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The Mayan calendrical system is the most complex to have ever been used. To write a full date in a Classical Mayan site, you need to include: * The current dat
by jcranmer 4y ago
The Mayan calendrical system is the most complex to have ever been used. To write a full date in a Classical Mayan site, you need to include:
* The current date in the 365-day solar calendar (18 months of 20 days + 5 extracalendrical days)
* The current date in the 260-day ritual calendar (13 "months" of 20 days, the months don't work like regular months we're used to)
* The "long count" date, i.e., the number of days elapsed from August 11, 3114 BC in proleptic Gregorian
* A 9 day cycle (roughly equivalent to our weekday)
* The date of the current lunar month
* The length of the current lunar month (29 or 30 days)
* A counter to keep track of where the lunar month is in terms of 29 or 30 day months
* The 819-day cycle, discussed in this article.
That is a sheer amount of information to be repeated (dates were the first aspect of Maya script to be deciphered, simply because a very large fraction of the text on stelae at Mayan are just these dates), and probably one of the reasons for this complexity is a way of showing off astronomical prowess (there are actually a few different correlations to lunar months in use at the same time, depending on which major polity's tables you wanted to follow).
Of particular note is that the main long-distance counting is the Long Count, which is a literal count of days elapsed since creation. There's no evidence of regnal dating system, which is very unusual compared to Eurasian calendars where maintaining dates across different kings is more of an occasional pastime rather than common dating format. This counting of days makes it extremely easy to work out long-distance periodic relationships. Given that we already have hundreds of years of date keeping being recorded before the 819-day cycle appears (IIRC, it's a late innovation in Classic Maya), it's virtually certain that reliable records spanning centuries could have been collected by the Classic Maya.
- fouc 4y agoI really wonder what kind of organizational structure the Mayan astrologers had in order to develop and propagate this knowledge in their society over generations. Getting vibes of Neal Stephenson's Anathem.
- hammyhavoc 4y agoHoly shit. Thank you for bringing this up, I'd wondered for ~15 years what my uncle was reading at his desk one time when I visited, but only ever remembered the cover.
- rafark 4y agoThis reminds me of the story of Bartolomé Arrazola. He was captured by the Mayans in the jungles of Guatemala: “[...] Then an idea flourished that he considered worthy of his talent, his universal culture and his arduous knowledge of Aristotle. He recalled that that day a total eclipse of the sun was expected. And he decided, in his innermost thoughts, to use that knowledge to deceive his oppressors and save his own life. “If you kill me,” he said, “I can make the sun darken in its height.” The natives stared at him and Bartholomew noticed the disbelief in their Eyes. He saw that a small council had formed, and so he waited in confidence, though not without some disdain. Two hours later, the heart of Brother Bartolomé Arrazola dripped its vehement blood on the sacrificial stone (bright under the opaque light of the eclipsed sun), while one of the natives without any inflection of voice, without hurry, recited one by one the infinite dates of solar and lunar eclipses. All of which the astronomers of the Mayan community had foreseen and written down in their codices, without the valuable help of Aristotle.” https://spanishtextstranslated.wordpress.com/augusto-monterroso/el-eclipse-the-eclipse/ https://spanishtextstranslated.wordpress.com/augusto-monterr...
- stephenhuey 4y agoThis is the first I've heard of this and quite fascinating, although at first I interpreted this as nonfiction, but eventually I figured out this was fictional short story! https://ojalart.com/associate-editor-pamelyn-castoa-featured-series-of-close-readingsa-close-reading-of-augusto-monterrososthe-eclipse/ https://ojalart.com/associate-editor-pamelyn-castoa-featured... https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/monterroso-augusto https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/encyclopedias-almanacs-tra... https://www.academia.edu/29162442/Case_Study_The_Eclipse_by_Augusto_Monterroso https://www.academia.edu/29162442/Case_Study_The_Eclipse_by_...
- johnchristopher 4y agoFunny, there's a Tintin story with the same setting but a different outcome in the temple of the sun comic https://i.pinimg.com/736x/12/98/cb/1298cb768ee8ba2efbe1a117528740e8--superstition-tintin.jpg https://i.pinimg.com/736x/12/98/cb/1298cb768ee8ba2efbe1a1175... and https://www.artcurial.com/sites/default/files/lots-images/2018-04-13-16/3376_10630190_0.jpg https://www.artcurial.com/sites/default/files/lots-images/20...
- ShadowBanThis01 4y agoI studied with one of the top Mayan scholars in North America, and learned that the 260-day Mayan calendar was correlated to the human gestational period. So this is interesting: "They also note that the number of days (16,380) used in the math happens to be a multiple of 260, which means that 20 rounds of 819-day periods match with the Tzolk'in—the general Maya calendar."
- Communitivity 4y agoInteresting coincidence, 16380 is only 4 off from 2^14 (16384).
- datavirtue 4y agoHopefully they stored all that in UTC.