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70-515: The tzolkʼin, the basic cycle of the Maya calendar , is a preeminent component in the society and rituals of the ancient and the modern Maya. The tzolkʼin is still used by several Maya communities in the Guatemalan highlands. While its use has been spreading in this region, this practice is opposed by Evangelical Christian converts in some Maya communities. The word tzolkʼin , meaning "division of days",

140-567: A bʼakʼtun . The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from the Mayan creation date 4 Ahaw, 8 Kumkʼu (August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6 in the Julian calendar -3113 astronomical dating). But instead of using a base-10 ( decimal ) scheme, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25 and 0.0.0.2.0

210-505: A dot is removed from the next higher minuend symbol in the column and four bars are added to the minuend symbol which is being worked on. The "Long Count" portion of the Maya calendar uses a variation on the strictly vigesimal numerals to show a Long Count date . In the second position, only the digits up to 17 are used, and the place value of the third position is not 20×20 = 400, as would otherwise be expected, but 18×20 = 360 so that one dot over two zeros signifies 360. Presumably, this

280-464: A katun is 20 × 360 = 7200 days long, and the remainder of 7200 divided by 13 is 11 ( 7200 = 553×13 + 11 ), the day number of the concluding day of each successive katun is 9 greater than before (wrapping around at 13, since only 13 day numbers are used). That is, starting with the katun that begins with 1   Imix, the sequence of concluding day numbers is 11, 9, 7, 5, 3, 1, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2, 13, 11, ..., all named Ahau. The concluding day 13 Ahau

350-515: A link to Jupiter. In the Dresden codex almanac 59 there are Chaacs of the four colors. The accompanying texts begin with a directional glyph and a verb for 819-day-count phrases. Anderson provides a detailed description of the 819-day count. During the late Classic period the Maya began to use an abbreviated short count instead of the Long Count. An example of this can be found on altar 14 at Tikal. In

420-518: A number of architectural complexes built in the late second and early first millennia BCE in the area along the southern Gulf coast in Mexico are oriented to the Sun's positions on the horizon on certain dates, separated by multiples of 13 and 20 days. Since these were elementary periods of the 260-day cycle, the orientations marking these intervals can only be explained in association with this calendar. The dating of

490-479: A number represents the deity associated with the number. These face number glyphs were rarely used, and are mostly seen on some of the most elaborate monumental carvings. There are different representations of zero in the Dresden Codex , as can be seen at page 43b (which is concerned with the synodic cycle of Mars). It has been suggested that these pointed, oblong "bread" representations are calligraphic variants of

560-402: A part of the C glyph that indicated where this fell in a larger cycle of 18 lunations. Accompanying the C glyph was the 'X' glyph that showed a similar pattern of 18 lunations. The present era lunar synodic period is about 29.5305877 mean solar days or about 29 days 12 hours 44 minutes and 2+ / 9 seconds. As a whole number, the number of days per lunation will be either 29 or 30 days, with

630-620: A period of five days ("nameless days") at the end of the year known as Wayeb' (or Uayeb in 16th-century orthography). The five days of Wayebʼ were thought to be a dangerous time. Foster (2002) writes, "During Wayeb, portals between the mortal realm and the Underworld dissolved. No boundaries prevented the ill-intending deities from causing disasters." To ward off these evil spirits, the Maya had customs and rituals they practiced during Wayebʼ. For example, people avoided leaving their houses and washing or combing their hair. Bricker (1982) estimates that

700-528: A truly authentic sonic expression of its inner workings. In 1995, Maria von Boisse translated the mathematical matrix of the tzolkʼin to musical notes and set them into music. The final version of the work was developed in collaboration with Hubert Bognermayr in the Electronic Försterhaus in Linz , Austria . In 1998, composer Michael John Wiley discovered mathematical and aesthetic correlations between

770-430: Is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz , Oaxaca and Chiapas , Mexico. The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had been in common use throughout the region, dating back to at least the 5th century BC. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as

