Mayan Calendar

54 55 some inCrediBle daTes There are several inscriptions that show colossal time calculations, in terms of pictuns a. 20 baktuns or 8,000 tuns calabtuns b. 20 pictuns or 160,000 tuns kinchiltuns 20 calabtuns or 3,200,000 tuns and alautuns 20 kinchiltuns or 64,000,000 tuns. Some of these include occasional mistakes, which has made decoding them difficult, but Thompson has managed it. Most of these are in the form of distance dates, where a Long Count date is given, such as on the Tablet of Inscriptions, Palenque 9.8.9.13.0 8 Ahau 13 Pop, 24th March 603 AD Gregorian, with the distance date 10.11.10.5.8 to be added. The resulting date is given as 1.0.0.0.0.8 5 Lamat 1 Mol. Here, the pictun coefficient is given as 1. This is 21st October 4772 AD a calculation of over 3000 years into the future. Even more impressive, though, is the inscription on Quirigua stela F, or 6. Here the Long Count date reads 9.16.10.0.0 1 Ahau 3 Zip 15th March 761 AD 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 17th February 766 AD Gregorian, to which is subtracted 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 before the date the stela was erected It was by calculating a number of these distance dates that Thompson was able to determine that the date of creation in 3114 BC 13.0.0.0.0 was actually 0.1.13.0.0.0.0.0.0 in the extended version. At Yaxchilan, on a temple stairway, a puzzling inscription includes four levels above the alautuns. It reads 13.13.13.13.13.13.13.13.9.15.13.6.9 3 Muluc 17 Mac. This is equivalent to 19th October 744 AD, but as you can see, the higher cycles do not conform to Thompsons calculation. The same applies to Stela 1 at Coba, which shows a series of 24 cycles, when only 9 would be needed to chart the age of the universe periodending daTes Use of the full Long Count dating method was waning by the middle of the LateClassic era, and started being replaced by the abbreviated periodending dating e.g., c. d. end 13 baktuns. This system recorded only the name of the baktun or later just the katun, and the calendarround date in other words, the baktun or katun plus the relevant Tzolkin and Haab days. This reduced the amount of glyphs necessary to record a date from ten to three, but it could still pinpoint dates in a 374,400 or 19,000 year window. By the time of the Late PostClassic era, the system had been abbreviated even more. The katuns were now recorded not by their number as they would have been in the Long Count the katun number in a series of the twenty in the baktun but by the name of the Tzolkin day on which they ended. There are thirteen possible Tzolkin days on which the katuns ended all Ahau. Thus, the cycle would repeat after thirteen katuns 256.27 solar years, so dates over a longer period could only be recorded if an entire series of these katun counts was listed. Mayanists call this calendar the Short Count, since it consists of 13 katuns instead of 13 baktuns, and 260 tuns as opposed to the 260 katuns of the Long Count. Some Mayanists suppose that the sequence started on katun 8 Ahau and ended on katun 10 Ahau, since there is a series of prophecies starting and ending with those katuns in the Chilam Balam of Mani. Others have proposed that the series started with katun 11 Ahau and ended with katun 13 Ahau, as implied by a 1566 diagram by zealous bookburner Bishop Landa. popol vuh The Five eras The Popol vuh, or Book of the Mat is a long mythological poem of the Quiche Maya, from the highlands of Guatemala. Written in Utatlan in the 16th century from a combination of oral and written sources, it has some Spanish influence, and tells a Mayan creation myth, in which, according to Brotherston, four previous ages are described. First is the age of mud people, who are returned to water. Second is the age of the doll people, who are consumed by monsters during an eclipse. The third some say the current age is of Seven Macaw, defeated by the Hero Twins. Fourth is the descent to Xibalba, when the Hero Twins ascend to the sky. Fifth is the current era, when the Maize people the Quiche are created. However, some interpreters find only three or four ages described in the Popol vuh. The Murals of the Four Suns, at Tonina and Palenque, show four upsidedown heads and an overseeing skull representing the Suns reborn at each Creation and a skulllike head wearing a necklace of four tassels stylised heads with hair hanging down. These are reminiscent of the five ages depicted at the centre of the Aztec Sunsone and described in the Cuautitlan Annals a central skull with four surrounding eras. Martn Prechtel has described the Creation myths of the Tzutujil Maya as five eras of fire, plants, water, wind, and movement, very similar to the Aztec ones waterflood wind firerain of fire starvationeaten by jaguarseclipse movementearthquake. Instead of being focused on the destruction of the ages, like the Aztec versions, the Tzutujil version describes an evolution of souls through these phases in continuing incarnations. The current world is also called the Earth Fruit World, as humans reach their full potential. The Aztec versions suggest various lengths of time for the eras. One source, the Leyenda del Sols, gives different lengths, which are all multiples of the 52year Calendar Round. But five of the 5,200tun Mayan 13 baktun cycle eras add to 26,000 tuns the precession of the equinoxes, which is surely significant. origins oF The mayan Calendar According to some Maya scholars, the calendrical and writing systems used by the Maya began with the Zapotecs near Oaxaca, in Mexico, around 600 BC, since the earliest calendrical glyphs have been found at Monte Alban, founded between 700 BC and 500 BC. However, others argue that the Tzolkin must have been previously developed elsewhere. Malmstrom suggests it was developed by the Olmecs at Izapa in 1359 BC, that the Haab originated there in 1376 BC and the Long Count in 236 BC, though some argue the Tzolkin is older than the Haab. Justeson says it has been recorded as early as 900700 BC by the Olmecs. Some put the start of the Long Count at 550 BC others say around 355 BC, but most Mayanists would say the first century BC, or just before, as the oldest recorded Long Count date is 7.16.3.2.13, 6th December 36 BC, from Chiapa de Corzo, inhabited by descendants of the Olmecs. The oldest discovered Maya date 292 AD is on Stela 29 at Tikal. Bricker estimates that the Haab was first used around 550 BC with the starting point of the Winter Solstice. Edmonson says there is evidence for the Calendar Round among the Olmecs in 667 BC. The Olmec civilization started between 1800 and 1200 BC according to various sources, and they settled in Izapa from 1500 BC or between 800 and 500 BC sources vary. Izapa is on a latitude that results in periods of 260 days and 105 days between zenith passages of the Sun, which suggests that this town may indeed have been the originpoint of the Tzolkin. a. b. c. d.