The Mayan calendar is much older than thought

The mass hysteria of 2011 and 2012 over a possible end of the world was fueled by the introduction of the Mayan calendar, which contained a mythical time system developed by the ancient inhabitants of Mexico and Mesoamerica.

The journal Science Advances notes that this calendar was developed long before Europeans arrived in these areas. Experts call this system “tzolkin” (counting days – in the language of the Kiche people). This sacred calendar of 260 days helped the Maya to farm, make important political decisions and conduct religious rituals.

And it turns out that the days of the calendar are determined by the arrangement of the stars, according to which the Mayans built buildings and with their help made the area similar to the arrangement of stars in the sky. The priests helped people live by the calendar, marking the passage of time with groups of 13 numbers and 20 characters, always in the same sequence.

However, it is not known how long ago the inhabitants of America began to use this calendar. The first evidence of Maya use of this calendar was a fresco with a fragment of hieroglyphic writing found in Guatemala, dated to 300 BC. However, this picture gives an incomplete picture of the history of the region.

But Ivan Sprec, a Slovenian archaeologist, continued to look for more reliable evidence, using lasers for mapping. This helped him discover historical landmarks and ancient structures and pinpoint their exact location even in dense forests. As a result, the calendar was found to date back to 1100 BC, eight centuries earlier than previously thought.

In 2020, archaeologist Takishi Inomata of the University of Arizona used laser beams to survey the Mexican coast and uncovered about 500 ancient sites.

After that, the two scientists jointly analyzed these structures, and it became clear that the direction of most of them is from east to west, and that about 90 percent of them have architectural points corresponding to sunrise on certain dates, especially February 11th. and October 29 in the Gregorian calendar, where there are 260 days between two dates, as in the Tzolkin calendar.

The orientation of other landmarks corresponds to sunrise in multiples of 13 or 20 days, reflecting the 13 digits and 20 characters of the Zolkien calendar system. They correspond to the equinoxes and solstices. The orientation of some of the complexes also matches the cycles of Venus and the Moon, helping to determine the rainy seasons and planting stages for corn, the staple crop of the Maya.

Source: News. RU

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