The Muisca calendar was a

lunisolar A lunisolar calendar is a calendar in many cultures, combining lunar calendars and solar calendars. The date of Lunisolar calendars therefore indicates both the Moon phase and the time of the solar year, that is the position of the Sun in the Ea ...

calendar A calendar is a system of organizing days. This is done by giving names to periods of time, typically days, weeks, months and years. A date is the designation of a single and specific day within such a system. A calendar is also a physi ...

used by the

Muisca The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

. The calendar was composed of a complex combination of months and three types of years were used; rural years (according to Pedro Simón,

Chibcha The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

: ''chocan''), holy years (Duquesne, Spanish: ''acrótomo''), and common years (Duquesne, Chibcha: ''zocam''). Each month consisted of thirty days and the common year of twenty months, as twenty was the 'perfect' number of the Muisca, representing the total of extremeties; fingers and toes. The rural year usually contained twelve months, but one leap month was added. This month (

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Cana ...

: ''mes sordo''; "deaf month") represented a month of rest. The holy year completed the full cycle with 37 months. The Muisca, inhabiting the central highlands of the

Colombia Colombia (, ; ), officially the Republic of Colombia, is a country in South America with insular regions in North America—near Nicaragua's Caribbean coast—as well as in the Pacific Ocean. The Colombian mainland is bordered by the Car ...

Andes The Andes, Andes Mountains or Andean Mountains (; ) are the longest continental mountain range in the world, forming a continuous highland along the western edge of South America. The range is long, wide (widest between 18°S – 20°S ...

(

Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes covering parts of the departments of Cundinamarca and Boyacá. The altiplano corresponds to the ancient territory of the Muisca. The Alti ...

), used one (arranged by

Bochica Bochica (also alluded to as Nemquetaha, Nemqueteba and Sadigua) is a figure in the religion of the Muisca, who inhabited the Altiplano Cundiboyacense during the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors in the central Andean highlands of present-day Co ...

Humboldt, 1878, Part 1) of the advanced calendrical systems of

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, th ...

America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

, the others being the

Incan The Inca Empire (also known as the Incan Empire and the Inka Empire), called ''Tawantinsuyu'' by its subjects, (Quechua for the "Realm of the Four Parts", "four parts together" ) was the largest empire in pre-Columbian America. The admin ...

and

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 populat ...

calendars, and the ones used by other

Mesoamericans 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. ...

including the

Aztecs 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 Indigenous peoples of Mexico, ethnic groups of central Mexico, particularly those g ...

. Important

Muisca scholars The Muisca (also called Chibcha) are an indigenous people and culture of the Altiplano Cundiboyacense, Colombia, that formed the Muisca Confederation before the Spanish conquest. The people spoke Muysccubun, a language of the Chibchan langu ...

who have brought the knowledge of the Muisca calendar and their counting system to Europe were Spanish

conquistador Conquistadors (, ) or conquistadores (, ; meaning 'conquerors') were the explorer-soldiers of the Spanish and Portuguese Empires of the 15th and 16th centuries. During the Age of Discovery, conquistadors sailed beyond Europe to the Americas, O ...

Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada y Rivera, also spelled as Ximénez and De Quezada, (;1496 16 February 1579) was a Spanish explorer and conquistador in northern South America, territories currently known as Colombia. He explored the territory named ...

who encountered Muisca territory in 1537, Bernardo de Lugo (1619), 1619
Muisca numbers according to Bernardo de Lugo
- accessed 29-04-2016

Pedro Simón ''Fray'' Pedro Simón ( San Lorenzo de la Parrilla, Spain, 1574 - Ubaté, New Kingdom of Granada, ca. 1628) was a Spanish franciscan friar, professor and chronicler of the indigenous peoples of modern day Colombia and Venezuela, at the time for ...

in the 17th century and

Alexander von Humboldt Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...

and

José Domingo Duquesne José Domingo Duquesne ( Bogotá, 23 February 1748 - idem, 30 August 1822) was a Colombian clergyman, theologist, scientist and writer. Polyglot Duquesne spoke Spanish, French, Latin, Greek, Italian and Chibcha.Javier Ocampo López Javier Ocampo López (born 19 June 1939) is a Colombian historian, writer, folklorist and professor. He has been important in the fields of Colombian folklore and history of Latin America and Colombia, especially contributing on the department of ...

and

Manuel Arturo Izquierdo Peña Manuel Arturo Izquierdo Peña is a Colombian anthropologist who has contributed to the knowledge of the Muisca and other pre-Columbian cultures, among others San Agustín, Colombia. His main work has been on archaeoastronomy of the Muisca calen ...

, anthropologist who published his MSc. thesis on the Muisca calendar.

