Mesoamerican Long Count calendar - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar is a non-repeating, vigesimal

Vigesimal

The vigesimal or base 20 numeral system is based on twenty .- Places :...

(base-20) and base-18 calendar used by several Pre-Columbian

Pre-Columbian

The pre-Columbian era incorporates all period subdivisions in the history and prehistory of the Americas before the appearance of significant European influences on the American continents, spanning the time of the original settlement in the Upper Paleolithic period to European colonization during...

Mesoamerica

Mesoamerica is a region and culture area in the Americas, extending approximately from central Mexico to Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Costa Rica, within which a number of pre-Columbian societies flourished before the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the 15th and...

n cultures, most notably the Maya

Maya civilization

The Maya is a Mesoamerican civilization, noted for the only known fully developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas, as well as for its art, architecture, and mathematical and astronomical systems. Initially established during the Pre-Classic period The Maya is a Mesoamerican...

. For this reason, it is sometimes known as the Maya (or Mayan) Long Count calendar. Using a modified vigesimal tally, the Long Count calendar identifies a day by counting the number of days passed since a mythical creation date that corresponds to August 11, 3114 BCE

Common Era

Common Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...

in the Gregorian calendar

Proleptic Gregorian calendar

The proleptic Gregorian calendar is produced by extending the Gregorian calendar backward to dates preceding its official introduction in 1582.-Usage:...

.The correlation between the Long Count and Western calendars is calculated according to the one used by a majority of Maya researchers, known as the (modified) GMT or Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation. An alternate correlation sometimes used puts the starting date two days later. August 11, 3114 BCE is a date in the proleptic Gregorian calendar

Proleptic Gregorian calendar

The proleptic Gregorian calendar is produced by extending the Gregorian calendar backward to dates preceding its official introduction in 1582.-Usage:...

, which equates to September 6, 3114 BCE in the Julian calendar

Julian calendar

The Julian calendar began in 45 BC as a reform of the Roman calendar by Julius Caesar. It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year .The Julian calendar has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months...

and −3113 in astronomical year numbering

Astronomical year numbering

Astronomical year numbering is based on AD/CE year numbering, but follows normal decimal integer numbering more strictly. Thus, it has a year 0, the years before that are designated with negative numbers and the years after that are designated with positive numbers...

. See Correlations between Western calendars and the Long Count calendar section elsewhere in this article for details on correlations. The Long Count calendar was widely used on monuments.

Background

Among other calendars devised in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, two of the most widely used were the 365-day solar calendar (the Maya version is known as the Haab'
Haab'
The Haab is part of the Maya calendric system. It was the Maya version of the 365-day calendar known to many of the pre-Columbian cultures of Mesoamerica...

) and the 260-day calendar, with 20 periods of 13 days. In Mayan studies this 260-day calendar is known as the Tzolk'in
Tzolk'in
Tzolk'in is the name bestowed by Mayanists on the 260-day Mesoamerican calendar used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.The tzolk'in, the basic cycle of the Maya calendar, is a pre-eminent...

; the equivalent Aztec calendar is known by a Nahuatl name, tonalpohualli
Tonalpohualli
The tonalpohualli, a Nahuatl word meaning "count of days", is a 260-day sacred period in use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, especially among the Aztecs. This calendrical period is neither solar nor lunar, but rather consists of 20 trecena, or 13-day periods...

.

The Haab' and the Tzolk'in calendars identified and named the days, but not the years. The combination of a Haab' date and a Tzolk'in date identifies a specific date in a combination which did not occur again for 52 years. The two calendars based on 365 days and 260 days repeat every 52 Haab' years, a period generally known as the Calendar Round

Calendar round

In the Mesoamerican calendars, calendar round dates are composed by interlacing the dates of a 260-day period with dates from a 365-day period...

. To designate dates over periods longer than 52 years, some Mesoamericans utilized the Long Count calendar.

