Baktun

A baktun (properly b'ak'tun) is 20 katun cycles of the ancient Maya Long Count Calendar. It contains 144,000 days, equal to 394.26 tropical years. The Classic period of Maya civilization occurred during the 8th and 9th baktuns of the current calendrical cycle. The current (13th) 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 14th baktun, as such a term is usually used among Mayanists.

J. Eric S. Thompson stated 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, like placing the year 2009 in the 2nd millennium. 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]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Thompson (1971, p.149).

References

Finley, Michael (2002). "Note on the Maya Calendar". The Real Maya Prophecies: Astronomy in the Inscriptions and Codices. Maya Astronomy. Archived from the original on 2007-06-02. http://web.archive.org/web/20070602162121/http://members.shaw.ca/mjfinley/calnote.htm. Retrieved 2007-06-18. 
Miller, Mary; and Karl Taube (1993). The Gods and Symbols of Ancient Mexico and the Maya: An Illustrated Dictionary of Mesoamerican Religion. London: Thames & Hudson. ISBN 0-500-05068-6. OCLC 27667317. 
Thompson, J. Eric S. (1971). Maya Hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Civilization of the American Indian sderies, no. 56 (3rd edition ed.). Norman: University of Oklahoma Press. ISBN 0-8061-0447-3. OCLC 275252. 
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, Germany: Könemann. pp. 130–143. ISBN 978-3-8331-1957-6. OCLC 71165439.