Ernst Förstemann

“ Below it are the three days belonging to each member of the series and then a number for each member stating the interval between it and the preceding one. The members, the days and the differences must correspond with one another. It is, therefore, no longer necessary to pay especial attention to the two latter. They will serve merely to control and to correct the manifold errors.
The entire period of 11,958 days was doubtless first divided into three equal periods of 3986 days. ”

“ Now, how far may all these periods of time be due to accident and how far to design? Accident alone is quite out of the question. The frequent repetition of the sun-sign in groups 49, 50 and 51 on pages 54b and 55b, seems to me to refer to the conjunctions of the sun with certain stars, which occur at intervals of thirteen days.
Pages 58—59.
This section is also based on a series occupying the whole of page 59, which contains nothing but number and day signs. This series has the difference 78, which we found once before on page 44. ”

“ If it should be possible to regard it as the number of the thirteen week days, then it would follow (the Saturn sign being regarded as unimportant) that the contents of the rectangle meant:— 13 + a multiple of 398, by which this remainder would be reduced to -1.
The tenth picture has the cross b as the beginning of the rectangle. This is the sign for union, very often denoting especially the union of all the twenty days. Thus we have here (aside from the middle sign to be discussed later) the formula:— 20 + 30 × 398 - 2 = 11,958, or even 20 + 30 × 398 = 11,960. ”

“ This top part of the page is best preserved on page 50. In the third line from the bottom we see the Venus sign and beside it the Moan sign, below, a Cauac, then a Kin with the Ben-Ik superfix, then a Kan-Imix. Finally, in the first place in the lowest row there is a Kin sign and in the second place a sign resembling the year-sign, both having the same superfix, the next sign is again c and the last is a half-effaced sign, of which only a Muluc is distinguishable. ”

“ On pages 51-52 it was the aim to combine only the Mercury course with the Tonalamatl, but here we are confronted with the additional problem of bringing the lunar revolution into accord with these two.
The lunar revolution, which we assume to be 29.53 days, of course requires fractional computation, of which the Mayas either were ignorant or which they timorously avoided; like the ancient Egyptians, who were acquainted only with fractions having 1 as numerator, or beyond these at most with 2⁄3 (see Hultsch, "Die Elemente der ägyptischen Teilungsrechnung," 1895, page 16) . ”

“ Aside from the tenth picture, I find human forms in four pictures.
Picture 1, page 53a, is the death-god (A) seated and pointing upward, an appropriate representation for the zero-point of the Saturn series, i.e., for the end of the preceding revolution.
Picture 2, page 55a, contains the head of a deity, probably D's with the suggestion of a beard and the sun-sign on his forehead. The head is surrounded by a ring striped black and white.
Picture 3, page 56a, is the head of B, again with a beard and with the sign Kin (sun) above. ”

“ The number 236 denotes the time of the western elongation, when Venus is the morning star, 90 the time of the invisibility of the planet, during its superior conjunction, 250 that of its eastern elongation, when Venus is the evening star, and 8 the time of its invisibility during inferior conjunction. The disproportion between 236 and 250 is somewhat striking. These periods which need not of course be exactly equal are usually computed at 243 days. The short period of eight days is only calculated for very sharp eyes ”

“ The middle pictures on all the pages represent a warrior in a half-kneeling, half-crouching posture, holding spears or a shield in the right hand and brandishing a hatchet in the left. The shield on page 46 is doubtless a representation of the sun-glyph; and on 47 the Venus sign is combined with the head ornament. The hieroglyphs of these deities occupy the first place in the middle line of the three lines above the pictures. ”

“ Interpretation is rendered impossible by the destruction of the top part. For we do not even know whether the upper hieroglyphs occupied three or four rows each, the latter being the case at least in part, and there may have been a superscription over the day signs in the left half. ”

“ The object in the deity's hand seems invariably to be a cup of foaming pulque. On page 49 another object is placed above the cup, which I am unable to determine. The fifth, page 50, differs from the other four and forms the connecting link, as it were, between the upper row of pictures and the middle and lower ones. Here, too, a personage is represented sitting on astronomical signs and exhibiting symptoms of violent anger toward a second person opposite him holding the cup in his hands. ”

“ These upper signs are always followed by a picture, then three rows of hieroglyphs, then a second picture and next two rows of hieroglyphs and lastly a third picture.
Let us first examine the pictures:—
At the top of pages 46-49 there is on each page a deity, who with his right arm extended is offering or receiving something. He is seated on astronomical signs; on page 46 B's head accompanies these signs. On pages 46 and 48 the deity is undoubtedly the old woman with tiger claws, who usually pours streams of water from a jug (compare pages 39, 43 and 74) . ”

“ This number is five times 11,960 days, which is assumed to be the time in which the lunar and Mercury revolutions accord. This 59,800 was found once before on page 24 as the suppressed difference between 68,900 and 9,100.
Thus the separate sections (of the book) are very closely connected.
If the two large numbers be compared with one another their difference will be found to be 39,780. This is equal first to 51 Mars revolutions of 780 days, and second to 4420 × 9, i.e., a multiple of the interval between IV Ahau and XIII Muluc. ”

“ Let us turn next to the ten pictures which are inserted in this series, three of which appear at the end of each period of 2920 days as on pages 46-50. Let us attempt to advance a step further in the darkness which still surrounds us here. ”

“ I believe a further corroboration is the fact that though many of these hieroglyphs have no connection with these periods of 7 × 13, i.e., with the divisions of the ritual year, they do correspond with the usual divisions of the Tonalamatl, i.e., 4 × 13 and 5 × 13 days. ”

“ Thus far we have examined only the upper halves of pages 51 and 52 and have still to consider the lower, but not until we have finished the upper parts of pages 53-58 of which the former are the continuation. ”