Long Count periods

The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from a starting date that is generally calculated to be August 11, 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6 in the Julian calendar (or −3113 in astronomical year numbering). There has been much debate over the precise correlation between the Western calendars and the Long Count calendars. The August 11 date is based on the GMT correlation (see Correlations between Western calendars and the Long Count calendar section elsewhere in this article for details on correlations).

The completion of 13 b'ak'tuns (August 11, 3114 BCE) marks the Creation of the world of human beings according to the Maya. On this day, Raised-up-Sky-Lord caused three stones to be set by associated gods at Lying-Down-Sky, First-Three-Stone-Place. Because the sky still lay on the primordial sea, it was black. The setting of the three stones centered the cosmos which allowed the sky to be raised, revealing the

Rather than using a base-10 scheme, like Western numbering, the Long Count days were tallied in a base-20 and base-18 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40. The Long Count is not consistently base-20, however, since the second digit from the right rolls over to zero when it reaches 18. Thus 0.0.1.0.0 does not represent 400 days, but rather only 360 days.

The following table shows the period equivalents as well as Maya names for these periods:

Representation	Long Count subdivisions	Days	~ solar years
0.0.0.0.1	1 k'in K'in A K'in is a part of the ancient Maya Long Count Calendar system which corresponds to one day. As such, it is the smallest unit of Maya time to be counted as part of the long count and it usually appears as the last glyph in a long count date...	1	1/365
0.0.0.1.0	1 winal Winal A winal is a unit of time in the Maya Long Count calendar equal to 20 days . It is the 4th digit on the Maya Long Count date.For example, in the Maya Long Count date 12.19.13.15.12 , the number 15 is the winal.... = 20 k'in	20	0.055
0.0.1.0.0	1 tun Tun (Maya calendar) A Tun is a part of the ancient Maya Long Count Calendar system which corresponds to 18 winal cycles or 360 days.... = 18 winal	360	0.986
0.1.0.0.0	1 k'atun = 20 tun	7,200	19.71
1.0.0.0.0	1 b'ak'tun Baktun A baktun is 20 katun cycles of the ancient Maya Long Count Calendar. It contains 144,000 days, equivalent to 394.26 tropical years. The Classic period of Maya civilization occurred during the 8th and 9th baktuns of the current calendrical cycle. The current baktun will end, or be completed, on... = 20 k'atun	144,000	394.3

Note that the name b'ak'tun is a back-formation invented by scholars. The numbered Long Count was no longer in use by the time the Spanish arrived in the Yucatán Peninsula

Yucatán Peninsula

The Yucatán Peninsula, in southeastern Mexico, separates the Caribbean Sea from the Gulf of Mexico, with the northern coastline on the Yucatán Channel...

, although unnumbered k'atuns and tuns were still in use.

Mesoamerican numerals

Long Count dates are written with Mesoamerican numerals, as shown on this table. A dot represents 1 while a bar equals 5. The shell glyph was used to represent the zero concept. The Long Count calendar required the use of zero as a place-holder, and presents one of the earliest uses of the zero concept in history.

Numerical order

The Long Count dates are written vertically, with the higher periods (i.e. b'ak'tun) on the top and then the number of each successively smaller order periods until the number of days (k'in) are listed. As can be seen at left, the Long Count date shown on Stela C at Tres Zapotes is 7.16.6.16.18.

7	× 144000	= 1,008,000 days (k'in)
16	× 7200	= 115,200 days (k'in)
6	× 360	= 2,160 days (k'in)
16	× 20	= 320 days (k'in)
18	× 1	= 18 days (k'in)
	Total days	= 1,125,698 days (k'in)

The date on Stela C, then, is 1,125,698 days from August 11, 3114 BCE, Julian day number 1,709,981, September 1, 32 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, September 3, −31 in the Julian calendar with astronomical year numbering.

