2 ms·
Im still unclear how they determined the constant to convert from long mesoamerican to GMT. What common reference event could allow syncing these calendars to a
by cornholio 8mo ago
Im still unclear how they determined the constant to convert from long mesoamerican to GMT. What common reference event could allow syncing these calendars to a +/- 3 day precision? I would guess some solar eclipse pattern visible from both sides of the Atlantic?
- apothegm 8mo agoThey knew about and could identify solstices, which gives you day of the year. So then it’s just a matter of matching years, which can be done on the basis of things like comets. Supernovae could also play a factor. Or using tree rings to identify years mentioned as having droughts or floods. Probably a bunch of other things we haven’t thought of.
- nraynaud 8mo agoI guess in modern time we can compute eclipses from the past?
- gucci-on-fleek 8mo agoThe Wikipedia page linked in the article [0] has a plausible-sounding explanation. [0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calendar#Correlations_between_Western_calendars_and_the_Long_Count https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_Long_Count_calend...