This is a picture of the Sacred Round calendar.
What are the Mathematical and Scientific Calculations behind the Mayan Calendar?
These are all three calendars that the Mayas created.
The Mayans had an extraordinarily accurate calendar. They had three calendars so that all predictions and numbers would be very close to accurate. The first calendar is called the Sacred Round or the Sacred Almanac. This calendar contains two hundred sixty days. It is a theory that there are two hundred and sixty days because that is the amount of days that a woman is pregnant. It is quite relevant though because when a baby is born a priest assigns them a specific deity based o the day he or she was born. The second calendar is called the Solar Calendar or Vague Year. This has the same amount of days in it that our calendar has, three hundred sixty five. The last calendar, the Long Count, as used to count the number of days passed since the mythological number of days passed since the day of their creation. It did not reset until the end of the one million eighty hundred seventy two thousand day long period on December twenty first, two thousand twelve. This is the day that the Mayans predicted the earth would end. They predicted the things in the future because they tracked the movements of the planets, the moon, and the sun. Mayans believed that each day had to do with a specific deity and that god or goddess held direct influence over that day . When a baby was born and are assigned a specific deity, they practically dedicate the rest of their life to that god or goddess. In conclusion, the Mayan calendars were advanced and influenced their culture in many ways (ZORICH, ZACH. "The Maya Sense Of Time. (Cover Story))
These are the months in the sacred round.
What are the Scientific and Technological Advances in the Ancient Mayan Societies?
This is a diagram of how the number system was written.
The Mayan civilization had many scientific advancements and techology. One of their biggest advancements was their number system. Their number system was based on the number twenty (our number system is based on ten)
For Example: The Mayans find 21 = 20 + 1
We find 21 = 10 x 2 + 1
The Mayans find 100 = 20 x 5
We find 100 = 10 x 10
("Maya Mathematics").
This number system was also used for the Mayan Calendar. The Mayan calendar had different names for the number of days.
1 kin or 1 day
20 kin = 1 uinal, or 20 days
18 uinals = 1 tun, or 365 days
20 tuns = 1 katun, or 7,200 days
20 katuns = 1 baktun, or 144,000 days
20 baktuns = 1 pictun, or 2,880,000 days
20 pictuns = 1 calabtun, or 57,600,000 days
20 calabtuns = 1 kichitun, or 1,152,000,000 days
20 kichituns = 1 alautun, or 23,040,000,000 days
(Kallen,"The Mayans"). The calendar and number system helped in numerous ways. The Mayan calendar helped the Mayans by allowing them to predict certain days such as equinoxes, solstices, sunset positions, and Venus declinations. They were able to pinpoint certain days because of astronomy. This is another advancement that the Mayans used. The Mayans used astronomy to predict the future by charting stars their planetarium. The people who went to the planetarium pinpointed stars, planets, the dawn, rise, and set dates of bright stars for a combination of epochs, latitudes, longitudes, and horizon. With all of this data the people who went to the tower or observatory, were able to predict equinoxes, solstices, sunset positions, and Venus declinations. Astronomy was very important to the calendar because it helped the calendars to be very accurate. In closing, the technology that the Mayans created helped their advanced civilization predict days in the future (Libassi, "Observatories Without Telescopes." ).
For Example: The Mayans find 21 = 20 + 1
We find 21 = 10 x 2 + 1
The Mayans find 100 = 20 x 5
We find 100 = 10 x 10
("Maya Mathematics").
This number system was also used for the Mayan Calendar. The Mayan calendar had different names for the number of days.
1 kin or 1 day
20 kin = 1 uinal, or 20 days
18 uinals = 1 tun, or 365 days
20 tuns = 1 katun, or 7,200 days
20 katuns = 1 baktun, or 144,000 days
20 baktuns = 1 pictun, or 2,880,000 days
20 pictuns = 1 calabtun, or 57,600,000 days
20 calabtuns = 1 kichitun, or 1,152,000,000 days
20 kichituns = 1 alautun, or 23,040,000,000 days
(Kallen,"The Mayans"). The calendar and number system helped in numerous ways. The Mayan calendar helped the Mayans by allowing them to predict certain days such as equinoxes, solstices, sunset positions, and Venus declinations. They were able to pinpoint certain days because of astronomy. This is another advancement that the Mayans used. The Mayans used astronomy to predict the future by charting stars their planetarium. The people who went to the planetarium pinpointed stars, planets, the dawn, rise, and set dates of bright stars for a combination of epochs, latitudes, longitudes, and horizon. With all of this data the people who went to the tower or observatory, were able to predict equinoxes, solstices, sunset positions, and Venus declinations. Astronomy was very important to the calendar because it helped the calendars to be very accurate. In closing, the technology that the Mayans created helped their advanced civilization predict days in the future (Libassi, "Observatories Without Telescopes." ).
This is a picture showing the observatory they charted the stars with.
Citations:
Kellen, Stuart. The Mayans. N.p.N.d.
Libassi, Paul T. "Observatories Without Telescopes." Sciences 16.2 (1976): 11. Academic Search Premier. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
"Maya Mathematics"N.p. N.d. 28 Jan. 2014
ZORICH, ZACH. "The Maya Sense Of Time.. (Cover Story)." Archaeology65.6 (2012): 25-29. History Reference Center. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.
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