The A Glyphs of the Lunar Supplementary Series

Glyph A of the Lunar Series indicates the overall length of the lunation; Glyph A9 is used for a 29-day lunation, while Glyph A10 is used when it is considered to be a 30-day lunation.

Since the length of the lunar synodic month is about 29.530588 days, the Maya must have used some (or several) patterns of 29- and 30-day months. The choice of pattern has a great deal to do with tracking eclipse semesters, and Lounsbury (1978) covers this aspect of the A Glyphs in great detail. For a long time, everyone thought that Glyph C denoted eclipse semesters, but it has since turned out that C follows an independent, 18-lunation cycle unrelated to eclipse nodes. Eclipse semesters are usually 177, 177 and 148, or some close approximation thereof, while the C Glyphs show 6-lunation “semesters” of 179-180 days in length across the board. Refer to Schele, Grube and Fahsen, and to my C Glyph page for more information about the C Glyph cycle, which is also related to the X Glyphs.

A9 Indicating a 29-Day Lunation
A10 Indicating a 30-Day Lunation

References

• Lounsbury, Floyd G., “Maya Numeration, Computation, and Calendrical Astronomy,” in Dictionary of Scientific Biography Vol. 15, Supplement I (1978) edited by Charles Coulston Gillespie. (New York: Scribner’s, 1978) pp. 759-818.
• MacLeod, Barbara, “Musings About the Rare Variants of Glyph A of the Lunar Series,” Texas Notes on Precolumbian Art, Writing and Culture, No. 33, February 1993.
• Schele, Linda, Nikolai Grube and Federico Fahsen, “The Lunar Series in Classic Maya Inscriptions: New Observation and Interpretations,” Texas Notes on Precolumbian Art, Writing and Culture, No. 29, October 1992.
• Thompson, J. Eric S., Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction, Third edition, University of Oklahoma Press, 1971 (first edition 1950).

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