Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history; (1904) (14784140572)

Identifier: mexicancentralam28bowd (find matches)
Title: Mexican and Central American antiquities, calendar systems, and history;
Year: 1904 (1900s)
Authors: Bowditch, Charles P(ickering), 1842- (from old catalog) ed Seler, Eduard, 1849-1922 Förstemann, Ernst Wilhelm, 1822-1906 Schellhas, Paul, 1859- (from old catalog) Sapper, Karl Theodor, 1866- (from old catalog) Dieseldorff, Erwin P. (from old catalog) Wesselhoeft, Selma, (from old catalog) tr Parker, Alberta M., (from old catalog) tr Jay I. Kislak Reference Collection (Library of Congress) DLC
Subjects: Maya calendar Calendar
Publisher: Washington, Gov't print. off.
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive



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order Kan, Muluc, Ix,and Cauac, as Landa reckoned the years, but in the order Ix, Cauac,Kan, and Muluc, as they appear in the Dresden manuscript. This7238—No. 28—05 3 34 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY conjecture is now wholly superfluous. The Dresden manuscript does,indeed, reckon the years precisely as Landa does, that is, beginningwith the east, but the years which Landa designates by the dominicalletters, Kan, Muluc, Ix, Cauac, are here specified by the initialdays Been, Ezanab, Akbal, and Lamat. The chief figure on the firstpage is a god with a remarkable branching nose, whose principalhierogtyph is «, figure 3, a hieroglyph which otherwise serves todesignate the lightning animal, the heavenly dog darting from theclouds. Instead of the latter, e (same figure), that is, the head of Chac,appears as the principal hieroglyph in the Dresden codex, page 3.It is therefore obvious that this god is a god of rain and thunder.Landa mentions in the Kan year Bolon Zacab, a name which is not
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Fig. 3. Symbols from the Maya codices. known elsewhere. But he also states, and that only of the Kan years,that they are said to be rich in rain. On the second page (26) of the Dresden manuscript the chief figureis a god who has the sign kin written on his e)^ebrow, and whosechief hieroglyph, b, figure 3, likewise contains the sign kin. Thisagrees with Landas statement, who, in the Muluc years, mentionsKinchahau, the Lord with the sun face. On the third page theold god is represented, whose chief hieroglyph is c, figure 3. Thisagain agrees with Landa, who mentions the god Itzamna in the Ixyears. And on the last page (28) of the Dresden manuscript a deathgod is designated by the hieroglyph <f, the face with gaping jaws;elsewhere written also in the form of glyph h. This, too, agrees withLanda, who calls the Uac mitun ahau of the Cauac years Lord ofsix hells. I can not go into further details concerning these deities selerJ THE MEXICAN CHRONOLOGY 35 here, and refer the reader to my w