On Maya monuments, the Long Count syntax is more complex. The date sequence is given once, at the beginning of the inscription, and opens with the so-called ISIG (Introductory Series Initial Glyph) which reads tzik-a(h) hab’ [patron of Haab' month] ("revered was the year-count with the patron [of the month]"). Next come the 5 digits of the Long Count, followed by the Calendar Round (tzolk'in and Haab') and supplementary series series. The supplementary series is optional and contains lunar data, for example, the age of the moon on the day and the calculated length of current lunation.Notable in this sequence is the glyph with nine variant forms labeled G by early epigraphers. It has been connected with the cycle of Lords of the Night known from colonial era sources in Central Mexico but alternate explanations have also been offered. See Thompson. The text then continues with whatever activity occurred on that date.

A drawing of a full Maya Long Count inscription is shown below.

Earliest Long Counts

The earliest Long Count inscription yet discovered is on Stela 2 at Chiapa de Corzo

Chiapa de Corzo (Mesoamerican site)

Chiapa de Corzo is an archaeological site of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, located in the Central Depression of Chiapas of present-day Mexico. It rose to prominence during the Middle Formative period, becoming a regional center or capital that controlled trade along the Grijalva River. By then, its...

, Chiapas

Chiapas

Chiapas officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Chiapas is one of the 31 states that, with the Federal District, comprise the 32 Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided in 118 municipalities and its capital city is Tuxtla Gutierrez. Other important cites in Chiapas include San Cristóbal de las...

, Mexico, showing a date of 36 BCE.To clarify, there are Long Count inscriptions which refer to dates earlier than 36 BCE, but these were carved much later than those dates. This table lists the six artifacts with the eight oldest Long Counts according to Vincent H. Malmström.

Archaeological site	Name	Gregorian date GMT (584283) correlation	Long Count	Location
Chiapa de Corzo Chiapa de Corzo (Mesoamerican site) Chiapa de Corzo is an archaeological site of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, located in the Central Depression of Chiapas of present-day Mexico. It rose to prominence during the Middle Formative period, becoming a regional center or capital that controlled trade along the Grijalva River. By then, its...	Stela 2	December 6, 36 BCE	7.16.3.2.13	Chiapas, Mexico
Tres Zapotes Tres Zapotes Tres Zapotes is a Mesoamerican archaeological site located in the south-central Gulf Lowlands of Mexico in the Papaloapan River plain. Tres Zapotes is sometimes referred to as the third major Olmec capital , although Tres Zapotes' Olmec phase constitutes only a portion of the site’s history, which...	Stela C	September 1, 32 BCE	7.16.6.16.18	Veracruz Veracruz Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is... , Mexico
El Baúl El Baúl El Baúl is a Pre-Columbian archaeological site in present-day Escuintla Department, Guatemala. El Baúl, along with the sites of Bilbao and El Castillo, is part of the Cotzumalhuapa Archaeological sites Zone. It is in the prehistoric Formative stage of the Americas.-Site:The El Baúl acropolis is...	Stela 1	March 2, 37 CE	7.19.15.7.12	Guatemala Guatemala Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
Abaj Takalik	Stela 5	May 19, 103 CE	8.3.2.10.15	"
"	"	June 3, 126 CE	8.4.5.17.11	"
La Mojarra La Mojarra La Mojarra is an archaeological site in the Mexican state of Veracruz, located not far from the Gulf Coast at a bend in the Acula River. It was continually occupied from the late Formative period until perhaps as late as 1000 CE....	Stela 1 La Mojarra Stela 1 La Mojarra Stela 1 is a Mesoamerican carved monument dating from the 2nd century CE. It was discovered in 1986, pulled from the Acula River near La Mojarra, Veracruz, Mexico, not far from the Tres Zapotes archaeological site. The by , four-ton limestone slab contains about 535 glyphs of the...	May 19, 143 CE	8.5.3.3.5	Veracruz, Mexico
"	"	July 11, 156 CE	8.5.16.9.7	"
Near La Mojarra	Tuxtla Statuette Tuxtla Statuette The Tuxtla Statuette is a small 6.3 inch rounded greenstone figurine, carved to resemble a squat, bullet-shaped human with a duck-like bill and wings. Most researchers believe the statuette represents a shaman wearing a bird mask and bird cloak...	March 12, 162 CE	8.6.2.4.17	"

