Years without Count: Building the Chronology of the Narratives on El Resbalón Hieroglyphic Stairways

Abstract This report discusses the chronology of the sixth-century hieroglyphic stairways of El Resbalón that has confounded prior investigations. These narratives contain historical and deep-time sections. The former follow regular chronological and syntactical conventions. The deep-time sections of the texts present multiple aberrations that appear to be rhetorical or ritual devices, rather than calculation mistakes. The departure from the conventional chronological and syntactical patterns coincides with a localized political narrative that diverges from other Classic Maya inscriptions.