Numeral system

The Muisca used a vigesimal counting system and counted with their fingers. Their system went from 1 to 10 and for higher numerations they used the prefix ''quihicha'' or ''qhicha'', which means "foot" in their

Chibcha language Chibcha, Mosca, Muisca, Muysca (*/ˈmɨska/), or Muysca de Bogotá, was a language spoken by the Muisca people of the Muisca Confederation, one of the many Indigenous peoples in Colombia, indigenous List of pre-Columbian cultures, cultures of ...

''Muysccubun''. Eleven became thus "foot one", twelve "foot two", etc. As in the other

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, th ...

civilizations, the number 20 was special. It was the total number of all body extremities; fingers and toes. The Muisca used two forms to express twenty: "foot ten"; ''quihícha ubchihica'' or their exclusive word ''gueta'', derived from ''gue'', which means "house". Numbers between 20 and 30 were counted ''gueta asaqui ata'' ("twenty plus one"; 21), ''gueta asaqui ubchihica'' ("twenty plus ten"; 30). Larger numbers were counted as multiples of twenty; ''gue-bosa'' ("20 times 2"; 40), ''gue-hisca'' ("20 times 5"; 100). The Muisca script consisted of

hieroglyph A hieroglyph ( Greek for "sacred carvings") was a character of the ancient Egyptian writing system. Logographic scripts that are pictographic in form in a way reminiscent of ancient Egyptian are also sometimes called "hieroglyphs". In Neoplatoni ...

s, only used for numerals. There is doubt as to the whether or not the document reporting the existence of this hieroglyphic numerical system is to be believed, as it is only primary source attesting this system.

Numbers 1 to 10 and 20

Higher numbers

To name the days and months the Muisca did not use numbers higher than 10, except ''gueta'' for their perfect number of 20. Instead, they named the 11th month just like the 1st; ''ata''. Same for the other months and days until 19. That rather confusing system made it difficult to distinguish the 21st month from the 1st or 11th, but their naming of the three different years solved this.

Time calculation

The calculation of time in the Muisca calendar was a complex combination of different time spans, which describe periods that extends from weeks to years, centuries and even higher time spans. The day was defined by the daily solar cycle, whereas the month was defined, depending on the context, by both the synodical and the sidereal lunar cycles.Izquierdo Peña, 2014, 56:35 Different scholars have described variation of weeks (3, 10 or 15 days), years (rural, common and holy) centuries (common and holy) and eventually, higher periods of time as the ''Bxogonoa''.

Days

The Muisca called "day" ''sua'' (the word for "Sun") and "night" ''za''. The

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in particu ...

s had divided a day in four parts: ''suamena'' (from sunrise to mid-day), ''suameca'' (from mid-day to sunset), ''zasca'' was the time from sunset to midnight and ''chaqüi'' the time from midnight to sunrise.

Weeks and months

About the configuration of the weeks in the Muisca calendar different

chronicler A chronicle ( la, chronica, from Greek ''chroniká'', from , ''chrónos'' – "time") is a historical account of events arranged in chronological order, as in a timeline. Typically, equal weight is given for historically important events and lo ...

s show various subdivisions.

describes a month of 30 days comprising three weeks of ten days,

stated the Muisca had a month composed of two weeks of 15 daysIzquierdo Peña, 2009, p.33 and

wrote the Muisca week had just three days, with ten weeks in a month.Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.228 Izquierdo suggests, however, that the concept for a standardized week was alien to the Muisca indeed, who instead organized the days of the month in terms of the varying activities of their social life.Izquierdo Peña, 2011, p.110 The Muisca, like the Incas in the Central Andes, very probably took notice of the difference between the

synodic month 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 Europ ...

(29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes); the time between two full Moons, and the

sidereal month 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 Europ ...

(27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes); the time it takes for the Moon to reach the same position with respect to the stars.

Years

The Muisca word for ''year'' was ''zocam'', which is always used in combination with a number: ''zocam ata'', "year one", ''zocam bosa'', "year two". Following the works of Duquesne, three types of years were used; ''Rural'' years, ''Common'' years and ''Priest's'' years. The years were composed of different sets of months: * The Rural Year contained 12 synodic months, * The Priest's Year composed of 37 synodic months, or 12 + 12 + 13 synodic months (the 13th was a leap month, called "deaf" in Spanish), * The Common Year composed by 20 months, making a full common Muisca year 600 days or 1.64 times a Gregorian year.Duquesne, 1795, p.3 Izquierdo suggests, however, that this year, unlike the ''Rural'' and the ''Priest's'' years, was based on the sidereal lunar cycle.Izquierdo Peña, 2011, p.115