Of the six sites, three are on the western edge of the Maya homeland and three are several hundred kilometers further west, leading most researchers to believe that the Long Count calendar predates the Maya. La Mojarra Stela 1, the Tuxtla Statuette, Tres Zapotes Stela C, and Chiapa Stela 2 are all inscribed in an Epi-Olmec, not Maya, style. El Baúl Stela 2, on the other hand, was created in the Izapa

Izapa

Izapa is a very large pre-Columbian archaeological site located in the Mexican state of Chiapas; it was occupied during the Late Formative period. The site is situated on the Izapa River, a tributary of the Suchiate River, near the base of the Tacaná volcano), the fourth largest mountain in...

n style. The first unequivocally Maya artifact is Stela 29 from Tikal

Tikal

Tikal is one of the largest archaeological sites and urban centres of the pre-Columbian Maya civilization. It is located in the archaeological region of the Petén Basin in what is now northern Guatemala...

, with the Long Count date of 292 CE (8.12.14.8.15), more than 300 years after Stela 2 from Chiapa de Corzo.

Correlations between Western calendars and the Long Count

The Maya and western calendars are correlated by using a Julian day number of the starting date of the current creation – 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw, 8 Kumk'u.All extant Maya inscriptions that represent this base date wrote it with a 13 Bak'tuns, not 0, however, when using this as a base date in calculations this 13 functions mathematically as if it were a zero. This is referred to as a correlation constant. The generally accepted correlation constant is the Modified Thompson 2, "Goodman, Martinez, Thompson

J. Eric S. Thompson

Sir John Eric Sidney Thompson was an English Mesoamerican archeologist and epigrapher. His contributions to the understanding of Maya hieroglyphs lead him to be one of the foremost mid-20th century anthropological scholars. He was generally known as J. Eric S...

" – GMT correlation of 584,283 days. Using the GMT correlation the current creation started on September 6, 3114 BC (Julian

Julian calendar

) or August 11 in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar

Proleptic Gregorian calendar

The proleptic Gregorian calendar is produced by extending the Gregorian calendar backward to dates preceding its official introduction in 1582.-Usage:...

. The study of correlating the Maya and western calendar is referred to as the correlation question. In Breaking the Maya Code, Michael Coe writes: "In spite of oceans of ink that have been spilled on the subject, there now is not the slightest chance that these three scholars (conflated to GMT when talking about the correlation) were not right...".

The evidence for the GMT correlation is historical, astronomical, and archaeological:

Historical: Calendar Round dates with a corresponding Julian date

Julian calendar

are recorded in Diego de Landa

Diego de Landa

Diego de Landa Calderón was a Spanish Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán. He left future generations with a mixed legacy in his writings, which contain much valuable information on pre-Columbian Maya civilization, and his actions which destroyed much of that civilization's...

's Relación de las cosas de Yucatán
Relacíon de las cosas de Yucatán
Relación de las cosas de Yucatán was written by Diego de Landa Calderón circa 1566 shortly after his return to Spain after serving as Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Yucatán in the sixteenth century...

, the Chronicle of Oxcutzkab and the books of Chilam Balam

Chilam Balam

The so-called Books of Chilam Balam are handwritten, chiefly 18th-century Mayan miscellanies, named after the small Yucatec towns where they were originally kept, and preserving important traditional knowledge in which indigenous Mayan and early Spanish traditions have coalesced...

. Oxcutzkab and de Landa record a date that is a Tun ending. Regarding these historical references in The Skywatchers Aveni writes: "All the assembled data are consistent with the equation November 3, 1539 = 11.16.0.0.0. Thus for the GMT, or 11.16 correlation we find that A = 584,283...". The fall of the capital city of the Aztec Empire, Tenochtitlan, occurred on August 13, 1521. A number of different chroniclers wrote that this was a Tzolk'in

Tzolk'in

Tzolk'in is the name bestowed by Mayanists on the 260-day Mesoamerican calendar used by the Maya civilization of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.The tzolk'in, the basic cycle of the Maya calendar, is a pre-eminent...

