Maya calendar: Encyclopedia II - Maya calendar - Long Count

Maya calendar - Long Count

Since Calendar Round dates can only distinguish within 18980 days, equivalent to around 52 solar years, the cycle repeats roughly once each lifetime, and thus, a much more refined method of dating was needed if their history was to be recorded accurately.

The Long Count employs the use of number series, roughly base 20 and is constructed by counting whole number of days alone. The Mayan name for a day was kin; twenty of these kins are known as a uinal; eighteen uinals make one tun; twenty tuns are known as a katun, twenty katuns make a baktun. (Four higher order cycles but rarely used are known as Pictun, Calabtun, Kinchiltun, and Alautun.)

The Long Count started at 13.0.0.0.0 on Julian day 584283 (3114 BC August 11 in the proleptic Gregorian calendar, or 3114 BC September 6 in the proleptic Julian calendar) according to the "Goodman, Martinez-Hernandez, Thompson" correlation (nicknamed "GMT"), the most widely accepted correlation between the Maya and Gregorian calendar. The baktuns progress 13, 1, 2, ..., 12. Because of this progression, many start the Long Count at 0.0.0.0.0 rather than 13.0.0.0.0, even though the Maya glyph for their epoch literally means "the completion of 13 baktuns". This cycle is 1,872,000 days in length, terminating on 2012 (December 21, Gregorian) and is designated 13.0.0.0.0, since the Maya believed that time is periodic. Another correlation sometimes used, that of Lounsbury, correlates the start-day to JD 584285 (3114 BC August 13 (Gregorian) = 3114 BC September 8 (Julian) ) and the terminal date to 2012 December 23 (Gregorian).

Maya calendar - Calculating Long Count dates

Long count dates list number of the highest order period first (Baktun) and then the number of each successively smaller order periods until the number of days (kin) are listed. Then the Calendar Round date is given.

A typical Calendar Round date is 9.12.2.0.16 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin. 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 Ahau 8 Cumhu, and show how the date 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin is derived.

Maya calendar - Calculating the Tzolkin date portion

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

This means that 106395 complete 13 day cycles have been completed, and the numerical portion of the Tzolkin 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.

This means 16 day names must be counted from Ahau. This gives Cib. Therefore, the Tzolkin date is 5 Cib.

Maya calendar - Calculating the Haab date portion

The Haab date 8 Cumhu is the ninth day of the eighteenth month. Since there are twenty days per month, there are eleven days remaining in Cumhu. The nineteeth and last month of the Haab year contains only five days, 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.

Dividing by 365, we have

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 Yaxkin. The fifteenth day of Yaxkin is 14, thus the Haab date is 14 Yaxkin.

So the date of the long count date 9.12.2.0.16 5 Cib 14 Yaxkin is confirmed.

Maya calendar - End of the world?

The turn of the great cycle is conjectured to have been of great significance to the Maya, but does not necessarily mark the end of the world. According to the Popol Vuh, a sacred book of the Maya, they were living in the fourth world. The Popol Vuh describes the first three worlds that the gods failed in making and the creation of the successful fourth world where men were placed. The Maya believed that the fourth world would end in catastrophe and the fifth and final world would be created that would signal the end of mankind.

The last creation ended on a long count of 13.0.0.0.0. Another 13.0.0.0.0 will occur on December 21, 2012, and it has been discussed in many New Age articles and books that this will be the end of this creation or something else entirely. However, the Maya abbreviated their long counts to just the last five vigesimal places. There were an infinitely larger number of units that were usually not shown. When the larger units were shown (notably on a monument from Coba), it is expressed as 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.0.0.0.0, where the larger units are evidently supposed to be 13s in all larger places. In this age we are only approaching 0.0.0.0.0.0.13.0.0.0.0, and the larger places are nowhere near the 13s that would match the end of the last creation.

This is confirmed by a date from Palenque, which projects forward in time to 1.0.0.0.0.0, which will occur on October 13, 4772. The Classic Period Maya obviously did not believe that the end of this age would occur in 2012. There will be a baktun ending in 2012, a significant event being the end of a 400 year period, but not the end of the age.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Long Count", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki