Mesoamerican calendars are the
calendrical systems devised and used by the
pre-Columbian
In the history of the Americas, the pre-Columbian era spans from the original settlement of North and South America in the Upper Paleolithic period through European colonization, which began with Christopher Columbus's voyage of 1492. Usually, ...
cultures of
Mesoamerica
Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area in southern North America and most of Central America. It extends from approximately central Mexico through Belize, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, and northern Costa Rica ...
. Besides keeping time, Mesoamerican calendars were also used in religious observances and social rituals, such as for
divination.
The existence of Mesoamerican calendars is known as early as ca. 500 BCE, with the essentials already appearing fully defined and functional. These calendars are still used in the
Guatemalan highlands,
Veracruz
Veracruz (), formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave), is one of the 31 states which, along with Me ...
,
Oaxaca
Oaxaca ( , also , , from nci, Huāxyacac ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Oaxaca ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Oaxaca), is one of the 32 states that compose the political divisions of Mexico, Federative Entities of Mexico. It is ...
and
Chiapas,
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
.
The importance of aboriginal calendars in ritual and other aspects of Mesoamerican life was noted by many missionary priests, travelers, and colonial administrators, and later by ethnographers who described and recorded the cultures of contemporary Mesoamerican ethnic groups.
Types of calendars
Among the various calendar systems in use, two were particularly central and widespread across Mesoamerica. Common to all recorded Mesoamerican cultures, and the most important, was the 260-day calendar, a ritual calendar with no confirmed correlation to astronomical or agricultural cycles. Apparently the earliest Mesoamerican calendar to be developed was known by a variety of local terms, and its named components and the
glyphs used to depict them were culture-specific. However, it is clear that type of calendar functioned in essentially the same way across cultures, and across the
chronological periods when it was maintained.
The second of the major calendars was one representing a 365-day period approximating the
tropical year
A tropical year or solar year (or tropical period) is the time that the Sun takes to return to the same position in the sky of a celestial body of the Solar System such as the Earth, completing a full cycle of seasons; for example, the time f ...
, known sometimes as the "
vague year". Because it was an approximation, over time the seasons and the true tropical year gradually "wandered" with respect to this calendar, owing to the accumulation of the differences in length. There is little hard evidence to suggest that the ancient Mesoamericans used any
intercalary days to bring their calendar back into alignment. However, there is evidence to show Mesoamericans were aware of this gradual shifting, which they accounted for in other ways without amending the calendar itself.
These two 260- and 365-day calendars could also be synchronised to generate the
Calendar Round
The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.
The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had ...
, a period of 18980 days or approximately 52
year
A year or annus is the orbital period of a planetary body, for example, the Earth, moving in its orbit around the Sun. Due to the Earth's axial tilt, the course of a year sees the passing of the seasons, marked by change in weather, the hou ...
s. The completion and observance of this Calendar Round sequence was of ritual significance to a number of Mesoamerican cultures.
A third major calendar form known as the
Long Count
Long count or slow count is a term used in boxing. When a boxer is knocked down in a fight, the referee will count over them and the boxer must rise to their feet, unaided, by the count of ten or else deemed to have been knocked out. A long count ...
is found in the
inscriptions of several Mesoamerican cultures, most famously those of the
Maya civilization
The Maya civilization () of the Mesoamerican people is known by its ancient temples and glyphs. Its Maya script is the most sophisticated and highly developed writing system in the pre-Columbian Americas. It is also noted for its art, a ...
who developed it to its fullest extent during the Classic period (ca. 200–900 CE). The Long Count provided the ability to uniquely identify days over a much longer period of time, by combining a sequence of day-counts or cycles of increasing length, calculated or set from a particular date in the mythical past. Most commonly, five such higher-order cycles in a modified
vigesimal (base-20) count were used.
The use of Mesoamerican calendrics is one of the cultural traits that
Paul Kirchoff
Paul Kirchhoff (17 August 1900, Halle, Province of Westphalia – 9 December 1972) was a German-Mexican anthropologist, most noted for his seminal work in defining and elaborating the culture area of Mesoamerica, a term he coined.