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840-613: Is a western coinage in Yucatec Maya . Contemporary Maya groups who have maintained an unbroken count for over 500 years in the tzolk'in use other terms in their languages. For instance, the Kʼicheʼ use the term Aj Ilabal Qʼij [aχ ilaɓal qʼiχ] or Raj Ilabal Qʼij [ɾaχ ilaɓal qʼiχ], 'the sense of the day' or 'the round of the days' and the Kaqchikel use the term Chol Qʼij [t͡ʃol qʼiχ], 'the organization of time'. The names of this calendar among

910-414: Is because 360 is roughly the number of days in a year . (The Maya had however a quite accurate estimation of 365.2422 days for the solar year at least since the early Classic era .) Subsequent positions use all twenty digits and the place values continue as 18×20×20 = 7,200 and 18×20×20×20 = 144,000, etc. Every known example of large numbers in the Maya system uses this 'modified vigesimal' system, with

980-449: Is conceived as linked firmly to worldly or earthly affairs, mirroring no astronomical period but rather the period of human gestation. Past ethnographic accounts of this cycle contain various conflicting opinions as to what its first day is, but a comparison of the present results and those of previous studies indicates that there is no fixed first day." Anthony Aveni asserts, "Once a Maya genius may have recognized that somewhere deep within

1050-474: Is equal to 40. As the winal unit resets after only counting to 18, the Long Count consistently uses base-20 only if the tun is considered the primary unit of measurement, not the kʼin; with the kʼin and winal units being the number of days in the tun. The Long Count 0.0.1.0.0 represents 360 days, rather than the 400 in a purely base-20 ( vigesimal ) count. There are also four rarely used higher-order cycles: piktun , kalabtun , kʼinchiltun , and alautun . Since

1120-502: Is from 36 BC. Since the eight earliest Long Count dates appear outside the Maya homeland, it is assumed that the use of zero and the Long Count calendar predated the Maya, and was possibly the invention of the Olmec . Indeed, many of the earliest Long Count dates were found within the Olmec heartland. However, the Olmec civilization had come to an end by the 4th century BC, several centuries before

1190-676: Is known to scholars as the Tzolkin , or Tzolkʼin . The Tzolkin was combined with a 365-day vague solar year known as the Haabʼ to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haabʼ called the Calendar Round . The Calendar Round is still in use by many groups in the Guatemalan highlands. A different calendar was used to track longer periods of time and for the inscription of calendar dates (i.e., identifying when one event occurred in relation to others). This

1260-424: Is started (20 or 8000, then 20 or 160,000, and so on). The number 429 would be written as one dot above one dot above four dots and a bar, or (1×20 ) + (1×20 ) + 9 = 429. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Other than the bar and dot notation, Maya numerals were sometimes illustrated by face type glyphs or pictures. The face glyph for

1330-570: Is the Long Count . It is a count of days since a mythological starting-point. According to the correlation between the Long Count and Western calendars accepted by the great majority of Maya researchers (known as the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson, or GMT, correlation), this starting-point is equivalent to August 11, 3114 BC in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6, in the Julian calendar (−3113 astronomical). The GMT correlation

1400-509: The Harmonic Convergence , inspired by a single paragraph of Argüelles's book "The Mayan Factor" (wherein he refers to each day as a "tone"), singer/songwriter and sound healer, Alyras (aka Mirai), translated the tzolkʼin's harmonic values into sound, with the tutelage of Barbara Hero. Eschewing extensions of the tzolkʼin, Alyras opted for strict mathematical adherence to the tzolkʼin's fundamental structure and sequences, in order to present

1470-478: The Olmec Gulf Coast region. However, either the dating method or the calendric nature of the glyphs are disputed by scholars. The earliest unequivocal written record is a 7 Deer day sign found in mural paintings at the central lowland Maya site of San Bartolo, Guatemala, dated to the 3rd century BCE, but it is now obvious that the origin of the 260-day is much earlier. An archaeoastronomical study has shown that

