loyed eras of 20 years and lesser periods of 4 years.(62) The first of
these four years was assigned to the east and was named Cuch-haab; the
second, Hiix, to the west; the third, Cavac, to the south and the fourth
Muluc, to the north, and this served as a 'Dominical letter.' When five of
these four-year periods had passed, which form twenty years, they called
it a Katun and placed one sculptured stone over another sculptured stone
and fixed them with lime and sand [mortar] to the walls of their temples
and houses of the priests."(63)

The term katun is closely linked to the said employment of memorial
stones, for tun is the Maya for stone and ka seems to stand for kal or
kaal=20. The word hun-kaal=20, means literally, "one complete count," or
"a count which is closed," since the verb kaal means to close, shut, or
fasten something. According to the above a katun literally means "the 20
(year) stone;" but we know that, by extension, it designated the era
itself as well as war and battle. Thus we find the verb katun-tal=to
fight.

Cogolludo continues: "In a town named Tixuala-tun, which signifies 'the
place where they place one stone above another,' they say that they kept
their archive, containing records of all events.... In current speech
katun signified era and when a person wished to say he was sixty years of
age, he used the expression to have three eras of years or three stones.
For seventy they said three and a half stones or four less one-half stone.
From this it may be seen that they were not too barbarous, for it is said
that [by this system] they were able to keep such exact records that they
not only certified an event but also the month and day on which it took
place."

By referring to Maya and Spanish dictionaries we gain supplementary
valuable information about native memorial stones. We find the name
amaytun given as that of "a square stone on which the ancient Indians used
to carve the 20 years of the period ahau-katun, because the four remaining
years which completed the epoch, were placed underneath, so as to form a
sort of pedestal which was called, for this reason, lath oc katun or chek
oc katun. By extension, painted representations [of the epoch] were also
named amaytun." The dictionary further informs us that amayte was the name
for the first twenty years of the ahau katun, which were carved on the
square stone and we see that amayte also means "something square or with
corners" and is formed of