Early life a ...
used in his original formulation to define Mesoamerica as a
culture area
In anthropology and geography, a cultural region, cultural sphere, cultural area or culture area refers to a geography with one relatively homogeneous human activity or complex of activities (culture). Such activities are often associated ...
. Therefore, the use of Mesoamerican calendars is specific to Mesoamerica and is not found outside its boundaries.
Since the sixteenth century, most communities have lost both of these once universal calendars, but one—or, rarely, both—has survived in diverse linguistic groups through the twentieth century.
Ritual 260-day calendar
In the 260-day cycle 20 day names pairs with 13 day numbers, totaling a cycle of 260 days. This cycle was used for divination purposes to foretell lucky and unlucky days. The date of birth was also used to give names to both humans and gods in many Mesoamerican cultures; some cultures used only the calendar name whereas others combined it with a given name. As a result, the word for “day” also means “name” in some Mesoamerican languages. Each day sign was presided over by a god and many had associations with specific natural phenomena..
History
Earliest direct evidence for the 260 calendar include the
San Andres glyphs (
Olmec
The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...
, 650 BCE, giving the possible date 3 Ajaw) and the
San Jose Mogote danzante (
Zapotec, 600 - 500 BCE, giving the possible date 1 Earthquake), in both cases assumed to be used as names.
The exact origin of the 260-day count is not known, but there are several theories. One theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers
thirteen
Thirteen or 13 may refer to:
* 13 (number), the natural number following 12 and preceding 14
* One of the years 13 BC, AD 13, 1913, 2013
Music
* 13AD (band), an Indian classic and hard rock band
Albums
* ''13'' (Black Sabbath album), 2013
* ...
and
twenty
Twenty or 20 may refer to:
* 20 (number), the natural number following 19 and preceding 21
* one of the years 20 BC, AD 20, 1920, 2020
Music
Albums
* ''20'' (2nd Chapter of Acts album), 1992
* ''20'' (Cunter album), 2011
* ''20'' (Dr ...
, which were important numbers to the Maya. The numbers multiplied together equal 260.
Another theory is that the 260-day period came from the length of human
pregnancy
Pregnancy is the time during which one or more offspring develops (gestation, gestates) inside a woman, woman's uterus (womb). A multiple birth, multiple pregnancy involves more than one offspring, such as with twins.
Pregnancy usually occur ...
. This is close to the average number of days between the ''first missed'' menstrual period and birth, unlike
Naegele's rule which is 40 weeks (280 days) between the ''last'' menstrual period and birth. It is postulated that
midwives
A midwife is a health professional who cares for mothers and newborns around childbirth, a specialization known as midwifery.
The education and training for a midwife concentrates extensively on the care of women throughout their lifespan; co ...
originally developed the calendar to predict babies' expected birth dates.
A third theory comes from understanding of astronomy, geography and paleontology. The Mesoamerican calendar probably originated with the
Olmec
The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...
s, and a settlement existed at Izapa, in southeast
Chiapas, Mexico, before 1200 BCE. There, at a latitude of about 15
° N, the Sun passes through zenith twice a year, and there are 260 days between zenithal passages, and
gnomons (used generally for observing the path of the Sun and in particular zenithal passages), were found at this and other sites. The sacred almanac may well have been set in motion on August 13, 1359 BCE, in Izapa.
''Trecenas''
In the post-classic
Aztec calendar the periods of 13 days called a ''
trecena
A trecena is a 13-day period used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerican calendars. The 260-day calendar (the '' tonalpohualli'') was divided into 20 trecenas. Trecena is derived from the Spanish chroniclers and translates to "a group of thirteen" in the ...
'' in Spanish (no indigenous word for this period is known) were also important. The days of a ''trecena'' were usually numbered from 1 to 13. There were some exceptions, such as in the
Tlapanec area where they were counted from 2 to 14. The first day of the ''trecena'', and the god who was its patron, ruled the following thirteen days. If the first day of a trecena was auspicious then so were the next twelve days.
