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THE MAYA CALENDAR
The ancient Maya thought everything that happened was affected, or at least potentially could be affected, by a series of supernatural forces. This view of reality is known as "animism" and was very widely held in the ancient world. The Maya version of it differed in that they quantified it. They constructed a mathematical model, their famous calendar, showing how animistic forces worked. The calendar eventually became amazingly intricate, but was constructed around a very simple idea: that each day is subject to a particular set of animistic effects. The mathematical calendric calculations that we find so impressive, are aimed to determine exactly which forces affected each day. Presumably these calculations gave them great confidence that they knew how to take appropriate action, through rituals, ceremonies, and sacrifies, to manage these forces to their best advantage. For this reason, the calendar assumed enormous importance. So much so that from our point of view they seem to have been obsessed with time, as though they worshipped time itself. We have this impression because our calendars deal only with time. The ancient May calendar was not this unidimensional. It's entries were about the fortunes and fates carried by the units of time. Not surprisingly, they wanted to influence the fates and fortunes of their enterprises. The calendar gave them an instrument with which they believed they could do this.
So, to understand the Maya calendar, the place to start is the individual day.
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For an example of a Long Count inscription click here |
image of Initial Series glyphs |
| the mystique of dates "Maya obsessed with time" or "worshiped time itself" | |
| a theory of time periods as icons | |
| the period ending issue |
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