(Tonalpohualli

Tonalpohualli

The tonalpohualli, a Nahuatl word meaning "count of days", is a 260-day sacred period in use in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica, especially among the Aztecs. This calendrical period is neither solar nor lunar, but rather consists of 20 trecena, or 13-day periods...

) of 1 Snake. Post-conquest scholars such as Sahagun and Duran

Diego Durán

Diego Durán was a Dominican friar best known for his authorship of one of the earliest Western books on the history and culture of the Aztecs, The History of the Indies of New Spain, a book that was much criticized in his lifetime for helping the "heathen" maintain their culture.Also known as the...

recorded Aztec calendar

Aztec calendar

The Aztec calendar is the calendar system that was used by the Aztecs as well as other Pre-Columbian peoples of central Mexico. It is one of the Mesoamerican calendars, sharing the basic structure of calendars from throughout ancient Mesoamerica....

dates with a calendar date. Many indigenous Guatemalan communities, principally those speaking the Mayan languages known as Ixil, Mam, Pokomchí, and Quiché, keep the Tzolk'in and (in many cases) the Haab' and in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico These are all consistent with the GMT correlation.

Astronomical: Any correct correlation must match the astronomical content of classic inscriptions. The GMT correlation does an excellent job of matching lunar data in the supplementary series. For example: An inscription at the Temple of the Sun at Palenque

Palenque

Palenque was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date back to 100 BC to its fall around 800 AD...

records that on Long Count 9.16.4.10.8 there were 26 days completed in a 30 day lunation. The Dresden Codex

Dresden Codex

The Dresden Codex, also known as the Codex Dresdensis, is a pre-Columbian Maya book of the eleventh or twelfth century of the Yucatecan Maya in Chichén Itzá. The Maya codex is believed to be a copy of an original text of some three or four hundred years earlier...

contains an eclipse table which gives eclipse seasons when the Moon is near its ascending or descending node and an eclipse

Eclipse

An eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when an astronomical object is temporarily obscured, either by passing into the shadow of another body or by having another body pass between it and the viewer...

is likely to occur. Dates converted using the GMT correlation fall roughly in this eclipse season. The Dresden Codex

Dresden Codex

contains a Venus

Venus

Venus is the second planet from the Sun, orbiting it every 224.7 Earth days. The planet is named after Venus, the Roman goddess of love and beauty. After the Moon, it is the brightest natural object in the night sky, reaching an apparent magnitude of −4.6, bright enough to cast shadows...

table which records the heliacal rising

Heliacal rising

The heliacal rising of a star occurs when it first becomes visible above the eastern horizon for a brief moment just before sunrise, after a period of time when it had not been visible....

s of Venus. The GMT correlation agrees with these to within a few days which is as accurately as these could have been observed by the ancient Maya.

Archaeological: Various items that can be associated with specific Long Count dates have been isotope dated. In 1959 the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

carbon dated samples from ten wood lintels from Tikal

Tikal

. These were carved with a date equivalent to 741 AD using the GMT correlation. The average carbon date was 746±34 years.

If a proposed correlation only has to agree with one of these lines of evidence there could be numerous other possibilities. Astronomers have proposed many correlations, for example: Lounsbury

Floyd Lounsbury

Floyd Glenn Lounsbury was an American linguist, anthropologist and Mayanist scholar and epigrapher, best known for his work on linguistic and cultural systems of a variety of North and South American languages...

, Fuls, et. al., Böhm and Böhm and Stock.

Today, , in the Long Count is (GMT correlation).

