SOME WORDS ON THE MAYAN CALENDAR by Eric Noble The Maya Long Count was a five "digit" number that represents the number of days since the beginning of the current "world" or era. The Maya, like the Hopi, believed the current world humans inhabit to be the Fourth World. (Unlike the Aztecs, who seemed to think this was already the Fifth World.) The Long Count works like this. There are five numbers that are placed on top of each other. The number at the bottom represents days, and can go from 0 to 20. (The Maya's number system was in the base 20, unlike the Arabic numbering system which is base 10). The next number in the Long Count represents groups of 20 days. There are 18 such groups in a "Tun" which is 360 days. The second number in the Long Count NEVER is 18 nor 19, since 360 days represented the Mayan solar calendar (to complicate matters, the Maya added five days in a special "dangerous" month at the end of each 360 day cycle.) The next number in the Long Count represents groups of 20 "Tuns". The name for 20 Tuns is Katun. Thus a Katun represents 20 years (roughly). Finally, the last number in the Long Count represents 20 Katuns. The name for 20 Katuns is Baktun. Thus, we denote a Maya Long Count date by five Arabic numbers separated by periods. For example, today's date is: 12.19.12.1.2 This indicates: 12 Baktuns (12*20*20*18*20 = 1,728,000 days) 19 Katuns (19*20*18*20 = 136,800 days) 12 Tuns (12*18*20 = 4,320 days) 1 Uinal (1*20 = 20 days) 2 Kin (2*1 = 2 days) So, today is the 1,869,142nd day in the current Maya era. What date did the Maya count as 0.0.0.0.0 in the current era? This has been one of the questions that archaeologists have debated for the past century. There were a few clues for the archaeologists to try and correlate the Maya and Gregorian calendars. Up to 15 years ago, the commonly accepted correlation gave the date as August 13, 3113 BCE. Now, however, it is generally accepted that the 0.0.0.0.0 date is August 13, 3114 BCE. Let's turn to the question of the "end of the era". The Maya believed that the current era would end and a new one begin at the end of the 12th Baktun. That's the period we're in now. (See above date conversion.) Why did they choose 13 baktuns (5200 years) to represent the end of this cycle? I gotta admit -- that's not something I understand yet. Why not make the cycle go to 20? Anyway, I will just at this point accept this as a priori fact. So a bunch of new age types have learned that Dec. 21, 2012 is the date that this cycle ends. And they are running around predicting all the wonderous things we can expect will happen on that date. The only problem is that they're off by a year. The calculation of Dec. 21, 2012 as the date 13.0.0.0.0 in the Maya Long Count is based on Aug. 13, 3113 BCE as the starting date of the current cycle. But archaeologists have come to agree that 3113 should be 3114. Therefore, if you're expecting something wondrous to happen in 7 years, don't be surprised if it shows up a year early. Hope this little essay helps. Eric References: A good Maya to Gregorian converter: http://www.calendarhome.com/converter/ (try typing 0.0.0.0.0 and 13.0.0.0.0 and see what dates you get) Maya math: http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/~history/HistTopics/Mayan_mathematics.html Hopi myths and prophesies: http://www.crystalinks.com/hopi2.html