The Maya had a very real idea of the current time on our planet. Some researchers believe that in ancient times this people possessed some kind of science unknown to us, which developed on the legendary continent of Mu - the ancestral home of the Maya, from where they came to American lands. According to one hypothesis, Mu was a huge continent, submerged in the Pacific Ocean as a result of an explosion of natural gases.
But back to Mayan knowledge. Their ancient astrologers, who had astronomical observatories, were able to establish the exact time of the Moon's revolution around the Earth; they knew all the planets of the solar system; the priests had accurate tables for predicting solar and lunar eclipses; they used the abstract concept of zero and were familiar with digit numbering in large numbers that neither the ancient Greeks nor the Romans knew.
Classical Maya, perfectly mastered mathematics, or rather a special form of mathematics, which was based on the decimal system, and not on the decimal system, as we have now. They used this mathematics not only in the construction of their pyramids, but also to carry out calendar "research" - it is known that the Maya followed at least 17 different calendars. And they did this in order to calculate the most cosmically literate calendar.
For their calculations, they used a special method, or rather a table, which they called Tzolkin - "Sacred Keane Account".
With the help of a table, they determined every day, every year, every twenties, etc. Here 260 elements = 13 × 20. Twenty lines contain twenty totems - special characters, each of which has its own name and image. The account is kept from bottom to top along the column, then the transition to the next column to the right. Moreover, the account is kept in numbers from one to thirteen. In the Mayan system of notation of numbers, there are only three elements: a dot, which stands for 1, a dash equal to 5, and a zero in the form of a seashell, which stands for 0. It turns out that 13 is two dashes and three dots.
Time units were:
day;
period of 20 days;
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1 year Tzolkin = 260 days;
1 year of the Haab year = 365 days;
1 calendar circle = 18980 days = 52 years;
1 Great Cycle = 360 days multiplied by 20 by 260 times = 5125 years;
1 tun = “design year” = 360 days;
1 katun = 20 tons = 7200 days;
1 baktun = 20 katun = 144,000 days;
1 pictun = 20 baktun = 2,880,000 days = approximately 7885 years;
1.calabtun = 20 pictuns = 57,600,000 days = approximately 158,000 years; 1. Kinchiltun = 20 Calabtuns = 1,152,000,000 days = approximately 3 million years;
1.alautun = 20 kinchiltuns = 23,040,000,000 days = approximately 63 million years.
Alautun is probably the longest named span of time on any calendar. Why did this tribe need numbers with many zeros?
The fact is that his priests possessed a detailed calculation of the past. Suffice it to say that on the Mayan stelae in Guatemala, scientists have found dates that are 90 million or even 300 million years away from us in the past. The end of each Maya period was seen as the end of an important stage in life, ordained by the gods. The end of the years Tzolkin, Haab and Tuna in themselves foreshadowed major turns in people's lives. When such endings coincided, the Maya expected the end of time.
Remember the predictions of the "end of the world" at the onset of the millennium by the enlightened "priests" of the twentieth century. The last "Great Cycle" according to the Maya chronology began on August 12, 3113 BC. according to the calculations of E. Thompson (accepted by science) or October 14, 3373 according to G. Spinden (i.e. 260 years older).
Well, its completion falls on December 23, 2012 or it was already completed 260 years ago according to G. Spinden. (Regarding the fate of the Maya peoples, the gods fulfilled their destiny. The Mayan gods and the Mayan people went into oblivion.) That is, the priests have released the present world 5125 years. According to the prophecy, he will perish from the great flood. Then time will repeat with renewed vigor its mysterious "Great Cycle".
However, alautun, the longest named span of time on any calendar, at approximately 63 million years, echoes the cyclical process of mass extinction on Earth in an odd way. Richard Muller and his student Robert Rohde believe this repeats itself every 62 million years with an accuracy of plus or minus 3 million years. The last time an event in this series - the death of dinosaurs - happened 65 million years ago.