JDN correlations
to the Maya creation date
(after Thompson 1971, et al. and Aveni 1980)
Name	Correlation
Bowditch	394,483
Willson	438,906
Smiley	482,699
Makemson	489,138
Modified Spinden	489,383
Spinden	489,384
Teeple	492,622
Dinsmoor	497,879
−4CR	508,363
−2CR	546,323
Stock	556,408
Goodman	584,280
Martinez-Hernandez	584,281
GMT	584,283
Modified Thompson 1	584,284
Thompson (Lounsbury)	584,285
Pogo	588,626
+2CR	622,243
Böhm	622,261
Kreichgauer	626,927
+4CR	660,203
Fuls, et. al.	660,208
Hochleitner	674,265
Schultz	677,723
Escalona-Ramos	679,108
Valliant	679,183
Weitzel	774,078

	Gregorian date GMT (584283) correlation
13.0.0.0.0	August 11, 3114 BCE
1.0.0.0.0	November 13, 2720 BCE
2.0.0.0.0	February 16, 2325 BCE
3.0.0.0.0	May 21, 1931 BCE
4.0.0.0.0	August 23, 1537 BCE
5.0.0.0.0	November 26, 1143 BCE
6.0.0.0.0	February 28, 748 BCE
7.0.0.0.0	June 3, 354 BCE
8.0.0.0.0	September 5, 41 CE
9.0.0.0.0	December 9, 435
10.0.0.0.0	March 13, 830
11.0.0.0.0	June 15, 1224
12.0.0.0.0	September 18, 1618
13.0.0.0.0	December 21, 2012
14.0.0.0.0	March 26, 2407
15.0.0.0.0	June 28, 2801
16.0.0.0.0	October 1, 3195
17.0.0.0.0	January 3, 3590
18.0.0.0.0	April 7, 3984
19.0.0.0.0	July 11, 4378
1.0.0.0.0.0	October 13, 4772

2012 and the Long Count

According to the Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh
Popol Vuh is a corpus of mytho-historical narratives of the Post Classic Quiché kingdom in Guatemala's western highlands. The title translates as "Book of the Community," "Book of Counsel," or more literally as "Book of the People."...

, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the K'iche' Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, we are living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first three creations that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. In the Maya Long Count, the previous creation ended at the start of a 14th b'ak'tun.

The previous creation ended on a long count of 12.19.19.17.19. Another 12.19.19.17.19 will occur on December 20, 2012, followed by the start of the 14th b'ak'tun, 13.0.0.0.0, on December 21, 2012. There is only one reference to the current creation's 13th b'ak'tun in the fragmentary Mayan corpus: Tortuguero

Tortuguero (Maya site)

Tortuguero is an archaeological site in southernmost Tabasco, Mexico which supported a Maya city during the Classic period. The site is noteworthy for its use of the B'aakal emblem glyph also found as the primary title at Palenque...

Monument 6, part of a ruler's inscription.

Maya inscriptions occasionally reference future predicted events or commemorations that would occur on dates that lie beyond 2012 (that is, beyond the completion of the 13th b'ak'tun of the current era). Most of these are in the form of "distance dates" where some Long Count date is given, together with a Distance Number that is to be added to the Long Count date to arrive at this future date.

For example, on the west panel at the Temple of Inscriptions in Palenque

Palenque

Palenque was a Maya city state in southern Mexico that flourished in the 7th century. The Palenque ruins date back to 100 BC to its fall around 800 AD...

, a section of the text projects into the future to the 80th Calendar Round (CR) 'anniversary' of the famous Palenque ruler K'inich Janaab' Pakal's accession to the throne (Pakal's accession occurred on a Calendar Round date 5 Lamat 1 Mol, at Long Count 9.9.2.4.8 equivalent to 27 July 615 CE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar).Gregorian, using GMT correlation JDN=584283. It does this by commencing with Pakal's birthdate 9.8.9.13.08 Ajaw 13 Pop (24 March ) and adding to it the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8. This calculation arrives at the 80th Calendar Round since his accession, a day that also has a CR date of , but which lies over 4,000 years in the future from Pakal's time—the day 21 October in the year 4772. The inscription notes that this day would fall eight days after the completion of the 1st piktun [since the creation or zero date of the Long Count system], where the piktun is the next-highest order above the b'ak'tun in the Long Count. If the completion date of that piktun—13 October 4772—were to be written out in Long Count notation, it could be represented as 1.0.0.0.0.0. The 80th CR anniversary date, eight days later, would be 1.0.0.0.0.8.

