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The Temple of the Cross Tablet records the birth and accession of Ahkal Mo' Nahb'. First we see a distance number of 17 days, 7 months, 16 years and 1 k'atun (the "1" being represented by a thumb, the word for which is na k'ab' or "first one of the hand" in the relevant Mayan languages, per Marc Zender, personal communication). The verb for birth is at S9, followed by its Calendar Round date, 5 Ajaw 3 Sek. The name of Ahkal Mo' Nahb' is at R11, while at S11 is the verb referring to the white headband of rulership which was tied or held, either by or for him (R12). This occurred on 5 Kab'an 0 Sotz'. (To the left of the bat representing the solar month sign Sotz' at R13 is a sign that means "the seating of". The Maya thought of the last day of any given month of twenty days as being the seating of the following month. In this case, the seating of Sotz' occurred on the twentieth day of the preceding month, Sip. Instead of writing this as 20 Sip, we write it as 0 Sotz' in order to make it correspond to the way the Maya conceptualized it.) Note: As we have seen, distance numbers are added to or subtracted from Long Count dates to arrive at other such dates. In the present inscription, the distance number counts forward from Ahkal Mo' Nahb's birth on 9.1.10.0.0 to arrive at his accession on 9.3.6.7.17. Long Count dates enumerate the number of days that have elapsed since the Maya Creation in 3114 B.C. They begin with a period of 400 years that we call a bak'tun, then record the number of k'atuns, years, months and days. (Thus Ahkal Mo' Nahb's accession date of 9.3.6.7.17 counts 9 bak'tuuns, 3 k'atuns, 6 years, 6 months and 17 days since the beginning of time.) But distance numbers in the Maya texts appear in the opposite order. In the current text the distance number is written 17 days, 7 months, 16 years and 1 k'atun. So in order to facilitate the mathematical calculation by which it is added to the Long Count, we reverse this and write it numerically 1.16.7.17. |