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MAYA CALENDAR
A. Fractions of years were simply ignored
B. Tzolkin (Sacred Round)
1. 13 numbers combining with twenty day names
2. 20 day signs
C. Haab (Vague Year)
1. 18 months of 20 days each
a) five days left over is called the Uayeb - "resting or sleep"
2. Maya were aware of the true length 365.2242 days
a) did not adjust for the 0.2242 fraction
b) reckoned by actual year for determining things like solstice
c) New Year's day (1 Pop) fell one day less every four years
D. Lords of the Night
1. total of nine
2. run in endless progression
E. Influence of planets
1. age of the moon
a) lunation is approximately 29.53 days long
b) Maya varied lunar months of 29 and 30 days to get 29.5 avg
c) Initial Series dates followed by Lunar series
1) contains up to eight glyphs dealing with cycles of that body
2) records whether they were using 29- or 30-day month
3) records "age" of the moon on that particular date
d) in AD 682, scribes of Copan began calculating with formula
1) 149 moons = 4,400 days
2) system adopted by other Maya centers
3) equates to lunation averaging 29.53020 days
a> actual value is 29.53059
e) eclipse tables on 7 pages of Dresden Codex
1) cover cycle of 405 lunations or 11,960 days
a> equal to 46 X 260 days
b> allowed for coordination of sacred cycles
c> discovered that lunar and solar eclipses could occur within
plus or minus 18 days of the node
d> forecast solar eclipse on 9.16.4.10.8 12 Lamat 1 Muan
1> November 8, AD 755
2> precise date of lunar-solar conjunction
2. cycles of Venus
a) used figure of 584 days (actual value is 583.92)
1) divided into four periods of varying length
a> Venus as Morning Star
b> disappearance at superior conjunction
c> appearance as Evening Star
d> disappearance at inferior conjunction
2) met with social round after five Venus years
a> 5 X 584 = 8 X 365 = 2,920
b) related to warfare
1) battles usually began when Venus appeared
c) observed from pyramids
1) perpendicular from central doorway of House of the Governor
at Uxmal reaches mound 3.5 miles away
a> Venus would have risen precisely above the mound when it
reached its southerly extreme in AD 750
2) Caracol at Chichen Itza aligned to northerly extremes of
Venus in AD 1000
3. other planets
a) Mars
1) one of Dresden tables lists multiples of 78
2) Mars has a synodic year of 780 days
b) Mercury
1) product of magic numbers 9 and 13 is 117
2) close to Mercury "year" of 116 days
c) Jupiter
F. 52-Year Cycle (Calendar Round)
1. combination of tzolkin and haab names
2. recurs every 18,980 days (52 X 365)
G. Long Count
1. expressed in bar-and-dot numerals
2. begins August 13, 3114 BC
3. basic units
a) baktun = 400 tuns = 144,000 kins
b) katun = 20 tuns = 7,200 kins
c) tun = 18 uinals = 360 kins
1) "tun" means stone
2) never more than 17 in this position
d) uinal = 20 kins
1) "uinic" means human being, for 20 fingers and toes
e) kin = one day
4. other units
a) pictun = 20 baktuns = 8000 tuns
b) calabtun = 20 pictuns = 400 baktuns = 160,000 tuns
c) kinchiltun = 20 calabtuns = 8000 baktuns = 3,200,000 tuns
d) alautun = 20 kinchiltuns = 160,000 baktuns = 57,600,000 tuns
H. Example
1. January 1, 2000 = 12.19.6.15 9 Ahau 8 Kankin
a) ruled by the 3rd Lord of the Night
b) moon will be 25 days old
c) Venus will be 133 days after inferior conjunction
d) Jupiter will be 69 days
e) Saturn will be 51 days, after opposition to the sun
f) 2 years, 50 days from the beginning of the 2282nd quadrant
of the 819-day count in which white God K will rule the
north sky
g) 1,867,260th day since the Maya zero date
I. Mathematics
1. dot = 1, bar = 5, shell = 0 or "completion"
2. base 20 arithmetic
a) values increase by powers of 20 from bottom to top
b) calendrical incriptions were from top to bottom
3. deities used to represent zero and numbers from 1-13
a) ten is a death's head
b) fleshless jaw used in glyphs for numbers 14-19
J. Calendar
1. basic units
a) kin = 1 day
b) uninal = 20 days
c) tun = 18 uinals or 360 kins
1) makes for closer approximation of solar year
d) katun = 20 tuns or 7200 kins
1) also known as a "cycle"
e) baktun = 20 katuns or 144,000 kins
f) pictun = 20 baktuns (2,880,000 days or ca. 7890 years)
g) calabtun = 20 pictuns (57,600,000 days or ca. 157,808 years)
h) kinchiltun = 20 calabtuns (1,152,000,000 days or ca.