Despite the publicity generated by the 2012 date, Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History

Florida Museum of Natural History

The Florida Museum of Natural History is the State of Florida's official state-sponsored and chartered natural history museum. Its main facilities are located on the campus of the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida....

, stated that "We have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end" in 2012. "For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle," says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Florida

Crystal River, Florida

Crystal River is a city in Citrus County, Florida, United States. The population was 3,485 at the 2000 census. . According to the U.S Census estimates of 2005, the city had a population of 3,539. The city was incorporated in 1903 and is the self professed "Home of the Manatee"....

. To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday event

Doomsday event

A doomsday event is a specific, plausibly verifiable or hypothetical occurrence which has an exceptionally destructive effect on the human race...

or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is "a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in." "There will be another cycle," says E. Wyllys Andrews V, director of the Tulane University

Tulane University

Tulane University is a private, nonsectarian research university located in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States...

Middle American Research Institute (MARI). "We know the Maya thought there was one before this, and that implies they were comfortable with the idea of another one after this."

Calculating a full Long Count date

As stated, a full Long Count date not only includes the five digits of the Long Count, but the 2-character Tzolk'in and the two-character Haab' dates as well. The five digit Long Count can therefore be confirmed with the other four characters (the "calendar round date").

Taking as an example a Calendar Round date of 9.12.2.0.16 (Long Count) 5 Kib' (Tzolk'in) 14 Yaxk'in (Haab'). One can check whether this date is correct by the following calculation.

It is perhaps easier to find out how many days there are since 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u, and show how the date 5 Kib' 14 Yaxk'in is derived.

9	× 144000	= 1296000
12	× 7200	= 86400
2	× 360	= 720
0	× 20	= 0
16	× 1	= 16
	Total days	= 1383136

Calculating the Tzolk'in date portion

The Tzolk'in date is counted forward from 4 Ajaw. To calculate the numerical portion of the Tzolk'in date, we must add 4 to the total number of days given by the date, and then divide total number of days by 13.

(4 + 1383136) / 13 = 106395 and 5/13

This means that 106395 whole 13 day cycles have been completed, and the numerical portion of the Tzolk'in date is 5.

To calculate the day, we divide the total number of days in the long count by 20 since there are twenty day names.

1383136 / 20 = 69156 and (16/20)

This means 16 day names must be counted from Ajaw. This gives Kib'. Therefore, the Tzolk'in date is 5 Kib'.

Calculating the Haab' date portion

The Haab' date 8 Kumk'u is the ninth day of the eighteenth month. Since there are twenty days per month, there are eleven days remaining in Kumk'u. The nineteenth and last month of the Haab' year contains only five days, thus, there are sixteen days until the end of the Haab' year.

If we subtract 16 days from the total, we can then find how many complete Haab' years are contained.

1383136 − 16 = 1383120

Dividing by 365, we have

1383120 / 365 = 3789 and (135/365)

Therefore, 3789 complete Haab' have passed, with 135 days into the new Haab'.

We then find which month the day is in. Dividing the remainder 135 days by 20, we have six complete months, plus 15 remainder days. So, the date in the Haab' lies in the seventh month, which is Yaxk'in. The fifteenth day of Yaxk'in is 14, thus the Haab' date is 14 Yaxk'in.

So the date of the long count date 9.12.2.0.16 5 Kib' 14 Yaxk'in is confirmed.

Piktuns and higher orders

As mentioned in the Syntax section, there are also four rarely used higher-order periods above the b'ak'tun: piktun, kalabtun, k'inchiltun, and alautun. All of these words are inventions of Mayanists.

