Mayan Numbers Basics 1 5 2 3 6

Mayan Numbers

Basics 1 5 2 3 6 7 4 8 . . . . 9 10 19

Zero & Place Values 20 400 8000

Place values 8000’s 8000 400’s 2800 40 20’s 1’s + 6 10846

Addition Eight-teen Rabbit and Six Sky want to buy a new ball at the market. A ball costs Six Sky has cacao beans, Eight-teen Rabbit has cacao beans and cacao beans, together do they have enough cacao beans to buy a new ball? + =

= + 918 3603 4521

Subtraction - 450 = 121 329

Codices “We found a large number of books in these characters and, as they contained nothing in which there were not to be seen superstition and lies of the devil, we burned them all…” - Friar Diego de Landa q Four Codices q Madrid Codex – 22 feet long contains horoscopes and almanacs. q Paris Codex – Mayan religion and zodiac, is in poor condition. q Grolier Codex – fragmented, seems to be dedicated to the cycles of Venus. q Dresden Codex – is in best condition although some damage was sustained during World War II

Dresden Codex n n n n q q 11½ ft. long and contains 74 folios with text and paintings in bright colors. 1 -15: almanacs and astrology 16 -23: dedicated to the Moon Goddess 25 -28: details new year ceremonies 29 -45: agricultural almanacs 46 -50: plot the cycles of Venus stretching back 300 years 61 -73: are annual flood and storm recordings 74: deals with the end of the current world cycle Strictly business in terms of mathematics. Invaluable in the deciphering of the Mayan written system.

Dresden Codex

Yuri Valentinovich Knorosov

Tatiana Proskouriakoff

The Calendar Round q q n n The basic unit was the K’in or day Each K’in was its own entity and had to be properly worshiped. The Tzolk’in or Sacred Calendar ¨ 260 days ¨ Made up of two calendars that fit together like the gears of a clock ¨ The first gear was a count from 1 to 13 ¨ The second gear was a series of 20 glyphs representing the god to be worshiped. The Haab or vague year 365 days ¨ 18 months each with 20 days ¨ One 5 day month known as Wayeb was considered unlucky and dangerous ¨

Long Count Calendar q 1728000 144000’s q Start date 0. 0. 0 (August 13, 3114 B. C. ) 20 k’ins = 1 winal (0. 0. 0. 1. 0) q q 18 winals = 1 tun (0. 0. 1. 0. 0) q 136800 7200’s 20’s 1’s 5400 100 2 144, 000 days 13 b’ak’tuns = new era of creation (13. 0. 0) q n 7200 days 20 k’atuns = 1 b’ak’tun (1. 0. 0) q q 360 days 20 tuns = 1 k’atun (0. 1. 0. 0. 0) q q 12. 19. 15. 5. 2 (05/08/2008) 360’s q 20 day 1, 872, 000 days 1, 872, 000 – 1, 870, 302 = 1, 698 days until the next creation event.