3,156,164 years)
i) alautun = 20 kinchiltuns (23,040,000,000 days or ca.
63,123,288 years)
2. sacred almanac
a) "count of days"
b) ancient 260-day calendar
1) number from 1-13
2) combined with one of twenty day-names
c) 260 days had to elapse before combination reappeared
3. vague year
a) "haab"
b) 19 months, each with its own name
1) eighteen uinals of 20 days each and a closing month of 5
days (the Uayeb)
4. combination
a) 260 days of sacred almanac combined with 365 positions of
"haab"
b) Maya New Year's Day written as 1 Pop
c) only four days could occupy first position of the haab"
1) Akbal, Lamat, Ben, and Etz'nab
2) prefixed by 13 numbers for 52 (4 X 13) combinations
5. Calendar Round
a) haab makes 73 revolutions and sacred almanac 52 before both
return to original positions
1) 260 and 365 are divisible by 5
2) 260 gives a quotient of 52 and 365 gives a quotient of 73
3) least common multiple is 5 X 52 X 73 or 18,980
4) total of 18,980 days or 52 vague years
5) Aztecs and other Mesoamerican peoples cited these as "year
bundles"
a> "xihmolpilli" in Nahuat
b> believed world would come to an end at the close of one of
these cycles
c> time for rekindling of sacred fire
6. Initial Series dates
a) Greek Orthodox calendar begins at date corresponding to 5509
BC
b) Jewish calendar begins at date corresponding to 3761 BC
c) Maya calendar begins at date corresponding to 3114 BC
1) represents end of preceding great cycle of 13 baktuns
2) 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 8 Cumku
3) current Great Cycle will end December 21, 2012
d) long count
1) fixes given calendar-round day within 13-baktun cycle
2) preceded by introducing glyph
3) glyphs written from left to right, top to bottom
4) number precedes glyph for time period
7. Secondary Series dates
a) used for other dates in text
b) given in ascending order of units
c) indicated by length of time before or since Initial Series
date
d) can indicate dates as much as 400 million years in the past
8. Lunar Series
a) record motions of the moon
9. Period=ending dating
a) adopted around the middle of the Late Classic period
b) used katun end and vague-year day
10. Short Count (u kahlay katunob)
a) appears in Postclassic period
b) everything eliminated but ending day
1) used to indicate a year
2) day understood as ending a katun of the long count
c) short count dates used to correlate Maya calendar
1) 16th century documents record founding of Merida on January
6, 1542
11. Correlations
a) accepted one is Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation
1) based on placement of katun 13 Ahau in 1539
2) places long-count ending of 11.16.0.0.13 13 Ahau 8 Xul on
November 14, 1539
3) is in best accord with chronological evidence from
archaeological and historical sources
b) Spinden correlation
1) requires all Maya dates to be places 260 years earlier than
GMT correlation
c) Vaillant correlation
1) moves dates ahead 260 years
d) tested with radiocarbon dates from dated lintel at Tikal
Temple IV
1) 12 samples were consistent with age span of GMT correlation
12. Astronomy
a) Lunar calendar
1) actual length of lunar cycle is 29.53059 days
2) Maya may have started with 30, then switched to 20 days
3) new method appears at Copan in Late Classic
4) 4400 days calculated as corresponding to 149 moons
a> or 29.53020 days
5) Dresden Codex records 405 consecutive lunations
a> groupings of days represent solar eclipse table
b) Venus
1) known as "great star" or "wasp star"
2) only planet which we know for sure that the Maya followed
3) makes one revolution every 583.92 days
a> Maya calculated this value as 584 days, but knew it was a
little high
4) Venus calendar in Dresden codex
a> three calendars, each of 65 Venus years
1> slight overlaps between each
b> error correction made it useful for period of 384 years
5) associated with war
c) Other planets
1) Mars may have been known
2) Mercury and Jupiter visible, and may have been known
3) reference to Saturn noted recently by epigraphers
4) north star important for navigation
5) zodiac of 13 houses may be cited in Paris Codex
a> first three signs were Scorpion, Tortoise, and Rattlesnake
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