Calendars Galore!

I have spoken of the Mayan calendars in several posts here,but thought a good recap was in order.

First, remember there is more than one Mayan Calendar. There are several, and sometimes they were used side by side. Imagine having 3,4,5 calendars all clicking off time independently of the each other!

For our purposes we often compare the Mayan calendar with the Gregorian calendar that is in use in much of the world. Both the Mayan and Gregorian calendars are tied to the idea of cycles, or simply a sequence that happens over and over.The Mayans used many celestial events in their calendars, as they saw movements in the sky as recurring.The Gregorian calendar uses the cycle of a week, Monday through Sunday, over and over, We also use 12 months, with days within a month. But the days of the week, and the Months/date run interdependently of each other. Say we have a Monday, January1. Tuesday January2, Wednesday January 3 and so on. When we get to Sunday, the next day the week starts over, but the date keeps counting, independently. With me so far? Good!

Mayan calendars also have independent components.running at the same time, just more of them. 3 are considered the most common. Our next few blogs will take on each of them:

Haab- 365 day calendar (18 months long each month 20 days, with 5 days added to the last month to make a solar year).
Tzolkin- 265 day calendar (actually 2 calenders, running side by side).

 These above two calendars can be combined, and are referred to as the Calendar Round, which has a cycle of 52 years.
Long Count-Just a way of writing the number of days that have gone by since a particular event, thousands of years ago.

Next up, a look at each of the three calendars listed above.


J.T. Turner, Mayanist

Primary sources

Hello! And sorry for the gap in posts!

In historical research, Primary Sources are of critical importance. They are the documents or items that originate a piece of history. Think of the Declaration of Independence. How do you know that the copy you find on the internet is right? Well, go have a look at the original, the primary source.

Last time in this blog, I mentioned just a few primary sources that actually mention the Doomsday date of the Mayan calendar. We spoke about the Jaguar Prophet, and how that passage is murky at best. Another primary source for the Doomsday date is located in southern Tabasco Mexico, at the Tortuguero site. The site dates to the 7th century CE, and has a series of inscriptions for a ruler there at that time. For us, we are interested in Monument 6, which does indeed refer to the b'ak'tun 13 (doomsday). Sadly, part of the inscription has been defaced, so we have just a partial rendering. Mark Van Stone has given the most complete translation:

Tzuhtz-(a)j-oom u(y)-uxlajuun pik

The Thirteenth [b'ak'tun] will end

(ta) Chan Ajaw ux(-te') Uniiw.

(on) 4 Ajaw, the 3rd of Uniiw [3 K'ank'in].

Uht-oom Ek'-...

Black ...[illegible]...will occur.

Y-em(al)...Bolon Yookte' K'uh ta-chak-ma...

(It will be) the descent(?) of Bolon Yokte' K'uh to the great (or "red"?)...[illegible]...^[22]

We really know little about the god,  Bolon Yokte' K'uh.He is elsewhere mentioned as a god of war, conflict, and the underworld. In some stela, he is portrayed with a rope around his neck, or an incense bag, which some take to mean his being a sacrifice, specifically a sacrifice to end a time period. (OK that would support the 2012/World Ending camp). But I have to point out that the translation is far from complete, and that Bolon Yokte' K"uh was already and ancient god when the Tortuguero site was active, and he appears to have been an unfamilar god even then. Just look at line 3. Black...something....will occur. Black death? Black Night? Black Sabbath? Black is the color of my true loves hair? Could be anything!

So to recap, most of the furor around 2012 is created simply by modern interpretation of the Long Count Calendar, with many authorities  disagreeing on the nature of the end date. And as discussed in the last 2 posts, there is little or no primary source material that points to 12/21/12 as a doomsday. Surely if that is the end of the world, the Mayans, who were great predictors of events, would have left more indicators of that ultimate event!

J.T. TURNER
MAYANIST

Jaguar Prophets

OK, OK, I know this is a rather dramatic picture above, and it is not really the Jaguar Prophet I mention in this post, but I liked it! It is called Jaguar Moon, and I am using it.

