Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2017
The historic and proto-historic archaeological sites of the Guatemala highland provide another approach to the problem of correlating the ancient Maya calendar with the European. For native annals of the highland tribes list the generations of Indian rulers from the time of the Spanish Conquest back into prehistoric phases, which one may expect the archaeologist will eventually link to remains that are associated elsewhere with dates in the Long Count.
If, for example, we can identify a certain trait complex as one brought to Guatemala by the Quiches and other tribes entering this country from the north, and if we can calculate the approximate date of their arrival by counting generations listed in the native annals, we can then assign this date to the same complex in an area where it is dated in the Maya Long Count.