365-day calendar
This 365-day calendar corresponded was divided into 18 'months' of 20 days each, plus 5 'nameless' days at the end of the year. The 365 day year had no leap year so it varied from the solar year by a quarter of a day each year.
The years were given their name in much the same way as the days of the 260-day calendar, 20 names were paired with 13 numbers giving 52 different possibilities for year names
''Veintenas''
In the post-classic
Aztec calendar the 20 days called ''veintenas'' in Spanish and ''meztli'', meaning moon, in Nahuatl, were also important.
The five unlucky days
The five unlucky days were called ''nemontemi'' in Mexico. Most believe them to have come at the end of each year, but since we do not know when the year started, we cannot know for sure. We do know though, that in the Maya area these five days (called ''wayeb'' in Maya) were always the last days of the year.
The ''nemontemi'' were seen as 'the useless days' or the days that were dedicated to no gods, and they had prognostic power for the coming year. Therefore, People tried to do as little as possible on these days, and a person who was born during the ''nemontemi'' was considered unlucky.
Calendar Round
Since both the 260-day and the 365-day calendar repeat, approximately every 52 years they reach a common end, and a new
Calendar Round
The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.
The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had ...
begins. This 52-year cycle was the most important for most Mesoamericans, with the apparent exception of the
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
elite until the end of the
Classic Era, who gave equal importance to the
long count calendar.
According to their mythology, at the end of one of these 52-year cycles the world would be destroyed by the gods, as it had been, three times in the
Popul Vuh
''Popol Vuh'' (also ''Popol Wuj'' or ''Popul Vuh'' or ''Pop Vuj'') is a text recounting the mythology and history of the Kʼicheʼ people, one of the Maya peoples, who inhabit Guatemala and the Mexican states of Chiapas, Campeche, Yucatan and ...
and four times for the
Aztecs. While waiting for this to happen, all fire was extinguished, utensils were destroyed to symbolize new beginnings, people fasted and rituals were carried out. This was known as the
New Fire Ceremony. When dawn broke on the first day of the new cycle, torches were lit in the temples and brought out to light new fires everywhere, and ceremonies of thanksgiving were performed.
Calendar Wheels
The term calendar wheel generally refers to Colonial-period images that display cycles of time in a circular format. Central Mexican calendar wheels incorporate the eighteen annual festivals or the 52-year cycle. In the Maya area, calendar wheels depict a cycle of 13
K'atuns. The only known pre-Hispanic
K'atuns wheel appears on a stone turtle from Mayapán.
The earliest known Colonial-period calendar wheel is actually depicted in a square format, on pages 21 and 22 of the
Codex Borbonicus
The Codex Borbonicus is an Aztec codex written by Aztec priests shortly before or after the Spanish conquest of the Aztec Empire. It is named after the Palais Bourbon in France and kept at the Bibliothèque de l'Assemblée Nationale in Paris. The ...
, an Aztec screenfold that divides the 52-year cycle into two parts. The
Codex Aubin, also known as the Codex of 1576, shows the 52-year calendar in a rectangular format on a single page. Most other calendar wheels use a circular format. The
Boban calendar wheel, an early sixteenth-century calendar on native paper, depicts the Central Mexican cycle of eighteen festivals in clockwise rotation, with Arabic numerals used to total the number of days; virtually all the text is in
Nahuatl. Some paired festivals share the same glyph, but they are represented in different sizes, the first being the “small feast” and the second the “great feast.” In the center, a 7 Rabbit date (1538) appears with text and images that refer to Tetzcocan town officers.
Religion and calendrics
Lords of the day
In the post-classic Aztec calendar, there were 13
Lords of the Day. These were gods (and goddesses) who each represented one of the 13 days in the ''trecenas'' of the 260-day calendar. The same god always represented the same day.
Quetzalcohuatl (The feathered serpent), for example, always accompanied the 9th day.
Lords of the Night
There are only nine Lords of the Night, which means that they cannot always represent the same day, but the list of gods repeats itself again and again so each lord accompanies a new number each ''trecena''.
Some think that there are nine Lords of the Night because they are connected to the nine levels of the underworld.