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1540-708: The Zapotec and Olmec and contemporary or later ones such as the Mixtec and Aztec calendars . By the Maya mythological tradition, as documented in Colonial Yucatec accounts and reconstructed from Late Classic and Postclassic inscriptions, the deity Itzamna is frequently credited with bringing the knowledge of the calendrical system to the ancestral Maya, along with writing in general and other foundational aspects of Mayan culture. The Maya calendar consists of several cycles or counts of different lengths. The 260-day count

1610-408: The "seating of" a named month, which is usually regarded as day 0 of that month, although a minority treat it as day 20 of the month preceding the named month. In the latter case, the seating of Pop is day 5 of Wayebʼ. For the majority, the first day of the year was 0 Pop (the seating of Pop). This was followed by 1 Pop, 2 Pop as far as 19 Pop then 0 Wo, 1 Wo and so on. Because

1680-400: The 260-day cycle in the agricultural cycle of highland Guatemala , which is also about 260 days. Aveni notes that "the average duration between successive halves of the eclipse season, at 173 ½ days, fits into the tzolkin in the ratio of 3 to 2." This may seem contrived, but the Maya did employ the tzolkin to predict positions of Venus and eclipses. Another theory is that the 260-day period is

1750-409: The 260-day gap between zenithal passages of the sun . According to this hypothesis, the 260-day cycle originated in the narrow latitudinal band (14°42′N to 15°N) in which the sun is vertically overhead about 12–13 August and again 260 days later about 30 April – 1 May (Malmström identifies the proto-Classic Izapan culture as one suitable candidate at this latitude). This period may have been used for

1820-433: The 30-day intervals necessarily occurring slightly more frequently than the 29-day intervals. The Maya wrote whether the lunar month was 29 or 30 days as two glyphs: a glyph for lunation length followed by either a glyph made up of a moon glyph over a bundle with a suffix of 9 for a 29-day lunation or a moon glyph with a suffix of 10 for a 30-day lunation. Since the Maya didn't use fractions, lunations were approximated by using

1890-469: The Haabʼ day can only be 1, 6, 11 or 16; for Kʼan, Muluk, Ix and Kawak, the Haabʼ day can only be 2, 7, 12 or 17; and for Chikchan, Ok, Men and Ajaw, the Haabʼ day can only be 3, 8, 13 or 18. A "Year Bearer" is a Tzolkʼin day name that occurs on 0   Pop, the first day of the Haabʼ . Since there are 20 Tzolkʼin day names, 365 days in the Haabʼ, and the remainder of 365 divided by 20 is 5 ( 365 = 18×20 + 5 ),

1960-490: The Haabʼ had 365 days and the tropical year is 365.2422 days, the days of the Haabʼ did not coincide with the tropical year. A Calendar Round date is a date that gives both the Tzolkʼin and Haabʼ. This date will repeat after 52 Haabʼ years or 18,980 days, a Calendar Round. For example, the current creation started on 4 Ahau 8 Kumkʼu. When this date recurs it is known as a Calendar Round completion. Arithmetically,

2030-470: The Haabʼ was first used around 550 BC with a starting point of the winter solstice . The Haabʼ month names are known today by their corresponding names in colonial-era Yukatek Maya , as transcribed by 16th-century sources (in particular, Diego de Landa and books such as the Chilam Balam of Chumayel). Phonemic analyses of Haabʼ glyph names in pre-Columbian Maya inscriptions have demonstrated that

2100-512: The Long Count dates are unambiguous, the Long Count was particularly well suited to use on monuments. The monumental inscriptions would not only include the 5 digits of the Long Count, but would also include the two tzolkʼin characters followed by the two haabʼ characters. Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar was the basis for a popular belief that a cataclysm would take place on December 21, 2012 . December 21, 2012