Despite all the hurly burly that surrounds the supposed doomsday of 12/21/12, if we look at factual Mayan sources, there are only a couple that even mention it.  The end of the Long Count calendar is mostly a non-event to ancient and contemporary Mayans. Let us look at a few source materials that do mention the date.

There is a group of prophecies that were made after the Spanish conquest of the Mayans that were translated to a sort of abbreviated Spanish.These prophesies were given by Chilam Balam, or the Jaguar Prophet. I have to say there is a lot of argument over the translations and meanings of the passages in the documents. But one passage does indeed mention the 13th b'ak'tun, which is the doomsday date. I won't reproduce the passage here, as few of you read ancient Mayan, (;)) but an archeaoastronomer, Maud Worcester Makenson, has translated the passage to mean the following :

"Presently B'ak'tun 13 shall come sailing, figuratively speaking, bringing the ornaments of which I have spoken from your ancestors.........Then the god will come to visit his little ones. Perhaps 'After Death' will be the subject of his discourse."

As you can see, that translation can easily be manipulated by Doomsday theorists into talking about the end of the world. But more recent translations suggest that the Doomsday date is not even mentioned in the prophecies. Another translator takes the passage to mean:

.                      "...like the coming of 13 sail-ships. When the captains dress themselves, your fathers will be taken".

Again if I want to read Doomsday into this I could. But more likely it could have referred to the Spanish conquest of the Mayans. Or it could be the lyrics to a David Bowie song .

I mention this just to show how source texts can easily be corrupted by sensationalists for their own purposes. Next post we will look at another source for the widespread doomsday theory. 

J.T. Turner

Mayanist

Solar storms and 2012

Hello loyal readers! One of the many predictions about 2012 and the so called Doomsday deals with fire. This ties in with predictions about the type of cataclysm that occurs or I should say recurs in the Mayan calendar. But let us separate fact from fiction. Not to support a World's End theory, it does seem we will have increasing impact in our lives of solar storms, spots and flare-ups. Below is a great introduction to what we may face, next time I will tie it into our discussion of the Day Of Destiny! ( Melodramatic, but I was tired of calling it Doomsday :)).

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/active-sun-solar-storms-100609.html

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

The Land of the Jaguars

I have just returned from another trip to Guatemala, where I volunteer for Partners in Development, a group that works in the Village of Concepcion. It was a good, though tiring, trip, and we did a lot of  positive work while we were there.

I wanted to post a bit about 2 items that came up on this latest trip. One was a side trip we took to a mountain location famous for its hot springs Las Fuentes Georginas. I say mountain location, but the springs are actually heated by the volcano, Zunil. Located in Xela, these springs are visited by tourists from around the world, but also by locals. Considering our look at the great exhibit Firey Pool at the Peabody Essex museum, I thought a mention of the springs was in order.

                                       Two of the smaller pools at Las Fuentes Georginas
It is perhaps a 20 minute drive to get up to the pools. It is usually a bit cool, and on several trips there overcast or rainy due to the altitude. There are 4 pools, 2 small ones and a rather large one that is directly fed by the water coming down the mountainside. The water temperature is in the high 80"s more as you get close to the water source. A local told me that the water was fine to drink, tasting of lime. He proceeded to drink directly from the water coming down the mountain. As an expert traveler, I passed on drinking the water. :) The Mayans believe the waters are sacred, as they are "blessed" by the volcano. The volcano itself has great power, so the water must have power as well.

But there is a fourth pool, set away from the others. That pool is still used in Mayan ceremonies, and it is considered a fertility pool. By bathing in it, it is believed women can increase the chances of becoming fertile. Again we see the symbolism of water, the source of life, being used by the Mayans. The fertility pool has sacred candles set along the ages, again filled with symbolism, fire, light, and various colors to invoke the sacred.

The main pool, the source of the water is in the back of the photo, coming down the wall.