Centuries and higher time spans

Chia rising over the Eastern Hills, Bogotá

According to Duquesne, the Muisca devised a ''Priest's Century'' by scaling up ''The Priest's Year'' by ''gueta'' (20 times 37 months; 740) which approximately equals 60 Gregorian years. The same scholar referred to a ''Common Century'' (''siglo vulgar'') comprising 20 times 20 months. Pedro Simón's differences on the accounts of the mythical arrival of

to the Muisca territory brings clues about the nature of the ''Priest's Century''. According Simón, the century (''edad'') corresponded to 70 (''setenta'') years, however, Izquierdo suggests that such a value is typo of 60 (''sesenta'') years, which is a value that better matches the entire calendar's description. Besides the centuries, the chronicles describe further periods of time: the ''Astronomical Revolution'' as called by Duquesne, corresponds to 5 ''Priest's Years'' or 185 synodical months, thus comprising a quarter of a ''Priest's Century''. Simón describes also an additional time period named the ''Bxogonoa'' which corresponds to 5 ''Priest's Centuries''. Again, both Duquesne and Humboldt describe another time span, the ''Dream of Bochica'' which accounted for 100 ''Priest's Centuries'', which correspond to 2000 ''Priest's Years'' or 5978 Gregorian years.Izquierdo Peña, 2011, p.114 After the analysis of all these many units of time, Izquierdo proposed a hierarchical organization where these periods are the product of multiplying the months of ''The Priest's Year'' by both 5 and the first three powers of 20:

Calendar

To name the months, the Muisca did not use higher numbers than 10, except for the 20th month, indicated with the 'perfect' number ''gueta''. The calendar table shows the different sets of ''zocam'' ("years") with the sets of months, as published by Alexander von Humboldt. The meaning of each month has been described by Duquesne in 1795 and summarized by Izquierdo Peña in 2009.Izquierdo Peña, 2009, p.30

Celebrations

The Gregorian month of December was a month of celebrations with yearly feasts, especially in

Sugamuxi Sugamuxi (died 1539) was the last ''iraca''; ''cacique'' of the sacred City of the Sun Sogamoso, Suamox. Sugamuxi, presently called Sogamoso, was an important city in the Muisca religion, religion of the Muisca people, Muisca who inhabited the Al ...

called ''huan'', according to Pedro Simón.

Archeological evidences

The archeological evidence for the Muisca calendar and its use is found in ceramics, textiles, spindles,

petroglyph A petroglyph is an image created by removing part of a rock surface by incising, picking, carving, or abrading, as a form of rock art. Outside North America, scholars often use terms such as "carving", "engraving", or other descriptions ...

s, sites and stones. Important findings are: * Choachí Stone, found in the first half of the 20th century in the municipality of

Choachí Choachí is a municipality and town of Colombia in the Eastern Province of the department of Cundinamarca. The municipality borders La Calera in the north, Ubaque in the south, in the east Fómeque and westward of Choachí is the Colombian cap ...

may represent a calculator to convert the different parts of the complex Muisca calendar * Ceremonial flute (''fotuto ceremonial''), decorated flute made of a marine snail shell, found in Socorro,

Santander Santander may refer to: Places * Santander, Spain, a port city and capital of the autonomous community of Cantabria, Spain * Santander Department, a department of Colombia * Santander State, former state of Colombia * Santander de Quilichao, a m ...

, located in the Archeology Museum Sogamoso * Decorated textile, found in Belén, Boyacá and located in the museum of

Pasca Pasca is a town and municipality in the Cundinamarca department of Colombia located in the Andes. It belongs to the Sumapaz Province. Pasca is situated on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense at a distance of from the capital Bogotá. It borders Fusag ...

, regarded as a "Muisca codex" * ''

El Infiernito ''El Infiernito'' (Spanish for "The Little Hell"), is a pre-Columbian archaeoastronomical site located on the Altiplano Cundiboyacense The Altiplano Cundiboyacense () is a high plateau located in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes ...

'', astronomical site of the Muisca near

Villa de Leyva Villa de Leyva, also called Villa de Leiva, is a touristic colonial town and municipality, in the Ricaurte Province, part of the Boyacá Department of Colombia. The town is a Colombian National Heritage Town and is on the tentative list for UNES ...

Jaboque Jaboque ( es, Humedal de Jaboque) is a wetland, part of the Wetlands of Bogotá, located in the locality Engativá, Bogotá, Colombia. The wetland, close to the Bogotá River on the Bogotá savanna covers an area of . The wetland is close to El Dor ...

, in this humedal ancient menhirs were found, indicating an astronomical knowledge of the MuiscaJaboque Petroform Menhirs
- accessed 05-05-2016

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * * * {{Muisca navbox, Topics, state=expanded

Lunisolar calendars