of the Nile, but the Egyptian arrangement has an error of about twelve days for the cycle while the Mayan arrangement is accurate to a very small fraction of a day.

In the calendars of various Guatemalan and Mexican tribes the slow shifting of the months is attested by actual statements of early Spanish writers. But the conventional 365 day year was, after all, sufficiently accurate for most purposes since associations between the months and the seasons would hold reasonably true for the average lifetime.

The apparent revolution of the moon around the earth was taken by the Mayas as the basis of a lunar calendar distinct from the civil calendar, but used in combination with it for various ceremonial purposes. Now the average duration of a lunar revolution is 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, 2.87 seconds. Twelve lunations amount to a little more than 354 days and are therefore far short of a true year. Primitive peoples whose principal interest is to keep the moon in adjustment with the seasons have an occasional thirteenth month in their luni-solar calendars.

The Metonic cycle of the Greeks, an equation of 19 tropical years, 235 lunations and 6940 days, has been regarded as a remarkable achievement in observation.The Mayas discovered the same equation and with their system of designating days were able to use it with much greater ease than the Greeks since one katun minus one tzolkin gives exactly the required number of days:â€”

This interval is used prominently in several calculations at Copan and Quirigua.

On pages 51 to 58 of the Dresden Codex is found a remarkable lunar calendar covering 405 lunations or nearly 33 years. The lunar revolutions are arranged in groups of five or six, the former calculated at 148 days and the latter at 177 or 178 days. These are the necessary intervals between eclipses. The total amounts to 11,960 days which exactly contains the tzolkin and therefore forms a cycle. It is a remarkable fact that 405 lunar revolutions amount, according to modern calculations, to 11,959.888 or only O.112 of a day less than the Mayan lunar calendar. Therefore this re-entering series can be used nine times, or nearly 300 years, before an error amounting to one whole day has accumulated. There is also evidence that the Mayas used the great cycle of 29 Ã— 52 calendar years, or 1507 tropical years, in connection with the moon and here the error for 18,639 lunations is about .64 of a day.

The Supplementary Series in Long Count dates is probably to be interpreted as the statement of the day reached by the Initial Series in a lunar calendar with an accumulated error; that is, the Mayas had an uncorrected lunar count as well as an uncorrected calendar year. Glyph C records a numberof complete lunations which is never in excess of six; Glyph D gives the number of days in the current lunation when these are 19 or less and Glyph E, which has the basic value of 20, finishes the count of a current lunation. There is some evidence that the Mayan lunar calendar in the fifth century A. D. had receded about four days from the true positions of the moon, the count being made from the new or conjunctional phase. When, however, a new or full phase actually coincided with an important round number in the day count special record of the fact was made.

Fig. 50. Representations of the Moon:a, sun and moon hieroglyphs;b, moon from a â€œcelestial bandâ€;c, moon hieroglyph used for 20 in codices.

Fig. 51. The Last Glyph of the Supplementary Series:a, moon glyph; combined with the numeral 9 or 10 to indicate a 29 or a 30 day lunar month.

The lunar table in the Dresden Codex does not apply precisely to records of the First Empire but possibly may be adjusted to the times of the Second Empire. The indications are, however, too complicated to be examined in detail.

Mayan astronomers reached a remarkable knowledge of the movements of the planet Venus and evolved a Venus calendar based essentially on the correspondence between 8 calendar years of 365 days each and 5 apparent or synodical revolutions of Venus of 584 days each. Venus whirling on an inside orbit actually makes thirteen revolutions around the sun in very nearly the same time that the earth makes eight revolutions and therefore passes between the earth and the sun five times (the difference between 13 and 8) during the course of this astronomical period of 2920 days. Just before inferior conjunction the planet disappears as evening star and a few days later emerges as morning star. The mean length of the synodical revolution of Venus is 583.92 days and the actual length may vary about four days from this mean. While the Mayas standardized the Earth year at 365 days and the Venus year at 584 days, they were fully aware of the amount of error in each case, and made proper correction for it without resorting to the devices of intercalation or excision.

We have seen that the Mayas manipulated the year and the lunation in combination with the tzolkin or permutation of 20 days and 13 numbers. They also found a round of these elements in combination with the phases of Venus. Since the period of 2920 days is divisible by 20 but not by 13 it had to be taken 13 times before the round of the Venus calendar was reached.

In the Dresden Codex five pages are devoted to this round of the Venus calendar. Each Venus year of 584 days is divided into four parts of 236 days for the phase of morning star, 90 days (superior conjunction), 250 days (evening star) and 8days (inferior conjunction). These divisions agree closely enough with actual appearance. But we must remember that the observations were made without instruments and that the planet cannot be seen by the naked eye when close to the sun. Moreover we must expect beliefs as to the nature of this planet, personified as a god, to supplement the knowledge gained from actual observations. The obscuration of Venus at inferior conjunction seems to have been greatly dreaded especially when a round number in the day count fell within the eight days of its duration. A grotesque two-headed monster apparently ruled this fatal period: on the front head is seen the symbol of Venus and on the rear head the symbol of the sun, both associated with elements of death.

The Venus calendar seems to have taken form in the sixth century B. C. on the basis of heliacal risings of the planet as morning star in sets of five making an eight year cycle. The dates in the Mayan calendar especially emphasized in connection with Venus are 19 Xul, 18 Kayab, 12 Yax, 6 Zip, and 5 Kankin standing exactly 584 days apart, while the corresponding dates in the Gregorian calendar are April 12, November 17, June 24, January 29, and September 5. When these sets of dates, one in a fixed and the other in a vague calendar are carried back to a common focus they are found to correspond very closely with the proper astronomical phase of Venus. The maximum difference of the true positions of Venus from the positions in the Venus calendar is then only two days, plus or minus.

The coincidences of the 8 day period of obscuration of Venus at inferior conjunction with the followinground numbers in the day count was memorialized by important monuments:â€”

The Venus table in the Dresden Codex, the introductory page of which has been explained in an earlier section (seePlate XXIV) emphasizes the same Mayan and Gregorian positions of Venus as the ancient monuments but this table was evidently intended to be used between the Tenth and Thirteenth centuries A. D. The point of departure for the table is 9.9.9.16.0, 1 Ahau 18 Kayab, April 12, 363 A. D., which does not coincide with an heliacal rising of the planet, although April 12 and 18 Kayab occur in other connections at the time of the inauguration of the Venus calendar in the Sixth century B. C. But in the Lunar table we find 10.19.6.1.0, 4 Ahau 18 Kayab, November 20, 950, which does reach an heliacal rising of Venus as morning star.

A brief summary of Mayan history is given below:â€”

613 B. C. to 176 A. D.7.0.0.0.0 to 9.0.0.0.0

The counting of days apparently began on August 6, 613 B. C. and the civil calendar in perfected formwas inaugurated about 580 B. C. when 0 Pop coincided with the winter solstice, while the Venus calendar emerged half a century later. The calendarial inventions, the numerical notation and the hieroglyphic system may, perhaps, be credited to the genius of one man afterwards deified as Itzamna. The earliest contemporary Mayan date occurs on a jade statuette from San Andres Tuxtla, and is May 16, 98 B. C. The next earliest one is on the jade tablet known as the Leyden Plate and is November 17, 60 A. D., having reference to the Venus calendar. This is followed almost immediately by several contemporary dates on monuments at Uaxactun which also are of astronomical import. The design on the Leyden Plate shows that the characteristic details of Mayan drawing had already been developed and we may surmise that during the protohistoric period the early carvings were on wood instead of stone and that the peculiar religion of the Mayas was even then beginning to crystallize around the serpent, the jaguar, etc.

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