|
The Temple of the Cross Tablet gives us the dates for the birth and accession of K'an Joy Chitam. The passage begins with a Distance Number of 16 days, 6 months, 19 tuns, and 1 k'atun. (A tun is the Maya solar year of 360 days. It is more properly spelled tuun, with a long vowel.) This counts forward from the birth of K'an Joy Chitam to his accession on 5 K'an 12 K'ayab' (R17-S17). The verb for "birth" is at R15, followed by the ruler's name at S15. R16 is transcribed in the normal reading order 'i-SAK-HUUN-K'AL, but the proper grammatical order is 'i k'al sak huun, literally "then it was tied (held), the white headband." The next glyph block is tu-'u-ba, tu 'ub'aah, "on his head". The two blocks together refer to the accession to rulership. This occurred on 9.4.14.10.4 5 K'an 12 K'ayab' (February 25, 529). The date of birth is not given, but we can subtract the distance number from the accession date and look up the Calendar Round for the Long Count number that we arrive at. This is 9.2.15.3.8 12 Lamat 6 Wo (May 4, 490). So K'an Joy Chitam acceded when he was about 39 years old. |