Long Count
The 365-day and the 260-day calendars identified and named the days, but not the years. The combination of a solar year date and a 260-year date was enough to identify a specific date to most people's satisfaction, as such a combination did not occur again for another 52 years, above general life expectancy. To measure dates over periods longer than 52 years, the Mesoamericans devised the Long Count calendar. This calendar system was probably developed by the
Olmec
The Olmecs () were the earliest known major Mesoamerican civilization. Following a progressive development in Soconusco, they occupied the tropical lowlands of the modern-day Mexican states of Veracruz and Tabasco. It has been speculated that ...
s and later adopted by the
Maya
Maya may refer to:
Civilizations
* Maya peoples, of southern Mexico and northern Central America
** Maya civilization, the historical civilization of the Maya peoples
** Maya language, the languages of the Maya peoples
* Maya (Ethiopia), a popul ...
. The use of the long count is best attested among the classic Maya, it is not known to have been used by the central Mexican cultures.
The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from August 11, 3114 BCE in the
proleptic Gregorian calendar
The proleptic Gregorian calendar is produced by extending the Gregorian calendar backward to the dates preceding its official introduction in 1582. In nations that adopted the Gregorian calendar after its official and first introduction, dates occ ...
or September 6, 3114 BCE in the Julian Calendar (-3113 astronomical). The Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40.
Correlations
Long count
The correlation is based on historical, archaeological and astronomical evidence.
The commonly established way of expressing the correlation between the Maya calendar and the western calendars is to provide number of days from the start of the
Julian Period
The Julian day is the continuous count of days since the beginning of the Julian period, and is used primarily by astronomers, and in software for easily calculating elapsed days between two events (e.g. food production date and sell by date).
...
(Monday, January 1, 4713 BCE) to the start of creation on 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw, 8 Kumk'u.
The most commonly accepted correlation is the "Goodman, Martinez,
Thompson
Thompson may refer to:
People
* Thompson (surname)
* Thompson M. Scoon (1888–1953), New York politician
Places Australia
*Thompson Beach, South Australia, a locality
Bulgaria
* Thompson, Bulgaria, a village in Sofia Province
Canada
* ...
" correlation (GMT correlation). The GMT correlation establishes that the creation date occurred on September 6 (Julian) or August 11 (
Gregorian), 3114 BC (-3113 astronomical),
Julian day number (JDN) 584283.
Maya Calendar
The Maya version of the 260-day calendar is commonly known to scholars as the ''
Tzolkin'', or ''Tzolk'in'' in the revised
orthography
An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation.
Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...
of the
Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala The Academia de Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala, or ALMG (English: ''Guatemalan Academy of Mayan Languages'') is a Guatemalan organisation that regulates the use of the 22 Mayan languages spoken within the borders of the republic. It has expended particu ...
. The Tzolk'in is combined with the 365-day calendar (known as the ''
Haab'', or ''Haab ), to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haabs, called the ''
Calendar Round
The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.
The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had ...
''. The Maya called the 5 unlucky days at the end of the year ''Wayeb''.
The Classic Maya, used the
Long Count
Long count or slow count is a term used in boxing. When a boxer is knocked down in a fight, the referee will count over them and the boxer must rise to their feet, unaided, by the count of ten or else deemed to have been knocked out. A long count ...
to record dates within periods longer than the 52 year calendar round. The post-Classic Maya used an abbreviated
short count. Many Maya Long Count inscriptions also have a
supplementary series
The term supplementary can refer to:
* Supplementary angles
* Supplementary Benefit, a former benefit payable in the United Kingdom
* Supplementary question
A question time in a parliament occurs when members of the parliament ask questions of ...
which can record which one of the nine
Lords of the Night
In Mesoamerican mythology the Lords of the Night ( nci, Yoalteuctin) are a set of nine gods who each ruled over every ninth night forming a calendrical cycle. Each lord was associated with a particular fortune, bad or good, that was an omen for ...
rules, a
Lunar series which has information about the lunar cycle, such as
lunar phase and position of the
Moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
in a six
lunation
In lunar calendars, a lunar month is the time between two successive syzygies of the same type: new moons or full moons. The precise definition varies, especially for the beginning of the month.
