[Aztlan] Beginnings and Endings

[Aaron]

>>>
I would not characterize 1 Imix as the beginning of the tzolkin count. 
All k'atuns do, however, begin on Imix days.
<<<

Hi Karen,

Thanks for your recent offerings.  Very enlightening.  I thought to make the same point about 1 Imix, especially in the present tense.  However, in other complimentary respects it seems 1 Imix is the first day.  The Madrid almanacs for example.  And of course your point about katuns is also true, given LC reckoning, for all period 'beginnings', including tuns and winals.  More precisely perhaps, we can say Imix is 'day one' of each of these cycles because it always correlates to the number 1 in the kin column of the LC.  

Theoretically you could then say that 1 Imix begins the 260 cycle because it is the only day on which both sub-cycles are at one.  However, that presumes that the number one is associated with beginning, which may be questioned by:  Chilam Balam texts that have the creation of the winal on the day Chuen;  the Wajshakib Batz ceremonies; a beginning on 'zero' days?  These questions are allayed somewhat by the Madrid almanacs beginning on 1 Imix, which could in turn be questioned as derived from Mexican origin.  However, given its 1:1 association since the inception of the LC, we should be firm in saying 1 Imix is "day one" of the Tzolkin, just as 4 Ahau is the "zero day" (0.0.0.0.) of the LC.  

When we extrapolate further to 'beginnings' and 'endings' the danger may not so much be that we are projecting ourselves onto the Maya, but that we limit our perception of the subtleties, or definitions, to a form that does not incorporate the incredibly broad, diverse, and long lived realities of history.  How can we not say that these ideas were not as controversial or misunderstood, as our own period endings.  For example, everyone wants to "Party Like It's 1999", but supposedly, if you get technical about it, the millenium doesn't end until a year later.  And all the recent "decade" lists of course.  But from a broad view you really would have to say that the whole interval from Dec 31, 1999 - Jan 1, 2001 is the 'turning of the millenium' (or century or decade) based on the wide spectrum of approaches, from that of the wild party animal (1999) to the kinda nerdy naysayer (2001).

This type of dynamic can be seen being played out in the inscriptions by conventions that differ in the numeration the winal of the haab from either 0-19 or 1-20.

>>>
K'atuns (periods of 7200 days) are named for the tzolk'in day on which 
they end.
<<<

Even the consensus on this might be questioned by perhaps the Itza reckoning (Chilam Balam of Tizimin), so it is important not to overly literalize these definitions, or overly magnify one tradition into representing the Maya.


Lloyd wrote:
>>>
Terry Kaufman has used it to link the I think two different
names for the same day, as if they were parts of a sentence and
distinct calendars preserved different parts of that sentence,
dropping the other parts.
<<<

Fascinating!  


_________________________________________________________________
<< What about in the seating of a new era (i.e., mythological start date)?>>

I think we have *not a single example* of this other than the one in
3114 BCE 4 Ajaw 8 Cumk'u.
_________________________________________________________

Well I donno.  Some of us here obviously are going to have a much greater exposure to the entire corpus of Inscriptions and texts, but couldn't a "new era" or "mythological start date" be represented by the previously discussed 1 Ahau Venus association, the 12 Lamat day that begins various tables in the Dresden and Paris codex, the 13 Ik day on which (1 Ixim?) entered the sky, etc?

Lloyd wrote:
>>>
I will shortly provide on a web site some additional reasoning about the discourse structure of Tortuguero Mon.6,
<<<

Are there any other known deep future (11.0.0.0.0. or later) dates/DNs besides the two you mention?  If so, it might be nice to see them approached as-well-as / in-lieu-of the 4 Ahau monument which will apparently be relegated to off list, or highly censored discussion for the next couple years.  

Thanks!

-Aaron