Mesoamerican calendars
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The Mesoamerican Calendar is the type of calendar with which people of Pre-Columbian Mesoamerica kept track of time. It uses two distinct, but interlocked cycles: A solar calendar with 365 days and a ritual calendar with 260 days. These two calendars intercalate to produce a unique name for each day during each 52 years cycle, called a calendar round.
The Mesoamerican calendar type was used by all the different ethnic groups of Mesoamerica in different versions. The use of this kind of calendar is one of the cultural trait which was used by Paul Kirchoff[2] to define Mesoamerica as a culture area. Therefore the use of the Mesoamerican calendar is specific to Mesoamerica and is not found outside its boundaries.[3]
The use of the Mesoamerican calendar is attested as early as ca. 500 BC when it was already fully defined, and was in use throughout the pre-Columbian period until the arrival of the Julian calendar with the arrival of the Spanish. Even after the colonialisation of Mesoamerica the Mesoamerican calendar remains in use by some indigenous communities today, e.g. the K'iche' Maya of Guatemala and the Mixe of Oaxaca.[4]
[edit] History
The exact origin of the 260-day count is not known, but there are several theories. One theory is that the calendar came from mathematical operations based on the numbers thirteen and twenty, which were important numbers to the Maya. The numbers multiplied together equal 260. Another theory is that the 260-day period came from the length of human pregnancy. This is close to the average number of days between the first missed menstrual period and birth, unlike Naegele's rule which is 40 weeks (280 days) between the last menstrual period and birth. It is postulated that midwives originally developed the calendar to predict babies' expected birth dates.
A third theory comes from understanding of astronomy, geography and paleontology. The mesoamerican calendar probably originated with the Olmecs, and a settlement existed at Izapa, in southeast Chiapas Mexico, before 1200 BC. There, at a latitude of about 15° N, the Sun passes through zenith twice a year, and there are 260 days between zenithal passages, and gnomons (used generally for observing the path of the Sun and in particular zenithal passages), were found at this and other sites. The sacred almanac may well have been set in motion on August 13, 1359 BC, in Izapa. Vincent H. Malmström, a geographer who suggested this location and date, outlines his reasons:
(1) Astronomically, it lay at the only latitude in North America where a 260-day interval (the length of the "strange" sacred almanac used throughout the region in pre-Columbian times) can be measured between vertical sun positions -- an interval which happens to begin on the 13th of August -- the day the peoples of the Mesoamerica believed that the present world was created; (2) Historically, it was the only site at this latitude which was old enough to have been the cradle of the sacred almanac, which at that time (1973) was thought to date to the 4th or 5th centuries B.C.; and (3) Geographically, it was the only site along the required parallel of latitude that lay in a tropical lowland ecological niche where such creatures as alligators, monkeys, and iguanas were native -- all of which were used as day-names in the sacred almanac.[5]
Malmström also offers strong arguments against both of the former explanations.
A fourth theory is that the calendar is based on the crops. From planting to harvest is approximately 260 days.
[edit] Solar 365-day calendar
[edit] Veintenas
[edit] The five unlucky days
[edit] Ritual 260-day calendar
In the 260-day cycle 20 day names pairs with 13 day numbers, totalling a cycle of 260 days. This cycle was used for divination purposes, it foretold lucky and unlucky days. The date of birth was also used to give names to both humans and gods in many Mesoamerican cultures, some cultures used only the calendar name whereas others combined it with a given name. Each day sign was presided over by a god and many had associations with specific natural phenomena.
[edit] Trecenas
The 260-day period was divided into periods of 13 days called in Spanish a "trecena" (no indigenous word for this period is known). The days of a trecena were counted from 1-13 (except in the Tlapanec area where they were counted form 2-14). The first day of the trecena, and the god who was its patron, ruled the following thirteen days. If the first day of a trecena was auspicious then so were the next twelve days.
[edit] The calendar round
The Calendar Round 52 year cycle was the most important for most Mesoamericans, with the apparent exception of the Maya elite until the end of the Classic Era, who gave equal importance to the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. Calendar Round rituals would be held at the end of each 52 year round, with all fires extinguished, old pots broken, and a new fire ceremony symbolizing a fresh start.[6]
[edit] Religion and calendrics
[edit] Lords of the day
[edit] Lords of the night
[edit] Long Count
This is the second oldest Long Count date yet discovered. The numerals 7.16.6.16.18 translate to September 1, 32 BCE (Gregorian). The glyphs surrounding the date are what is thought to be one of the few surviving examples of Epi-Olmec script.
The 365-day and the 260-day calendars identified and named the days, but not the years. The combination of a solar year date and a 260-year date was enough to identify a specific date to most people's satisfaction, as such a combination did not occur again for another 52 years, above general life expectancy.To measure dates over periods longer than 52 years, the Mesoamericans devised the Long Count calendar. This calendar system was probably developed by the Olmecs and later adopted by the Maya. The use of the long count is best attested among the classic Maya, it is not known to have been used by the central Mexican cultures.
The Long Count calendar identifies a date by counting the number of days from August 11, 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar or September 6th 3114 BCE in the Julian Calendar (-3113 astronomical). Rather than using a base-10 scheme, like Western numbering, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. Thus 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25, and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40.
