The Mayan
Numbering System

Palenque

People of the Sun

Road to Collapse

The Maya and 2012

The Mayan Calendar

The Mayan Collapse

Venus

Who Were The Maya?

The Mayan Calendar

The Maya developed a highly sophisticated calendar through the recorded observation of star constellations and the shadows cast by upright stones as the sun passed overhead. The ritual calendar that developed in Mesoamerica relied on a cycle of 260 days. They had 20 named days, each represented by a unique symbol. The days were numbered from 1 to 13.

After the count of thirteen was reached, the next day was numbered 1 again, initiation a parallel calendar cycle. The 260-day, or sacred count, calendar perfected by the Maya was in use throughout Mesoamerica for several thousand years before the earliest evidence of Mayan civilization as a unique set of cultural values, and is probably even older than their system of writing itself!

The Mayan system of astrological mathematics stands as the earliest recorded example of the concept of zero as put into practice by ancient cultures. They used this to periodically compensate for the 1/4 turn of Earth's rotation in order to prevent their calendar from drifting out of synch - much as we recognize a leap year.

To the eighteen regular months, the Maya appended a special five-day month called a "Wayeb" (also their name for "spirit animals") that was composed of five days which were considered unnameable and unlucky. Thus the days were counted: "One Imix, Zero Pohp, Two Ik, One Pohp". When the thirteenth day was reached, then the next day was "Thirteen Ben, Twelve Pohp; then One Ix, Thirteen Pohp, Two Men, Fourteen Pohp".

The Mayan "Tun" was a year of 360 days and the "K'atun" was a time period of 20 cycles of 360 days each. As we will see later, the ending of the K'atun was a holy time period. The Maya also counted 400-year periods called "Baktuns" that they used in a special day count which is now called the "Long-Count Calendar". A long-count date is written thus: 9.14.12.2.17. and represents 9 baktuns, 14 k'atuns, 12 tuns, 2 winals and 17 k'ins. The Mayan long-count calendar began over three thousand years before the earliest archaeological evidence of their culture, and ends specifically on a date which corresponds to December 21st, 2012 of our Gregorian calendar.