Baktun

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A baktun is 20 katun cycles of the ancient Maya Long Count Calendar. It contains 144,000 days or 400 tuns or nearly 400 tropical years. The Classic period of Maya civilization occurred during the 8th and 9th baktuns of the current calendrical cycle. The current (12th) baktun will end, or be completed, on 13.0.0.0.0 (December 21, 2012 using the GMT correlation). This also marks the beginning of the 13th baktun, as such a term is usually used among Mayanists.

J. Eric S. Thompson states that when a Long Count of, say, 9.15.10.0.0 is placed in the 9th baktun, we are almost certainly committing an error. However, that practice is so well established among Maya epigraphers and other students of the Maya that to change it would cause more harm than its perpetuation.^[1]

[edit] See also

• Maya calendar
• Tzolk'in
• Haab'

[edit] Notes

[edit] References

• Finley, Michael (2002). Note on the Maya Calendar. The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices. Maya Astronomy. Retrieved on 2007-06-18.
• Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. 
• Thompson, J. Eric S. (1971). Maya Hieroglyphic Writing; An Introduction, 3rd edition, Civilization of the American Indian Series, No. 56, Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-806-10447-3. 
• Voss, Alexander (2006). "Astronomy and Mathematics", in Nikolai Grube (Ed.): Maya: Divine Kings of the Rain Forest, Eva Eggebrecht and Matthias Seidel (assistant Eds.), Cologne: Könemann Press, pp.130–143. ISBN 3-8331-1957-8. OCLC 71165439.