The Mayan Civilization

The Mayans are group of people lived in ancient civilizations of Mesoamerica. Their period in history began in Yucatan around 26000 B.C. Their civilization started to emerge out prominently around A.D 250 in southern-mexico what it is called now. The Mayas were highly skilled people and developed astronomy,calendrical systems and hieroglyphic writing.

Hieroglyphic – Written in or belonging to a writing system using pictorial symbols.

Apart from these talents the Mayans were well-known for highly decorated architecture, temple-pyramids and observatories everything been built without metal tools. Their occupation adds more, they were skilled farmers,weavers,potters and traders too.

 But why these Mayans are well-known and talk for the world ? There is a strong reason behind it. The reason is the mysterious Mayan calendar……..

The Mayan Calendar

The Mayan calendar was constructed by a an advanced civilization called the Mayans who were living around 250-900 AD.

The Mayan empire stretches its wings around the regions of southern states of Mexico, down to the current geological locations of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador and some of Honduras.

The Mayan Empire

The Calendar is not ONE…

The Mayans used various kinds of calendar for their variety of uses. The considered time as spiritual cycles that has link with one or other simultaneous events. The specially designed calendar had practical uses in the fields of social,agriculture,commercial and administrative tasks. Each day in their calendar has a significant event. The calendars sets priorities to administrative and economic tasks.

Temple of Mayans

Working of The Mayan Calendar

Before we dive deep into the working of Mayan calendar lets find some interesting types of calendar the Mayans used.

Most of the Mayan’s calenders were short.

1. The Tzolk’in calendar – 260 days

2. The Haab’ calendar – 365 days

3. The Tzolk’in + Haab’ calendar – 52 years

The calendar also has some short period of rounds Trecena (13 days cycle) , Veintena (20 days cycle).

Ancient Mayan Calendar

Yes, you grasped it right, the calendar will be useful for 1890 unique days only. Then it is not possible to record a date in history older than 52 years. To overcome that Mayans used “Venus Cycle” – a way of calendaring based on the location of Venus in the night sky.

The Mayan Calendar Mechanism

Finally the Mayans overcame the 52 years calendar problem. They expanded the 52 years calendar round and made it to go live for 5126 years !!! Great isn’t it ?

The modern calendars work on the base unit of 10, the Mayan Calendar was designed on the base unit of 20.

Mayan Calendar Dates

 Click here for larger image

A fresh Mayan calendar starts at —–> 0.0.0.0.0.

The first day is —–> 0.0.0.0.1 (each zero runs from 0 – 19 days)

On the 19 th day —-> 0.0.0.0.19

On the 20 th day it will go up level —-> 0.0.0.1.0

When 1 year is over the count will be —->0.0.1.0.0

This count is for 20 years 0.1.0.0.0

This count is for 400 years 1.0.0.0.0

So if you want to pick a specific date from the Mayan calendar just pick it up — > 2.10.12.7.1. This is approximately 1012 years, 7 months and 1 day.

Amazing Mayans !!

Mayan Calendar Calculations

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Mayan Calendar and Doomsday

Well that’s right and quite interesting. But what is the relation between the ancient age old Mayan calendar and end of the world In 2012.

The Mayans believed that something bad is going to happen to the world when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. The Mayan Calendar was designed with 13 and 20 as root of their numerical systems. According to the long count, the last day could be on 13.0.0.0.0 , the completion of 5126 years. In our modern calendar the date falls on December 21st, 2012.

This is all very interesting, but what has this got to do with the end of the world? The Mayan Prophecy is wholly based on the assumption that something bad is going to happen when the Mayan Long Count calendar runs out. Experts are divided as to when the Long Count ends, but as the Maya used the numbers of 13 and 20 at the root of their numerical systems, the last day could occur on 13.0.0.0.0. When does this happen? Well, 13.0.0.0.0 represents 5126 years and the Long Count started on 0.0.0.0.0, which corresponds to the modern date of August 11th 3114 BC. Have you seen the problem yet? The Mayan Long Count ends 5126 years later on December 21st, 2012.

Mayan Calendar and Doomsday

So we conclude that the Dooms Day prediction (end of the world in 2012) is by Mayans is purely based on the calendar since it can’t calculate dates beyond 2012. Still there is a debate and research whether the calendar will be reset to 0.0.0.0.0 after 13.0.0.0.0, or it continues to 20.0.0.0.0 before the reset.

Regards,
R.Gopinath

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