Year End

Earth's Orbit

The end of the year is of course a very arbitrary thing after all circles have no beginning and no end. They are so to speak infinite in length. No matter how long you travel around a circle you will never come to its end or in fact it’s beginning. It is are like the huge dragon worm of Norse mythology that circles the world biting its own tail although in this case there is no head or tail just a continuous circle.

The Longest Count

Stela One, Coba, Yucatan, Mexico

In a previous posting I discussed the Mayan calendar and of course the Mayan long count.1 Since the supposed ending of the world in 2012 was supposedly predicted by the Maya perhaps exactly what the Mayan long count was about should be examined. Now in the Mayan long count dates were given by giving the number of days that had passed since August 11, 3114 B.C.E., (B.C.).2 This was the so called long count which is usually transcribed into 5 numbers as in 13.0.0.0.0. The number given is in fact the beginning of the Mayan long count.

Mayan Math

The Mayan mathematical system was both sophisticated and different from the one we use today. The following is brief overview of that system.

The Maya used a "vegistmal" or 20 based math system unlike our 10 based system. The Maya also used a zero within that system. Place notation was vertical rather than horizontal. The following is a list of the basic Mayan numbers. Note Mayan numbers could be written in a number of different ways including as complicated Glyphs.

Thus the figure of 8,456 would be written.

The figure 1, 576,234 would be written.

The system works in the following way.

Sixth line = etc.

Fifth line = 160, 000’s

Fourth line = 8,000’s

Third line = 400’s

Second line = 20’s

First line = 1’s

In each line the base amount is twenty times greater than the base amount of the previous line. It is important to note that in Mayan Calendrics a Tun does not equal 400 but 360, i.e., 18 x 20 not 20 x 20, and this effects all the numbers above it which work out as for example 7,616 days:

This was done apparently to round off a Tun so it was approximately 1 year long, even though the Maya recorded dates by the total number of days since particular events not in years.

Bibliography

Coe, Michael D., The Maya 6th Edition, Thames and Hudson, London, 1998.

Hagen, Victor W. World of the Maya, Mentor Books, New York, 1960.

Schele, Linda, Freidel, David, Parker, Joy, Maya Cosmos, William Morrow Company Inc., New York, 1993.

Schele, Linda, Freidel, David, A Forest of Kings, William Morrow Company Inc., New York, 1990.

Foster, Lynn V., Handbook to Life in the Maya World, Oxford University Prtess, Oxford, 2002.

Martin, Simon, Grube, Nikolai, Chronicle of the Maya Kings and Queens, 2nd Edition, Thames and Hudson, London, 2008.

Longhena, Maria, Maya Script, Abbeville Publishers, New York, 2000.

Pierre Cloutier

The Mayan Calendar

The following is a brief overview of the Mayan calendar system. The Mayans had one of the most accurate systems of time keeping ever devised before this century. In fact it was more accurate than the Gregorian calendar we use today. The following are Mayan names for time periods.

Kin = 1 day
Uinal = month (20 days)
Tun = 360 days (18 Uinals)
Haab = year (365 days)
Katun = 7,200 days (20 Tuns)
Baktun = 144,000 days (20 Katuns)
Pictun = 2,880,000 days (20 Baktuns)
Calabtun = 57,600,000 days (20 Pictuns)
Kinchiltun = 1,152,000,000 days (20 Calabtuns)
Alautun = 23,040,000,000 days (20 Kinchiltuns)

Here are the Mayan time periods in their Glyphic form:

The Haab or regular year was divided into 18 months of 20 days plus an unlucky month of 5 days, called Uayeb at the end.

The months are as follows:

Pop
Uo
Zip
Zotz
Zec
Xul
Yaxkin
Mol
Ch'en
Yax
Zac
Cen
Mac
Kankin
Muan
Pax
Kayab
Cumku
Uayeb (only 5 days)

Here are the Mayan Month signs in Glyphic form:

A Tun was 18 months long and equaled 360 days. Each date was identified by its name and number so for example 11-Xul was the eleventh of the month of Xul.

The Maya also had a sacred year called the Tzolkin, or sacred round, of 260 days. This "year" consisted of thirteen numbers, (1-13) combining consecutively with 20 day names. Virtually all the peoples of Mesoamerica used this system. This calendar has no relation to the solar year or to the lunar year and its origin is unknown. Each date would have a separate name and number in this calendar. The days are as follows:

Imix
Ik
Akbal
Kan
Chikchan
Cimi
Manik
Lamat
Muluc
Oc
Chuen
Eb
Ben
Ix
Men
Cib
Caban
Eznab
Cauac
Ahau

Here are the Mayan day signs in Glyphic form:

For example, the date 5 Caban would be followed by 6 Eznab. By the end of 260 days each one of the 20 day signs would have gone through all the numbers from 1 to 13 and the cycle would start again.

Mayan dates were frequently given has a combination of the Haab date and the Tzolkin date. For example, 3 Ahau 5 Yax. The day is 3 Ahau in the sacred calendar and the 5th day of the month of Yax. A combination of the same two calendar names for the same day can only occur once every 18,980 days or every 52 years. This is called the Calendar round. Just mentioning the full name of a date would place it precisely within that 52 year period.

A further refinement was the Short Count, which was a list of 13 Katun’s for a total of 256 years. By including a Katun date with a calendar it would be possible to be precise within a 256 year period. Each Katun was numbered 1 to 13 and called Ahau for example Katun 8 Ahau started a little more than 138 years after the beginning of the short count, or 50,400 days after the short count started. Usually short count dates only listed the Katun number and the year ending. This method came into frequent use only after the Mayan collapse of the 9th century.

The Maya dated events during the classic period in terms, not of years but of number of days since a fixed date. This is called the Long Count. Thus the dates in Maya inscriptions of the Classic period are not in years but the total number of days since August 13, 3114 B.C.E.. It is believed that the date above represents the creation of the present world in the myths of the Maya. Since the Maya calculated dates long before this date it doesn’t seem to represent the original creation of the World. Thus dates would be represented by a long list of numbers which would precisely date an event since August 13, 3114 B.C.E.. This system of dating did not survive the end of the Classic period.

Archaeologists usually write long count dates in the following manner 9. 14. 7. 11. 19, which means 9 Baktuns + 14 Katuns + 7 Tuns + 11 Uninals + 19 Kins. Which works out has 1,296,000 days + 100,800 days + 2520 days + 220 days + 19 days, or 1,399,549 days since August 13, 3114 B.C.E.. This works out to the date July 5, 520 C.E.

The Maya frequently employed multiple systems of dating and even dated events to within a few hours. They divided up the Night into Nine Lords of the Night and dated events that occurred within each part of the night ruled by a particular Lord. The Maya also had worked out the orbits of various planets for example Venus into Cycles. Mayan astronomers worked out that from Earth Venus has an apparent orbit of 584 days., (this is less than a ¼ of a day off). The Maya had a cyclical view of time thinking that events tended to repeat themselves and constantly looking for favourable cycles and anniversaries.

Bibliography.
The Maya 6th Edition, by Michael D. Coe, Thames and Hudson, London, 1998.
World of the Maya, by Victor W. Von Hagen, Mentor Books, New York, 1960.
Maya Cosmos, by Linda Schele & David Freidel & Joy Parker, William Morrow Company Inc., New York, 1993.
The Code of Kings, by Linda Schele & Peter Mathews, Touchstone Books, New York, 1998.
The Blood of Kings, by Linda Schele & Mary Ellen Miller, George Braziller Inc., 1986.

Pierre Cloutier