2170-502: The PET logogram, approximately meaning "circular" or "rounded", and perhaps the basis of a derived noun meaning "totality" or "grouping", such that the representations may be an appropriate marker for a number position which has reached its totality. Adding and subtracting numbers below 20 using Mayan numerals is very simple. Addition is performed by combining the numeric symbols at each level: [REDACTED] If five or more dots result from

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2240-515: The Tzolkʼin day name for each successive 0   Pop will be 5 later in the cycle of Tzolk'in day names. Similarly, since there are 13 Tzolk'in day numbers, and the remainder of 365 divided by 13 is 1 ( 365 = 28×13 + 1 ), the Tzolk'in day number for each successive 0   Pop will be 1 greater than before. As such, the sequence of Tzolk'in dates corresponding to the Haab' date 0   Pop are as follows: Thus,

2310-550: The Year Bearers are the four Tzolkʼin day names that appear in this sequence: Ik', Manik', Eb', and Kab'an. "Year Bearer" literally translates a Mayan concept. Its importance resides in two facts. For one, the four years headed by the Year Bearers are named after them and share their characteristics; therefore, they also have their own prognostications and patron deities. Moreover, since the Year Bearers are geographically identified with boundary markers or mountains, they help define

2380-744: The Year Bearers were the days that coincided with 2 Pop: Kʼan, Muluc, Ix and Kawak. This system is found in the Chronicle of Oxkutzcab. In addition, just before the Spanish conquest in Mayapan the Maya began to number the days of the Haabʼ from 1 to 20. In this system the Year Bearers are the same as in the 1 Pop – Campeche system. The Classic Year Bearer system is still in use in the Guatemalan highlands and in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico. Since Calendar Round dates repeat every 18,980 days, approximately 52 solar years,

2450-408: The calendar system lay the miraculous union, the magical crossing point of a host of time cycles: 9 moons, 13 times 20, a birth cycle, a planting cycle, a Venus cycle, a sun cycle, an eclipse cycle. The number 260 was tailor made for the Maya". Others have observed that the "Venus Table" in the Dresden Codex , is an accurate ephemeris for predicting Venus positions. Others have also observed a basis for

2520-665: The calendar systems, with an origin predating its first appearances in Maya inscriptions. The earliest evidence of this calendar comes from a possible day sign with a dot numeral coefficient in an Olmec-like inscription in Oxtotitlán cave dated to 800-500 BCE. Some of the next oldest calendric inscriptions are from early strata of Zapotec in the Oaxacan highlands at sites such as Monte Albán , dating from mid-1st millennium BCE. A few earlier-dated inscriptions and artifacts have what appear to be calendric glyphs, such as at San José Mogote and in

2590-441: The combination, five dots are removed and replaced by a bar. If four or more bars result, four bars are removed and a dot is added to the next higher row. This also means that the value of 1 bar is 5. Similarly with subtraction , remove the elements of the subtrahend Symbol from the minuend symbol: [REDACTED] If there are not enough dots in a minuend position, a bar is replaced by five dots. If there are not enough bars,

2660-414: The contemporary Kʼiche Maya community of the municipality of Momostenango in highland Guatemala. She underwent a formal apprenticeship in calendar divination with a local adept, and was initiated as a diviner in 1976. She says: "The Momostecan calendar embraces both the 260-day cycle and the 365-day solar year, with the four Classic Maya Year-bearers, or Mam, systematically linking the two. The 260-day cycle

2730-423: The count with 1 Imix, followed by 2 Ikʼ, 3 Akʼbʼal, etc. up to 13 Bʼen. The day numbers then start again at 1 while the named-day sequence continues onwards, so the next days in the sequence are 1 Ix, 2 Men, 3 Kʼibʼ, 4 Kabʼan, 5 Etzʼnabʼ, 6 Kawak and 7 Ajaw. With all twenty named days used, these now began to repeat the cycle while the number sequence continues, so

2800-399: The current lunation , the number of the lunation in a series of six, the current ruling lunar deity and the length of the current lunation. The Maya counted the number of days in the current lunation. They used two systems for the zero date of the lunar cycle: either the first night they could see the thin crescent moon or the first morning when they could not see the waning moon. The age of

