Conception of time is an important aspect on the Mayan Worldview, because it is seen as an animated being. Time is conceived as a cyclical way, which allows creating a notion of a predictable destiny. For this reason, the ajq’ijab’ or spiritual Mayan guides, can make predictions related to people’s life and the great calendrical cycles.

Prehispanic time traces show that time measurement has always been a central element on the Mayan peoples Worldview, due that there are a big amount of dates based on several calendars. Among the most important ones there is the Cholquij or Tzolkin, consistent in a cycle of 260 days, and the solar year or Ja’ab of 365 days. The called Round Calendar consists on the combination of the two before mentioned, being on 52 years Ja’ab and 73 cycles Cholquij. This two calendars were shared by all the Mesoamerican peoples, and where the only ones that were still used after the conquest.

Starting from the epigraphic researches, several calendars that were only developed by the Mayan have been discovered, as lunation measurement, Venus, Mars and other planets cycles. On the spiritual sphere, there was also a cycle of 9 days; it was associated to the Underworld lords, as a cycle of 819 days.

On ancient times, only the spiritual guides and certain people from the elite had access to the knowledge of how the different time measurement systems operated, letting them not only to predict celestial phenomenon, but also to acquire certain level of political power, especially through the calendar known as the Long Count. However, it is possible that the sacred cycle of 260 days and the solar calendar, have been used for all the people, due to the association with the agricultural cycles and for the fact that children were named according to the day when they were born.  I want to tailor a trip to the Mayan World...



The starting date of the Long Count was registered by Mayan in several monuments, where we can point out the Quirigua Stela C. The date was not registered as 0.0.0.0.0, it was registered as 13.0.0.0.0 and it corresponded to the ajaw’s 4th day on the tzolkin calendar and 8 kimk’u according to the ja’ab. According to the Quirigua inscription, the initial event of the Long Count can be interpreted as a creation, metaphorically expressed as the positioning of three sacred stones by a couple of creator gods.

The fact that the initial date is 13.0.0.0.0 shows that this is also the date in which a previous cycle ends. Having this fact, it is considered that the Long Count is the measuring of cycles of 13 b’aktunes, in other words, 11872,000 days (5,125.26 Gregorian years). Then, the end of the cycle that started on August 11th, 3,114 B.C., will be December 21st, 2012, that in Mayan connotation will be 13.0.0.0.0 4 ajaw 13 kankin. Now a day, it is only known one register of that date written by the Mayan, which is in a monument on the site named Tortuguero.

Many things have been spoken about the end of this cycle, when the bak’tun 13 fulfills, constantly with apocalyptic ideas. However, for the old Mayas this date did not represent the end of the Long Count or the end of the world. This can be proved by the nature of the interpretations of the monument that is on the Tortuguero, and for two inscriptions on the Cobá site, where Long Count dates were registered, greater than the cycle of the13 b’aktunes.

The b’aktun 13 must not be mistaken with the catastrophes that were part of the mythology of other Mesoamerican cultures, such as the Aztecs “suns age”, or the failed creations narrated on the Popol Vuh. Anyway, the meaning of these myths is focus on human beings transformations and not on catastrophes that end with them.

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Above: Mayan calendar

 Above: Mayan numbers

Above: Stela "c" which makes reference  to the mayan date 13.0.0.0.0.4 (August 13th, 3114 BC). The beginning of the present era which concludes in December 21st, 2012.

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