Maya used two calendars. In the first year it always consisted of 260 days and was called "tzolkin", and in the second "odd year" consisted of 365 days. The presence of two cycles ("tzolkina" and "odd year") led to the fact that every day had two names, for example, 3 akbal, 4 kumu. Since both cycles were of different lengths, no specific double combination of day names was repeated during 52 "odd" years and 73 "tzolkin" years (52х365 = 18980 = 73х260). This period of time was commonly referred to as the "Aztec Age" or "Calendar Circle".
But despite the fact that this calendar system was quite adequate for its purposes, it also had limitations. The Maya, to cope with these difficulties, developed another system of time counting called Long Count. The German researcher Ferstemann found that their time counting was not based on the decimal system, as we have now, but on the decimal system (see the figure on the right). With slight variations, they counted the time in "kins", "uinals", "tunas", etc. … Its principle looked like this: 20 kin-days = 1 uinal (20-day month), 18 uinals = 1 tun (360 -day year), 20 tuns = 1 katunu (7200 days), 20 katuns = 1 baktunu (144,000 days).
The Maya also kept a special account of the day with the help of the Long Count. On steles and other monuments, the Mayan dates were written in two columns of hieroglyphs, read from left to right and from top to bottom (see figure on the left). The entire series began with an introductory hieroglyph and often ended with a date related to the lunar cycle and a reference to the Nine Lords of the Night who ruled at the time. And between them there were dates expressed in baktuns, katuns, tuns, etc., plus the corresponding dates for tzolkin (260 days) and haab (365 days). For example: an introductory hieroglyph, 8 baktun, 14 katun, 3 tuna, 1 uinal, 12 kin, 1 eb, 0 yakhin.
Ferstemann also established that the beginning of the Maya's large calendar cycle fell on 4 ahau, 8 kumu more than one thousand years ago. And here we are faced with not the first, but by no means the last mystery of the Mayan calendar: why, in fact, the beginning of a large cycle occurs precisely on the specified date, and not on the first day of the zero month (the Maya months are from zero)?.. it is more natural to "start from the beginning", and not from some "illogical" date … Which event does this beginning of the calendar refer to?.. To do this, before making any assumptions, of course, you need to determine exactly the date of the beginning of the Mayan calendar in correlation with the usual Gregorian calendar. But even in this, various researchers cannot agree so far: at the moment there are several versions, diverging from each other for tens and even hundreds of thousands of years …
It is possible that this date has something to do with the mysterious 260-day calendar. "Tzolkin" is a very ancient calendar and dates back to time immemorial. Some Mayan tribes in remote areas of the country and now use it for ritual and magical purposes. And he played an even more important role earlier.
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For example, the Tables of the Dresden Codex (see the picture on the right) were supposed to give the priests not only information about future eclipses, but also how to relate them to the 260-day Tzolkin calendar. In short, they compiled their tables for 11958 days, which is almost exactly the 46th year of the Tzolkin (11960 days). This fully corresponds to 405 lunar months (also 11960 days). The authors of the tables also compiled additions that corrected their basic data, which ensured their accuracy to one day for 4500 years. This is an amazing achievement.
Much more surprising, however, is the system underlying this calendar. "Tzolkin" is based on a combination of 20 names of months with numbers from 1 to 13. But the account is not kept sequentially, as in our Gregorian calendar with months of 30 and 31 days. The basis here is completely different. To understand this, let's try to imagine that, for example, each digit corresponds to the name of a certain month. We, as usual, start on January 1, but then instead of January 2, it should go on February 2, then on March 3, and so on until December 12, and then on January 13. The full cycle, in this case, will be 156 days (12x13), after which the account will start again, as if from January 1. Thus, the last day out of 260 will be 13 ahau, after which in the next cycle the first Imix will again be. Thus, each cycle is a complete circle.
It is much easier to understand such a counting system if you represent it in the form shown in Fig. left: the rotation of two interlocking cogwheels just gives this sequence of changing calendar days. But … Maya did not know the wheel !!! And the question arises: how did the culture, which does not know the wheel, create a calendar based on that very unfamiliar wheel ?!
(In fairness, it should be noted that the "ignorance" of the wheel by the Indians is another mystery. The complete lack of practical use of the wheel is combined … with children's toys on wheels!.. See the picture on the right)
Let's add one more detail. The cycle of 260 days has no practical meaning in earthly conditions, just as the calendar itself has no practical meaning with 13 days and 20 months, designated by the same names and symbols that have nothing to do with the reality around us (each month was designated by the corresponding god, - see figure on the left). Why invent such a strange cycle and introduce it into the basis of a rather cumbersome calendar account?..
Everything "falls into place" only in one case: the calendar was given to the Maya (or, most likely, their predecessors) from the outside by some "gods" who were familiar with the wheel, and for whom the 260-day cycle had some practical meaning … "Gods" who were so educated that they were able not only to calculate the Earth year very accurately, but also to adapt its "inconvenient" duration (about 365.25 days) to the integer counting system without loss of accuracy (and this requires not only high astronomical, but also mathematical knowledge, in the possession of which the Maya were not noticed).
This version of the origin of the calendar fully explains both the respectful attitude of the Maya towards it, and the use for ritual and magical purposes …
ANDREY SKLYAROV