The inscription on Quirigua stela F, or 6, shows a Long Count date of 9.16.10.0.0 1 Ahau 3 Zip (March 15, 761 Gregorian). The huge distance date of 1.8.13.0.9.16.10.0.0 is subtracted and the resulting date is given as (18.)13.0.0.0.0.0.0.0 1 Ahau 13 Yaxkin, which is equivalent to a day over 90 million years in the past. However, there is another distance date on Quirigua Stela D or 4, that gives a date of 9.16.15.0.0 7 Ahau 18 Pop (February 17, 766 Gregorian), to which is added 6.8.13.0.9.16.15.0.0, to give a date of (13.)13.0.0.0.0.0.0.0. This is over 400 million years after the date the stela was erected.

The Dresden codex

Dresden Codex

contains another method for linking Long Counts in the prior era to this one. These are not explicitly stated as Long Counts but are implied by a Ring Number – a distance number with the K'in coefficient enclosed in a red loop tied at the top. These are referred to as "Long Reckonings". Long Reckonings are distance numbers which are based on a date in the preceding creation to give a date in the current one. Thompson uses the last example from the Dresden codex

Dresden Codex

:

Ring number (12) 12.12.17.3.1 13 Imix 9 Wo (7.2.14.19 before (13) 13.0.0.0.0)

 distance number (0) 10.13.13.3.2

 Long Count 10.6.10.6.3 13 Ak'bal 1 Kank'in

A series of "Serpent Numbers" in the Dresden codex

Dresden Codex

pp.61–69 has Long Reckonings from a date 34,000 years in the past to classical Maya Long Counts.

By studying these distance dates and Long Reckonings Eric Thompson determined that the date of creation in 3114 BCE – 13.0.0.0.0 was actually ...13.13.0.0.0.0 in the extended version.

At Yaxchilan, on a temple stairway, there is an inscription that includes four levels above the alautuns. The inscription reads: 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.9.15.13.6.9 3 Muluc 17 Mac. This is equivalent to October 19, 744, but the higher cycles do not conform to Thompson’s calculation. The same applies to a Late Classic monument from Coba

Coba

Coba is a large ruined city of the Pre-Columbian Maya civilization, located in the state of Quintana Roo, Mexico. It is located about 90 km east of the Maya site of Chichen Itza, about 40 km west of the Caribbean Sea, and 44 km northwest of the site of Tulum, with which it is...

, Stela 1. The date of creation is expressed as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, where the units are 13s in the nineteen places larger than the b'ak'tun.

External links

Today's date according to the Long Count, in form of a miles count.
Coba Stela 1 (Schele #4087), partial illustration from the Linda Schele Drawings Collection of the monument from Coba with an expanded Long Count date
The Maya Calendar by the Maya World Studies Center in Yucatán Mexico
Maya calendar on michielb.nl, with conversion applet from Gregorian calendar to Maya date (Uses the proleptic Gregorian calendar.)
UT Mesoamerica Center Discussion Board. (David Stuart's translation of Monument 6 at Tortuguero.)
Maya Calendar and Links on diagnosis2012.co.uk (The calculator uses the proleptic Gregorian calendar. The site has a huge number of links to Maya calendar sites.)
Culture and History of the Ancient and Modern Maya Includes pdf files of "Popol Vuh: The Book of the Counsil" and "Chilam Balam of Chumayel" (The page about the calendar uses the "astronomical" (Lounsbury) correlation.)
The Dresden Codex Lunar Series and Sidereal Astronomy 1897 text by Cyrus Thomas.

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.

Background

Long Count periods

Mesoamerican numerals

Numerical order

Earliest Long Counts

Correlations between Western calendars and the Long Count

2012 and the Long Count

Calculating a full Long Count date

Calculating the Tzolk'in date portion

Calculating the Haab' date portion

Piktuns and higher orders

See also

External links