



Produced by Julia Miller, Diane Monico, and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive)











WAS THE BEGINNING DAY OF THE
MAYA MONTH NUMBERED ZERO
(OR TWENTY) OR ONE?


BY

CHARLES P. BOWDITCH


CAMBRIDGE
THE UNIVERSITY PRESS
1901




WAS THE BEGINNING DAY OF THE MAYA MONTH NUMBERED ZERO (OR TWENTY) OR
ONE?


Goodman, in his elaborate and valuable book on the Maya Inscriptions,
has made up his Tables on the supposition that the beginning day of the
month was not called Day 1, but Day 20, giving the day this number
because in his view the Mayas counted the number of days which had
passed and not the current or passing day. That is, the Mayas,
according to Goodman, used the same plan in counting their days which
we use in counting our minutes and hours and which we depart from in
counting our days. Thus, when we speak of January 1, we do not mean
that one day has passed since January came in, but that the month of
December has passed and that we are living in the day which when
completed will be the first day of January. But when we say that it is
one o'clock, we do not mean that we are living in the hour which when
passed will be the first hour of the day or half-day, but we mean that
one whole hour of the day or half-day has fully passed. Goodman's idea
is that the Mayas used this system in counting their days of the month,
their kins, uinals, tuns, katuns, and cycles. In other words he
considers that the beginning day of the month Pop was not 1 Pop