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Work by earlier scholars has shown that the Dresden Codex contains a table of temporal intervals appropriate to the cyclic occurrence of solar eclipses. This paper demonstrates that if the Maya calendrical dates in the table are converted to the Gregorian calendar by using the so-called Modified Thompson 2 correlation constant, the table gives very accurate warnings of solar eclipses for the late-8th-century A.D. span to which it refers. During the approximately 33 years between November 10,755, and September 6, 788, all of teh 77 solar eclipses affecting the planet occurred within three days of dates appearing in the table. Although most of these eclipses did not affect the Maya area, the table itself provides a mechanism for recognizing and discounting irrelevant predictions. No visible solar eclipse of the late 8th century could have occurred without a very precise warning if the table were used in the fashion suggested here. It has often been assumed that the table was intended to be recycled or reuse...

heat treatment experiments (Behm and Faulkner 1974:275). It may be that the color variation which appears to be naturally occurring in small seams in this and other source areas may be the result of ancient quarrying activities, and may not be a natural occurrence. One of the best checks on the question of thermal alteration versus intentional heat treatment is to match on-site siliceous materials with the source materials' variability in the source area. For a large number of sites in different areas, the great majority of siliceous stone on the site is from a nearby source. These sources should be checked for color variation and evidence of fire on strata exposures which could possibly indicate the use of fire during prehistoric quarrying activities in the area.

The recently discovered Stela 5 at Pixoy is of particular interest because its Initial Series contains lunar glyphs as coefficients for the 3 lowest periods. While lunar glyphs do not appear in any other known Initial Series, they are to be found in other chronological counts. A study of the moon sign usage in these other counts leads to the conclusion that Stela 5 records the Long Count position 9.14.0.0.0 in a nontraditional manner as the Initial Series 9.13.20.0.0.

One of the most exotic Maya glyphs consists of a seated figure having a head that appears to be a penis. This paper argues that the head is indeed a penis and provides an interpretation and a linguistic decipherment for the glyph. The glyph can be read as xib'ah "underworld lord" (Cholan) or xib'alb'a "underworld, underworld lord" (Yucatec). It is an epithet for a major Maya deity who was both god of Venus and Lord of the Underworld. In one case, it is used as a place name for the underworld. The paper also presents a rationale for the unusual graphic form of the glyph based on ethnohistoric documentation.

Most investigators of Maya chronology consider that the Maya measured time intervals by a modified vigesimal count of days or, alternatively, by a tun count in which the uinal and the kin were fractions of the tun. The claim is made that neither of these interpretations is satisfactory and that the Maya perceived their time count to be a composite count comprised of three distinct counts whose respective units are the tun, the uinal and the kin. Support for this contention is found in the early post-Conquest writings as well as in the representations of time counts in the inscriptions and codices. Adoption of this interpretation leads to a clearer understanding of the Maya use of positional notation and also serves to explain some peculiar epigraphic features present in several chronological counts.

The Maya text on an all-glyphic stone column now in the Museo del Camino Real in Hecelchakan, Campeche, Mexico, is deciphered. The inscription consists of an unusual truncated Initial Series with an associated TunAhua statement. Arguments are given to justify assigning a Xcalumkin provenance to the monument. The Initial Series is only the third such record known from this site. Other epigraphic highlights include a rare head variant formation of the numeral for 16 by tandem heads for 6 and 10 and a new version of the head variant for 2. A summary of the chronological information available from the site of Xcalumkin is included. A brief description and a photograph of an all-glyphic Maya monument referred to as Column 1 from Hecelchakan has been published by Karl H. Mayer (1981:26, Plate 15). Mayer lists the monument as of unknown provenance, although he remarks on its resemblance to another glyphic column known to come from Xcalumkin. He also observes that the inscription shows an Initial Series employing head variant numerals which has not yet been deciphered. In June of 1980 and again in January of 1982, during research trips to Mexico, I had the opportunity to study the monument at firsthand. Its present home is the Museo del Camino Real in Hecelchakan in the state of Campeche, Mexico. A photograph of the rounded stone column, taken by the author, is reproduced in Figure 1. The front of the monument contains a hieroglyphic inscription carved in deep relief that is of special interest because its chronological format differs from that found in the central Maya region. (See Table 1 for details.)

Coggins and Bricker have accepted my phonetic reading of one version of the north glyph as xaman, "north." Nevertheless, they maintain that the traditional north-south axis in Maya directional symbolism pertains more properly to a zenith-nadir axis. In my response I argue against that position and provide evidence that the cardinal directions played a fundamental role in mesoamerican cosmology. These directions are interpreted in a relatively loose sense as sectors on the horizon and not as cardinal points. In particular, the north direction is viewed as a sector on the horizon centered at a point which is approximately 14 degrees east of north. The evidence includes three independent proofs of the cardinal direction hypothesis. These proofs specifically implicate the four Maya directional glyphs as symbols of the four cardinal directions.

The symbolic variant of the Maya glyph for north is claimed to be a phonetic construction xa-ma-n(a) generating the Yucatec term xaman, "north." The reading supports the notion that Maya directional symbolism was related to the horizon and disagrees with recent revisionist theory that such symbolism was related to the path of the sun across the sky and through the underworld.