238
calendric cycles. They also attempted to commensurate all temporal cycles with the
260-day divinatory calendar (tzolk’in).
2
Astronomical information found in Maya manuscripts can only rarely be compared with the content of hieroglyphic texts displayed on stone monuments, stuccoed
walls, pottery, or bones. The astronomical almanacs preserved in the codices represent
a finished product of astronomical thinking of the Maya day-keepers. All astronomical
data they include is part of a well-defined body of celestial knowledge obtained from
earlier, mostly unknown attempts to find out a proper astronomical- calendrical
procedure. A few astronomical texts and tables occasionally painted on the walls, such
as the ones discovered at Xultún, could have represented such developments. On the
other hand, little is known of direct celestial observations and in the monumental
inscriptions of the Classic period; explicit astronomical records are rare.
It has long been recognized that much of Mesoamerican celestial knowledge
derived from astronomical observations based on the periodicities of the 260day cycle. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the Maya scribes identified
temporal cycles unknown in Old World astronomies. For instance, there is no evidence
they ever had a formal lunar calendar like in the Ancient Near East, Greece, or China.
Instead, they devised a unique scheme for lunar reckoning called the Lunar Series. It
contains three primary components: the moon‘s age in the current month, the number
of days assigned to the lunar month (either 29 or 30), and the name of the lunar month
and its positions in the groups (or “bundles”, from the Classic Mayan k’al, “to bind,
fasten, enclose”; Kettunen & Helmke, 2020: 93) of 6 and 18 (=3 × 6) lunar months.
The origin of the concept of 6-month grouping is unknown.
2 Basic Maya Calendrics
Classic Maya scribes employed three overlapping calendrical systems called by
epigraphers the Long Count, the haab’ and the tzolk’in. The Long Count is a count
of days elapsed since the mythical starting point on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u,
which according to the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson correlation, is taken either
as 6 September, 3114 B.C.E. or as 8 September, 3114 B.C.E. (Gregorian), and
which at noon corresponded to 584,283 or 584,285 JD, respectively. The Long
Count system is usually composed of five units representing a period based, with
one exception, on the vigesimal system. The units are:
1 k’in = 1 day
1 winalk (winal in colonial Yukatek) = 20 days
1 haab’ (tun in the Colonial times) = 360 days
1 winikhaab’ (k’atun in the Colonial times) = 7200 days
1 pik (bak’tun in the current times) = 144,000 days
2 The spelling of Mayan words may be problematic. For the sake of simplicity and following the
long scholarly tradition, throughout this paper the names of calendric periods, days and months are
rendered in Yucatec Mayan using the current orthography. This also refers to Classic Period
inscriptions.
S. Iwaniszewski
calendric cycles. They also attempted to commensurate all temporal cycles with the
260-day divinatory calendar (tzolk’in).
2
Astronomical information found in Maya manuscripts can only rarely be compared with the content of hieroglyphic texts displayed on stone monuments, stuccoed
walls, pottery, or bones. The astronomical almanacs preserved in the codices represent
a finished product of astronomical thinking of the Maya day-keepers. All astronomical
data they include is part of a well-defined body of celestial knowledge obtained from
earlier, mostly unknown attempts to find out a proper astronomical- calendrical
procedure. A few astronomical texts and tables occasionally painted on the walls, such
as the ones discovered at Xultún, could have represented such developments. On the
other hand, little is known of direct celestial observations and in the monumental
inscriptions of the Classic period; explicit astronomical records are rare.
It has long been recognized that much of Mesoamerican celestial knowledge
derived from astronomical observations based on the periodicities of the 260day cycle. Therefore, it should not be surprising that the Maya scribes identified
temporal cycles unknown in Old World astronomies. For instance, there is no evidence
they ever had a formal lunar calendar like in the Ancient Near East, Greece, or China.
Instead, they devised a unique scheme for lunar reckoning called the Lunar Series. It
contains three primary components: the moon‘s age in the current month, the number
of days assigned to the lunar month (either 29 or 30), and the name of the lunar month
and its positions in the groups (or “bundles”, from the Classic Mayan k’al, “to bind,
fasten, enclose”; Kettunen & Helmke, 2020: 93) of 6 and 18 (=3 × 6) lunar months.
The origin of the concept of 6-month grouping is unknown.
2 Basic Maya Calendrics
Classic Maya scribes employed three overlapping calendrical systems called by
epigraphers the Long Count, the haab’ and the tzolk’in. The Long Count is a count
of days elapsed since the mythical starting point on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u,
which according to the Goodman-Martínez-Thompson correlation, is taken either
as 6 September, 3114 B.C.E. or as 8 September, 3114 B.C.E. (Gregorian), and
which at noon corresponded to 584,283 or 584,285 JD, respectively. The Long
Count system is usually composed of five units representing a period based, with
one exception, on the vigesimal system. The units are:
1 k’in = 1 day
1 winalk (winal in colonial Yukatek) = 20 days
1 haab’ (tun in the Colonial times) = 360 days
1 winikhaab’ (k’atun in the Colonial times) = 7200 days
1 pik (bak’tun in the current times) = 144,000 days
2 The spelling of Mayan words may be problematic. For the sake of simplicity and following the
long scholarly tradition, throughout this paper the names of calendric periods, days and months are
rendered in Yucatec Mayan using the current orthography. This also refers to Classic Period
inscriptions.
S. Iwaniszewski