2870-413: The cycle repeats roughly once each lifetime, so a more refined method of dating was needed if history was to be recorded accurately. To specify dates over periods longer than 52 years, Mesoamericans used the Long Count calendar. The Maya name for a day was kʼin . Twenty of these kʼins are known as a winal or uinal . Eighteen winals make one tun . Twenty tuns are known as a kʼatun . Twenty kʼatuns make

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2940-466: The duration of the Calendar Round is the least common multiple of 260 and 365; 18,980 is 73 × 260 Tzolkʼin days and 52 × 365 Haabʼ days. Not every possible combination of Tzolkʼin and Haabʼ can occur. For Tzolkʼin days Imix, Kimi, Chuwen and Kibʼ, the Haabʼ day can only be 4, 9, 14 or 19; for Ikʼ, Manikʼ, Ebʼ and Kabʼan, the Haabʼ day can only be 0, 5, 10 or 15; for Akbʼalʼ, Lamat, Bʼen and Etzʼnabʼ,

3010-458: The earliest constructions indicates that it was in use by 1100 BCE. The original purpose of such a calendar, with no obvious relation to any astronomical or geophysical cycle, is not securely known, but there are several theories. One theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers thirteen and twenty, which were important numbers to the Maya, (Thompson 1950: Maya Hieroglyphic Writing:Introduction). The number twenty

3080-505: The following: NOTES: The tzolkʼin does not have a generally recognized start and end, although there are specific references in the books of Chilam Balam to 1 Imix as the beginning day. Each of the twenty days has its specific primary association connected to the day name's meaning. The variant names and associations below are common to three post-conquest Guatemalan highland calendars. Their interpretations are based primarily on an 1854 manuscript by Hernandez Spina . The tzolkʼin

3150-569: The formula that there were 149 lunations completed in 4400 days, which yielded a rather short mean month of exactly / 149 = 29+ / 149 days = 29 days 12 hours 43 minutes and 29+ / 149 seconds, or about 29.5302 days. Some Mayan monuments include glyphs that record an 819-day count in their Initial Series. These can also be found in the Dresden codex . This is described in Thompson. More examples of this can be found in Kelley. Each group of 819 days

3220-569: The ground, and the day "net" is the opening of the Venus cycle which follows "ahau" ("ajpu" in Kʼicheʼ), just as her child is the heir of Hun Hunajpu. The uses to which the ancient Maya applied the calendar are unknown, nonetheless modern Maya communities employ the calendar as follows: The 260-day calendar spread throughout the Mesoamerican cultural region and is regarded as the oldest and most important of

3290-534: The kingdoms of Postclassic Yucatán, the Short Count was used instead of the Long Count. The cyclical Short Count is a count of 13 kʼatuns (or 260 tuns), in which each kʼatun was named after its concluding day, Ahau ('Lord'). 1 Imix was selected as the recurrent 'first day' of the cycle, corresponding to 1 Cipactli in the Aztec day count. The cycle was counted from katun 11 Ahau to katun 13 Ahau. Since

3360-416: The length of human pregnancy . This is close to the average number of days between the first missed menstrual period and birth, unlike Naegele's rule which is 40 weeks (280 days) between the last menstrual period and birth. It is postulated that midwives originally developed the calendar to predict babies' expected birth dates. Vincent Malmström identifies a correlation between the 260-day cycle and

3430-676: The local community. The classic system of Year Bearers described above is found at Tikal and in the Dresden Codex . During the Late Classic period a different set of Year Bearers was in use in Campeche. In this system, the Year Bearers were the Tzolkʼin that coincided with 1 Pop. These were Akʼbʼal, Lamat, Bʼen and Edznab. During the Post-Classic period in Yucatán a third system was in use. In this system

