6
The Long Count
. . . and the days of eternity, who shall number? The height of the heaven, and the breadth of the earth, and the deep, and wisdom, who shall search them out?
—ECCLESIASTICUS, 1:2-3
IN THE MAYA SCHEME the road over which time had marched stretched into a past so distant that the mind of [...]
APPENDIX I
Divinatory Almanacs in the Books of Chilam Balam
Noble stock was graft with crab-tree slip.
—SHAKESPEARE, Henry VI, Pt. 2, Act 3, Scene 2
IN SEVERAL of the books of Chilam Balam and in Perez are the sorry remnants of the old art of prognostication of the days of the sacred almanac. These fall into three groups. [...]
APPENDIX II
The Correlation Question
Who can direct, when all pretend to know?
—GOLDSMITH, The Traveller
IN A PREVIOUS publication (Thompson, 1935) I have reviewed the pros and cons of the various correlations which have been propounded. I have no desire to cross that swamp again, for I still adhere to the conclusion which I then reached, namely, that [...]
APPENDIX III
Whorf’s Attempts to Decipher the Maya Hieroglyphs
It is an old trait of human nature when in the mist to be very sure about its road.
—JOHN BUCHAN
IT HAD BEEN my intention to ignore Whorf’s (1933, 1942) attempts to read the Maya hieroglyphic writing, supposing that all students of the subject would by now have consigned [...]
APPENDIX IV
Maya Calculations Far into the Past and into the Future
Picked from the worm holes of long-vanish’d days.
—SHAKESPEARE, Henry V, Act II
IT SEEMS advisable to gather the most outstanding of Maya calculations into the past and into the future in order to illustrate how the Maya thought in vast expanses of time, and how they [...]
APPENDIX V
Determinants
Gallop apace bright Phoebus, through the sky
—CHRISTOPHER MARLOW, Edward II
THE DETERMINANT THEORY was first enunciated by Teeple (1930, pp. 70-85). A determinant is a date which is believed to record the gain of the Maya year of 365 days over the solar year of approximately 365.2422 days in the interval between 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau [...]
