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The
Maya also understood the concept of zero, and wrote it like a shell.
These
numbers, if we begin at August 13, 3114 BC, will give us a date
in the
7th century that corresponds to the date Pakal took the throne in
Palenque. January 1, 2000
would be written 12-19-6-1-0 in the Long Count. The Sacred Round
would be 9 Ahau
and the Haab designation would be 8 Kankin. Thus the Calendar Round
would be 9 Ahau
8 Kankin.For the Maya there was a time for everything and every
thing had it's place in time.
Their comprehension of time, seasons, and cycles was immense.
The
Wheels of Time were exceeding fine for the Maya.
To
be able to predict the seasons and astronomical events, they utilized
a calendar of two repeating cycles. Maya mathematicians could project
this calendar millions of years in the past and the future, time
had no beginning, no end. The Mays recorded numbers with a system
of bars and dots. a dot equals one, a bar stands for five. The smaller
wheels together represent the 260-day Sacred Round; the inner wheel,
with the numbers one to thirteen, meshes with the glyphs for the
20 day names on the outer wheel.
A
section of a large wheel represents part of the 365-day year - 18
months of 20 days each (numbered 0-19). The five days remaining
at year's end were considered evil. In the diagram, the day shown
is read 4 Ahua 8 Cumka. As the wheels turn in the direction of the
arrows, in four days it will read 8 Kan 12 Cumku. Any day calculated
on these cycles would not repeat for 18,980 days - 52 years.
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