3500-399: The moon was depicted by a set of glyphs that mayanists coined glyphs D and E: The Maya counted the lunations. This cycle appears in the lunar series as two glyphs that modern scholars call the 'C' and 'X' glyphs. The C glyph could be prefixed with a number indicating the lunation. No prefixing number meant one, whereas the numbers two through six indicated the other lunations. There was also

3570-454: The names for these twenty-day periods varied considerably from region to region and from period to period, reflecting differences in the base language(s) and usage in the Classic and Postclassic eras predating their recording by Spanish sources. Each day in the Haabʼ calendar was identified by a day number in the month followed by the name of the month. Day numbers began with a glyph translated as

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3640-444: The next day after 7 Ajaw is 8 Imix. The repetition of these interlocking 13- and 20-day cycles therefore takes 260 days to complete (that is, for every possible combination of number/named day to occur once). The earliest known inscription with a Tzolkʼin is an Olmec earspool with 2 Ahau 3 Ceh - 6.3.10.9.0, September 2, -678 (Julian astronomical). glyph sign The Haabʼ was made up of eighteen months of twenty days each plus

3710-592: The night") associated with different groups of deities , animals and other significant concepts are also known. The tzolkʼin (in modern Maya orthography ; also commonly written tzolkin ) is the name commonly employed by Mayanist researchers for the Maya Sacred Round or 260-day calendar. The word tzolkʼin is a neologism coined in Yucatec Maya , to mean "count of days" (Coe 1992). The various names of this calendar as used by precolumbian Maya people are still debated by scholars. The Aztec calendar equivalent

3780-554: The number 260 has multiple sources. The tzolkʼin is the basis for the modern, New Age invention of the " Dreamspell " calendar, developed by the esoteric author José Argüelles . The Dreamspell calendar is sometimes mistakenly identified as an authentic interpretation or extension of the original Maya calendar, although Argüelles himself acknowledges the Dreamspell calendar is a new and syncretic creation, inspired by elements from Mesoamerican and non-Mesoamerican sources. In 1987, before

3850-425: The number of days. The Maya numeral system was essentially vigesimal (i.e., base -20) and each unit of a given position represented 20 times the unit of the position which preceded it. An important exception was made for the second-order place value, which instead represented 18 × 20, or 360 days, more closely approximating the solar year than would 20 × 20 = 400 days. The cycles of the Long Count are independent of

3920-412: The planting schedule of maize . However, others object to this conception, noting that while the 260-day calendar runs continuously the interval between autumn-spring and spring-autumn positions alternates between 260 and 105 days, and that the earliest-known calendric inscriptions are from considerably farther north of this zone. Consequently, this theory is not widely supported. It is also possible that

3990-477: The pre-Columbian Maya are not widely known. The corresponding Postclassic Aztec calendar was called tonalpohualli in the Nahuatl language . The tzolkʼin calendar combines a cycle of twenty named days with another cycle of thirteen numbers (the trecena ), to produce 260 unique days (20 × 13 = 260). Each successive named day is numbered from 1 to 13, and then starting again at 1. The 20 individual named days are

4060-493: The solar year. Many Maya Long Count inscriptions contain a supplementary series , which provides information on the lunar phase , number of the current lunation in a series of six and which of the nine Lords of the Night rules. Less-prevalent or poorly understood cycles, combinations and calendar progressions were also tracked. An 819-day Count is attested in a few inscriptions. Repeating sets of 9 days (see below "Nine lords of

4130-410: The third position representing multiples of 18×20. It is reasonable to assume, but not proven by any evidence, that the normal system in use was a pure base-20 system. Several Mesoamerican cultures used similar numerals and base-twenty systems and the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar requiring the use of zero as a place-holder. The earliest long count date (on Stela 2 at Chiappa de Corzo, Chiapas )

4200-598: The twenty vigesimal digits could be written. Numbers after 19 were written vertically in powers of twenty. The Mayan used powers of twenty, just as the Hindu–Arabic numeral system uses powers of ten. For example, thirty-three would be written as one dot, above three dots atop two bars. The first dot represents "one twenty" or "1×20", which is added to three dots and two bars, or thirteen. Therefore, (1×20) + 13 = 33. [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] Upon reaching 20 or 400, another row

