in each case representing a date marking the final day of a calendrical cycle. In spite of the poor state of preservation of the document, enough text has survived to demonstrate that in the case of the Paris Codex, the main series of dates correspond to kʼatun-endings, allowing for the reconstruction of some of the lost date glyphs in the text. The seated figures are each associated with a sidereal glyph indicating that they represent the ruling deity of each kʼatun. The reverse of the codex is more varied in nature and includes a section dedicated to a calendrical cycle ruled by Chaac, the god of rain. It also includes information about the prognostication of rainfall and maize crop yields, as well as information about spiritual forces. A set of two pages illustrates the days of the tzolkʼin 260-day cycle that correspond to the beginning of the solar year over a period of 52 years (a cycle of the Calendar Round). The final two pages of the codex depict a series of thirteen animals that represent the so-called "zodiac". Modern studies of the codex have concluded that the end of the zodiac cycle illustrated within it show "a psychological predilection to Mayan fatalism," suggesting that the end of the Mayan Classic Period was the result of a self-fulfilling prophecy. Origin In common with the other two generally accepted Maya codices (the Dresden Codex and the Madrid Codex), the document is likely to have been created in Yucatán; English Mayanist J. Eric S. Thompson thought it likely that the Paris Codex was painted in western Yucatán and dated to between AD 1250 and 1450. Bruce Love noted the similarities between a scene on page 11 of the codex and Stela 1 at Mayapan; based on this he proposed that the codex was produced in Mayapan around 1450. However, further analysis of the stela in question suggests an earlier date of 1185 indicating that the calendrical information may refer to an earlier kʼatun cycle than the one suggested by Love. The astronomical and calendrical information within the Paris Codex are consistent with a Classic period cycle from AD 731 to 987 indicating that the codex may be a copy of a much earlier document. Discovery The Paris Codex came to light in 1859 when Léon de Rosny found it in a basket of old papers in the corner of a chimney in