Linguistic and Ethnographic Data Pertinent to the "Cage" Glyph of Dresden 36c

Resumen

Stretched across the botton third of pages 33-39 of the Dresden Codex is a display of the subdivisions of a tzolkin, spelled out in greater detail than is found in the usual compact and schematic manner of representation. It is of the 4x65 variety, rather than the 5x52. The 260-day period is divided into four equal divisions of 65 days each, unequal subdivisions. In this case there are five of these, of 9, 11, 20, 10, and 15 days length respectively, in this order, making twenty subdivisions in all as the sequence is repeated four times. Each of the four recurrences of any one of these is given a separate representation in the display of this tzolkin, rather than having all four recurrences designated –as is normally the case- by a single representation. Thus, the usual column of day signs is dispensed whit here. The day signs are indicated separately for each of the 20 subdivisions (in addition to the distance and day numbers), thus obviating the customary need for mental or scratch-pad calculation of these.