4270-651: The tzolk'in vigesimal count and the naturally occurring overtone series found in music, yielding the composition Tzolkin in C Major" , which was premiered by the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra in Japan, 2002, taking 3rd Prize at the prestigious Toru Takemitsu Composition Award , and subsequently developed into a Tzolkin Cultural Meditation , an audio/visual presentation of the 260 day calendar and timing matrix. Maya calendar The Maya calendar

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4340-435: Was associated with one of four colors and the cardinal direction with which it was associated – black corresponded to west, red to east, white to north and yellow to south. The 819-day count can be described several ways: Most of these are referred to using a "Y" glyph and a number. Many also have a glyph for Kʼawill – the god with a smoking mirror in his head. Kʼawill has been suggested as having

4410-442: Was called Tōnalpōhualli , in the Nahuatl language. The tzolkʼin calendar combines twenty day names with the thirteen day numbers to produce 260 unique days. It is used to determine the time of religious and ceremonial events and for divination. Each successive day is numbered from 1 up to 13 and then starting again at 1. Separately from this, every day is given a name in sequence from a list of 20 day names: Some systems started

4480-458: Was chosen by John Eric Sydney Thompson in 1935 on the basis of earlier correlations by Joseph Goodman in 1905 (August 11), Juan Martínez Hernández in 1926 (August 12) and Thompson himself in 1927 (August 13). By its linear nature, the Long Count was capable of being extended to refer to any date far into the past or future. This calendar involved the use of a positional notation system, in which each position signified an increasing multiple of

4550-457: Was extensively used in Mayan inscriptions and codices. Symbolism related to the tzolkʼin is also observed in the Popol Vuh (which, though written in the early post-conquest period, is probably based on older texts). For instance, when Xmucane has set an impossible task for Xquic of collecting a netful of corn from one stalk and Xquic successfully completes it, she leaves the imprint of her net in

4620-500: Was followed by the re-entering first day 1 Imix. This is the system as found in the colonial Books of Chilam Balam . In characteristic Mesoamerican fashion, these books project the cycle onto the landscape, with 13 Ahauob 'Lordships' dividing the land of Yucatán into 13 'kingdoms'. Maya numerals [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] [REDACTED] The Mayan numeral system

4690-494: Was largely worked out by John E. Teeple . The Supplementary Series most commonly consists of the following elements: Each night was ruled by one of the nine lords of the underworld. This nine-day cycle was usually written as two glyphs: a glyph that referred to the Nine Lords as a group, followed by a glyph for the lord that would rule the next night. A lunar series generally is written as five glyphs that provide information about

4760-494: Was simply the day that the calendar went to the next bʼakʼtun , at Long Count 13.0.0.0.0. The date of the start of the next b'ak'tun (Long Count 14.0.0.0.0) is March 26, 2407. The date of the start of the next piktun (a complete series of 20 bʼakʼtuns), at Long Count 1.0.0.0.0.0, is October 13, 4772. Many Classic period inscriptions include a series of glyphs known as the Supplementary Series. The operation of this series

4830-471: Was the basis of the Maya counting system, taken from the total number of human digits. (See Maya numerals ). Thirteen symbolized the number of levels in the Upperworld where the gods lived, and is also cited by modern daykeepers as the number of "joints" in the human body (ankles, knees, hips, shoulders, elbows, wrists, and neck). The numbers multiplied together equal 260. Barbara Tedlock studied this system in

4900-458: Was the system to represent numbers and calendar dates in the Maya civilization . It was a vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system . The numerals are made up of three symbols: zero (a shell), one (a dot) and five (a bar). For example, thirteen is written as three dots in a horizontal row above two horizontal bars; sometimes it is also written as three vertical dots to the left of two vertical bars. With these three symbols, each of

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