[edit] Correlations
[edit] 52 year cycle
The correlation of the 52 year day count cycle to the European calendar is problematic, mostly because the calendar usage wasn't synchronized between all of the communities of Mesoamerica. This means that one must know its origin and the specific correlation applicable for that place. Secondly it is made difficult by the possibility that the cycle might at times be "reset" for political purposes - for example if a ruler wanted to mark his rule as the beginning of a new dynasty.[verification needed] Often the best correlation can be made when both European and indigenous sources give a specific date. For example we know from Spanish sources that the day the Aztec capital Tenochtitlan fell was on August 13, 1521. Indigenous sources from central Mexico agree that this was a day Ce Cohuatl (1 Snake) in a year Eyi Calli (3 house).
[edit] Long count
There have been various methods proposed to allow us to convert from a Long Count date to a Western calendar date. These methods, or correlations, are generally based on dates from the Spanish conquest, where both Long Count and Western dates are known with some accuracy.
The commonly-established way of expressing the correlation between the Maya calendar and the Gregorian or Julian calendars is to provide number of days from the start of the Julian Period (Monday, January 1, 4713 BCE) to the start of creation on 0.0.0.0.0 (4 Ajaw, 8 Kumk'u).
The most commonly accepted correlation is the "Goodman, Martinez, Thompson" correlation (GMT correlation). The GMT correlation establishes that the 0.0.0.0.0 creation date occurred on 3114 BCE September 6 (Julian) or 3114 BCE August 11 (Gregorian), Julian day number (JDN) 584283. This correlation fits the astronomical, ethnographic, carbon dating, and historical sources. However, there have been other correlations that have been proposed at various times, most of which are merely of historical interest, except that by Floyd Lounsbury, two days after the GMT correlation, which is in use by some Maya scholars, such as Linda Schele.
[edit] Maya Calendar
The Maya version of the 260-day calendar is commonly known to scholars as the Tzolkin, or Tzolk'in in the revised orthography of the Academia de las Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala.[7] The Tzolk'in is combined with the 365-day calendar (known as the Haab, or Haab' ), to form a synchronized cycle lasting for 52 Haabs, called the Calendar Round. Smaller cycles of 13 days (the trecena) and 20 days (the veintena) were important components of the Tzolk'in and Haab' cycles, respectively. The Maya called the 5 unlucky days at the end of the solar year for Wayeb'.
The Classic Maya, but not the post-classic highland Maya, also used the Long count to record dates within periods longer than the 52 year calendar round. Many Maya Long Count inscriptions are supplemented by what is known as the Lunar Series, another calendar form which provides information on the lunar phase and position of the Moon in a half-yearly cycle of lunations.
A 584-day Venus cycle was also maintained, which tracked the appearance and conjunctions of Venus as the morning and evening stars. Many events in this cycle were seen as being inauspicious and baleful, and occasionally warfare was timed to coincide with stages in this cycle.
Other, less-prevalent or poorly-understood cycles, combinations and calendar progressions were also tracked. An 819-day count is attested in a few inscriptions; repeating sets of 9- and 13-day intervals associated with different groups of deities, animals and other significant concepts are also known.
[edit] Central Mexican Calendar
The Central Mexican calendar system is best known in the form that was used by the Aztecs, but similar calendars were used by the Mixtecs, Zapotecs, Tlapanecs, Otomi, Matlatzinca, Totonac, Huastecs, P'urhépecha and at Teotihuacan. These calendars differed from the Maya version mainly in that they didn't use the long count to fix dates into a larger chronological frame than the 52-year cycle.
The Aztecs referred to the 365 and 260-day cycles as xiuhpohualli (year count) and tonalpohualli (day count) respectively. The Veintena was called metztli (moon), and the five unlucky days at the end of the solar year were called nemontemi.
[edit] Other cycles
Other calendar cycles were also recorded, such as a lunar calendar, as well as the cycles of other astronomical objects, most importantly Venus.[8]
[edit] Comparison between veintena and trecena names in different cultures
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ Marcus.
- ^ Mesoamerica: Our Region. Mesoamerica. Retrieved on 2006-12-19. “Paul Kirchhoff coined the term, Mesoamerica in 1943 from the Greek mesos or "center" and America.”
- ^ Caso 1971 p.333
- ^ See Coe (1987) p.47; Miller and Taube (1993) p.48
- ^ Malmström (1997), and http://www.dartmouth.edu/~izapa/izapasite.html
- ^ Stockton.
- ^ Academia de las Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala. Lenguas Mayas de Guatemala: Documento de referencia para la pronunciación de los nuevos alfabetos oficiales. Guatemala City: Instituto Indigenista Nacional.. Refer citation in Kettunen and Hemke (2005:5) for details and notes on adoption among the Mayanist community.
- ^ Balkansky.
[edit] References
- Balkansky, Andrew (2002). "Review of Zapotec Hieroglyphic Writing, by Javier Urcid Serrano" (in English). Antiquity 76 (293): pp.904–905.
- Coe, Michael D. (1987). The Maya, 4th edition (revised), London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27455-X.
- Marcus, Joyce (1992). Mesoamerican Writing Systems: Propaganda, Myth, and History in Four Ancient Civilizations. Princeton: Princeton University Press. ISBN 978-0691094748.
- Malmström, Vincent H. (1997). Cycles of the Sun, Mysteries of the Moon: The Calendar in Mesoamerican Civilization, online reproduction by author, Austin: University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-75197-4. OCLC 34354774. Retrieved on 2007-11-26.
- Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6.
- Stockton, William. "Ancient Astronomy Points to New Views of Mayan Life", The New York Times, March 25, 1986. Retrieved on 2006-10-20. (English)