Variations
In Shona, Middle Eastern, and Euro ...
cycle and length of the current lunation and an
819-day count.
Central Mexican Calendar
The Central Mexican calendar system is best known in the form that was used by the
Aztec
The Aztecs () were a Mesoamerican culture that flourished in central Mexico in the post-classic period from 1300 to 1521. The Aztec people included different ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those groups who spoke the Nahuatl ...
s, but similar calendars were used by the
Mixtec
The Mixtecs (), or Mixtecos, are indigenous Mesoamerican peoples of Mexico inhabiting the region known as La Mixteca of Oaxaca and Puebla as well as La Montaña Region and Costa Chica Regions of the state of Guerrero. The Mixtec Culture w ...
s,
Zapotecs,
Tlapanecs,
Otomi
The Otomi (; es, Otomí ) are an indigenous people of Mexico inhabiting the central Mexican Plateau (Altiplano) region.
The Otomi are an indigenous people of Mexico who inhabit a discontinuous territory in central Mexico. They are linguisticall ...
,
Matlatzinca,
Totonac
The Totonac are an indigenous people of Mexico who reside in the states of Veracruz, Puebla, and Hidalgo. They are one of the possible builders of the pre-Columbian city of El Tajín, and further maintained quarters in Teotihuacán (a city ...
,
Huastecs
The Huastec or Téenek (contraction of ''Te' Inik'', "people from here"; also known as Huaxtec, Wastek or Huastecos) are an indigenous people of Mexico, living in the La Huasteca region including the states of Hidalgo, Veracruz, San Luis Potos ...
,
Purépecha and at
Teotihuacan
Teotihuacan (Spanish: ''Teotihuacán'') (; ) is an ancient Mesoamerican city located in a sub-valley of the Valley of Mexico, which is located in the State of Mexico, northeast of modern-day Mexico City. Teotihuacan is known today as t ...
. These calendars differed from the Maya version mainly in that they didn't use the long count to fix dates into a larger chronological frame than the 52-year cycle.
The Aztecs referred to the 365 and 260-day cycles as ''
xiuhpohualli'' (year count) and ''
tonalpohualli'' (day count) respectively. The ''veintena'' was called ''metztli'' (moon), and the five unlucky days at the end of the solar year were called ''nemontemi''.
Other cycles
Other calendar cycles were also recorded, such as a
lunar
Lunar most commonly means "of or relating to the Moon".
Lunar may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''Lunar'' (series), a series of video games
* "Lunar" (song), by David Guetta
* "Lunar", a song by Priestess from the 2009 album ''Prior t ...
calendar, as well as the cycles of other
astronomical
Astronomy () is a natural science that studies celestial objects and phenomena. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and evolution. Objects of interest include planets, moons, stars, nebulae, galaxi ...
objects, most importantly
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
.
[Balkansky (2002); Miller and Taube (1992, pp.52–54)]
See also
*
Maya calendar
The Maya calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica and in many modern communities in the Guatemalan highlands, Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.
The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had ...
*
Aztec calendar
*
Inca calendar
*
Dreamspell
The Dreamspell is an esoteric calendar in part inspired by the Maya calendar by New Age spiritualist, Mayanist philosopher, and author José Argüelles and Lloydine Burris Argüelles. The Dreamspell calendar was initiated in 1987 and released ...
Notes
References
*
*
* Bricker, Harvey M. and Victoria R. Bricker. "Correlation of Calendars." In Davíd Carrasco (ed). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures. Vol 1. New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.
*
*
*
*
* John S. Justeson and Terrence Kaufman. "Mesoamerican Calendars". In
Davíd Carrasco (ed).
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures'' Vol 1. New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.
*
*
*
* Milbrath, Susan. "Calendar Wheels." In Davíd Carrasco (ed). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Mesoamerican Cultures Vol 1. New York : Oxford University Press, 2001.
*
*
External links
James Q. Jacobs (1999)
{{Calendars