The Maya Calendar System

4min Snip

00:00

Play full episode

Summary

Transcript

Episode notes

The Maya have a base 20 system just in their counting independent of length of calendars. So what happens in this larger calendar system we call the long count is they're going to fit that into a solar year. Now they can only get the 360, right? Yeah. That creates a unit of time that's almost a year. It always confuses my students when I'm trying to explain the calendar is everything is 20 except that one unit where you have to make that 360 unit of time.

You might remember the somewhat bizarre worries that swept through certain circles back in 2012, based on the end of the world being predicted by the Maya calendar. The world didn't end, which is unsurprising because the Maya hadn't predicted that, and for that matter they had no way of doing so. But there is very interesting archeology behind our understanding of how the Maya developed their calendar, as well as other aspects of their language and scientific understanding. Mayanist David Stuart takes us on a tour of what we know and what we're still discovering.

Blog post with transcript: https://www.preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2023/08/14/246-david-stuart-on-time-and-science-in-maya-civilization/

Support Mindscape on Patreon.

David Stuart received his Ph.D. in anthropology from Vanderbilt University. He is currently professor of Art History and Director of the Mesoamerica Center at the University of Texas, Austin. He is the youngest-ever recipient of the MacArthur Fellowship. Among his books is The Order of Days: Unlocking the Secrets of the Ancient Maya.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.