The Lunar or Supplementary Series is a part of the Classic Mayan calendar cotaining counts of thirteen, nine, and seven which produced a lunar count. There is first a thirteen count that occurs during the waxing period of the moon, the seven count then follows, and finally with a nine count bringing the month to a close and the start of a new cycle. The Lunar Series was first studied thoroughly by Sylvanus Morley in 1915 (Glyphs A-G, and X, Y, and Z). It was Morley's idea to give them letter names to aid in the identification of them.
Glyph A edit
John Teeple was very involved with the study of the Lunar Series. It was Teeple that had the idea that Glyph A determines the length of the lunar month. Glyph A will appear with a coefficient of nine or ten to tell whether or not the month has twenty-nine and thirty days. The nine is represented with a moon that has a dot in the middle of it and the number ten is typically illustrated with a skeletal face.
Glyph C edit
Glyph C counts the number of a specific lunation in a cycle of six moons (177 days) known as a "lunar semester". It is represented by the T683b glyph, which depicts a flat hand and a moon with three dots in the center; the third element is a deity portrait head that has three variants, indicating three different lunar semesters in a an eighteen month cycle used to predict eclipses. Jon Justeson discovered that from 350 AD to 687 AD at least five different lunation systems were used. The different systems for Glyph C varied from location to location.
Glyphs D & E edit
Glyph D that was also interpreted by Teeple records the age of the moon. The coefficient of Glyph D is on a cycle of nineteen to show the actual age of the moon when it is less then twenty days old. T683a is commonly the illustration for Glyph D, but it sometimes appears with a hand and a point finger.
Teeple first interpreted Glyph E like Glyphs D and A. The age of the moon past twenty days is what the T683 moon sign describes with coefficients of zero to nine. Sometimes Glyphs D and E are paired together. When they are paired together Glyph D does not appear with a coefficient and when they both do not have coefficients a new moon is implied.
Glyphs G & F edit
Glyphs G1-G9 the Lords of the Night are a set of nine deities or gods that ruled over a particular night. The Lords of the Night or in Mayan, Bolon ti ku, (“Nine of them,” or “Nine in Holiness”) were cyclical, so that same god recurred every nine nights. In the Classic Mayan Calendar the Lord of the Night that is represented on that day is looked upon as the patron of that day.
Since they do not have proper names they are referred to as G1, G2, G3, G4, G5, G6, G7, G8, and G9. Thompson has done some research in the past into their names and what is represented on the glyphs. For example G4 is believed to be an agricultural deity known as Wuk Ah (Frumker, 1993). G7 is very similar to the patron god of the month, Pax, and G9 is thought to be a pauahtun (Taube and Miller, 1993). Another interesting characteristic of the G glyphs is that they are usually the very first glyphs seen on monuments after the tzolkin. It is also thought that the Lords of the Night are in actuality a division of the night. The night would be divided into nine different sections with the fifth lord having his situated at approximately midnight. With this thinking there would have to be thirteen hours in the day.
Determining which Lord of the Night is represented can be can be determined since we have come to know that on August 11, 3113 BC the ninth Lord was ruler. By then using this date we can determine the Lord for any date. The tzolkin calendar of 260 days does not match exactly with that of the Lords of the Night, but after nine cycles they coincide once again.
The G glyphs are almost always used with F glyphs as well. This F glyph is thought to be depicting a Headband God/Jester according to Linda Schele. In addition the F and G glyphs are combined into a singular glyph for example the G3f glyph. Another way to look at it is the G glyph depicts the patron of the night and the F glyph is the verb, for example "wears the Jester's Headband" (Schele, Grube and Fahsen, 1992).
Glyph X edit
Glyph X is linked with Glyph C via an eighteen-month lunar calendar. The semesters were recorded in an eighteen-month eclipse cycle. A five-month semester cycle was sometimes used and in which the cycle was diminished to seventeen months. There are twelve different forms of Glyph X this could mean that they are months due to the fact that they do not have coefficients. Due to the variation in the moon number system at different sites this particular glyph must be studied on a site-to-site basis.
Glyph Y & Z edit
Glyphs Y and Z are said to differentiate between dawn and the night according to Anthony Aveni. However according to Juteson they could be linked to an eight hundred and nineteen day count. Glyph Y is represented with T730 and has coefficients from two through six. Justeson says that if he is correct Glyph Y could be how the Mayans tracked the planets. Glyph Z, which was originally, thought to be a separate glyph is really just a coefficient for Y.
References edit
Coe, Michael D. Breaking the Maya Code. New York, NY: Thames & Hudson, 1999. 130-31.
Milbrath, Susan. Star Gods of the Maya: Atronomy in Art, Folklore, and Calendars. Austin, TX: University of Texas P, 1999. 109-11.
Rice, Prudence M. Maya Calendar Origins: Monuments, Mythistory, and the Materialization of Time. Austin, TX: University of Texas P, 2007. 174.
Sharer, Robert J. The Ancient Maya. Comp. Loa P. Traxler. Standford, CA: Standford UP, 2006. 112+.
Van Langingham, Ivan. "The G and F Glyphs of the Lunar Supplementary Series." Mayan Calendar. 29 July 2008. 19 Sept. 2008 <http://www.pauahtun.org/calendar/gglyph.html>.