IV: The Building of the Mounds
IV
(THE BUILDING OF THE MOUNDS)
In the year 1541. 9
181 ¢uul. at. 5 Dik: 92 nhele 10
The history which I have written of how the mounds came to be constructed by the heathen. 11 During three score and fifteen katuns they were constructed. 12 The great men made them. Then the remainder of the men went
to Cartabona, 1 as the land where they were is called today. There they were when San Bernabé 2 came to teach them. Then they were killed by the men; the men were called heathen. 1<5>56 is the total count today <after> fifteen years. 3 On this day I have written how the great mounds /
| p. 16 C |
Footnotes
- 79:9
- 79:10
- 79:11
Written heregesob (literally heretics) in the text. Cf. p. 115, note 4.
- 79:12
This is evidently an attempt to fix the period of building activity in northern Yucatan, just as on page 83 we find four baktuns and fifteen katuns given as what was probably the period of Maya civilization. Some Maya writers put the end of the native regime at the time of the settlement of Merida in 1541 and others fix the date at 1519 when p. 80 Cortez landed at Cosumel and even confuse the latter date with that of the settlement at Merida (Cf. pp. 81, 84). Possibly we have here a reference to the Long Count. If so the end of the native regime (whether we place it in 1519 or 1541) was believed to be fifteen katuns after an even number of baktuns, or scores of katuns as stated here. As to what the three baktuns were, two alternatives seem the most probable. We could consider them to be Baktuns 9, 10 and 11, which would make the Spanish conquest fall in the katun following 12. 15. 0. 0. 0. 1 Ahau 13 Uo. The other most likely alternative would be to consider these three baktuns to be Baktuns, 8, 9 and 10. This would fix the Spanish Conquest in the katun immediately following 11. 15. 0. 0. 0. 2 Ahau 8 Zac. It is generally agreed that Cortez landed in Cozumel during the first part of the katun immediately following Katun 2 Ahau, while on the other hand no dated monuments earlier than Baktun 9 have been found in northern Yucatan. It is possible, of course, that the inhabitants of northern Yucatan had been constructing the mounds mentioned here for some centuries before they set up the first dated monument.
- 80:1
- 80:2
- 80:3
- 80:4
- 80:5
- 80:6