Next up in our blog, I want to share a conversation about the color red.

J.T. Turner
Mayanist

Tackling Time

Let us start our discussion of the Mayans and time.

In the mythic tradition of the Maya, a creator god named Itzamna gave the concept of the calendar to the Maya. They actually had several different calendars, the most important of which had a period of 260 days. Many Mesoamerican societies followed a 260 day year. We call this particular calendar the Tzolkin or Tzolk'in. There is also a 365 day calendar called a Haab. They were used together to make a cycle that lasted 52 Haabs. (OK stay with me, this gets complex, but I will try and pull out key points).

A different form of a calender, used for recording when an event occured in relation to other events was also used. We call this the Long Count form, and it is based on how many days have gone by since a starting point. That starting point is generally agreed to have been August 11, 3114 BC for a Gregorian calendar, and depending on the calendar used and the scholar, varies by days or as much as a year depending on the source used. Many of the Long Count events are supported by a lunar calendar, giving the position of the moon at a certain time.

The observatory at Chichen Itza

In the Long Count, a 365 day year (called a "Tun"), is made up of 18 20 day months, (called a Unial). 20 Tuns makes a Katun, 20 Katuns is a Baktun, and 13 Baktuns is a Great Cycle, or about 5,125 years.

The Mayan Long Count Calendar can also be expressed as a set of numbers. For example 8.3.2.10.15 represents 8 baktuns, 3 katuns,  2 tuns, 10 unials and 15 days after the creation of the calendar (Similar to the calendar we use today; 10.29.2009). In the Mayan calendar, December 21, 2012 (in Gregorian calendar) is represented by 13.0.0.0.0. Hence the feeling that it is "doomsday".

Just to give a visual of the Long Count, below is the year 2012 in Maya numbers.





Next up, a quick look at the Mayan number system, as seen above.


J.T. TURNER, MAYANIST

Turtle Island

I wanted to share a bit more about the excellent exhibit at the Peabody Essex Museum. In particular, I wanted to relate the title and concept of the exhibit to our blogs here at The Mayanist.

Fiery Pool: The Maya and the Mythic Sea, is organized into four  sections: “Water and Cosmos”; “Creatures of the Fiery Pool”; “Navigating the Cosmos”; and “Birth to Rebirth.” The Fiery Pool itself refers to a Mayan view of the world. Our earth, as the Mayans knew is, was imagined as a great turtle floating in the ocean. The shell or back of the turtle is what the Mayans thought was their land, their world. And the sun, rising in the east, setting in the west, was the Fiery Pool. We now know that for the Maya, water was a critical primordial element in all aspects of their lives. (The figurine pictured above is of the Jaguar God of the Underworld, riding upon a crocodile.)



For the Maya the turtle was associated with water, thunder and with the earth. The surface of the world was depicted as the back of a turtle. The Maya deity (Pauahtun) who supported the world on his shoulders is sometimes depicted wearing a turtle shell on his head and the Maize God is sometimes shown emerging from a turtle shell.


And so the Maya believed they rode upon "Turtle Island". This exhibit  really touches on new territory, for while some Mayan cities were on the coastline, a vast majority were built inland, and giant cenotes were created to hold water for the cities. For a generally inland people, the discovery that they were obsessed with the sea is a surprising new fact.

When you take in the exhibit, which will travel on to Fort Worth and St. Louis, you will get to see a 10 foot tall cast from Belize, with three masks that represent Water Lily Serpent. Also a block of glyphs that seem to recount the travels of a Mayan King, who made a pilgrimage to the sea.

Above, Lidded bowl with the Iguana- Jaguar, from about 500AD

          Lidded Vessel of a World Turtle          


The wonderful exhibit runs till July 18th, and it is a rare chance to see pieces never displayed in the U.S. before.

THE FIERY POOL, THE MAYA AND THE MYTHIC SEA

PEABODY ESSEX MUSEUM

27 MARCH-18 JULY 2010

WWW.PEM.ORG

J.T. Turner, Mayanist