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Longcount

The Maya were fascinated or one could say even obssesed by time.
That they were not alone in this fascination, one can conclude out of the fact
that there are several similarities with other cultures in the America's.
Take for example the Great Cycles: in many cultures there are myths and stories
about the 4 (in some cultures only 3) cycles that have past before the present cycle started.

Longcount

The first calendar that I'm going to talk about is, not surprisingly, a calendar to mesure the Great Cycles.

First Great Cycle	23.614 B.C.	-	18.489 B.C.
Second Great Cycle	18.489 B.C.	-	13.364 B.C.
Third Great Cycle	13.364 B.C.	-	8.239 B.C.
Fourth Great Cycle	8.239 B.C.	-	3.114 B.C.
Fifth Great Cycle	3.114 B.C.	-	2.012 A.D.

To be able to mesure the lengh of a Great Cycle, the Maya invented the so-called Longcount. This longcount is divided into several periods of time:

Baktun: 144.000 days (= 20 Katun)
Katun: 7.200 days (= 20 Tun)
Tun: 360 days (= 18 Uinal)
Uinal: 20 days (= 20 Kin)
Kin: 1 day

This system is based on the vigesimal system of counting days. I'll discuss the counting system later on.

The longcount works from right to left and can be represented as simple flip-over scorebord:

baktun	katun	tun	uinal	kin
0	0	0	0	0

Where the baktun counts 13 flaps, the katun 20, the tun 20 the uinal 18 and the kin 20.
You've already learned from Xolotl Huascar that the Maya were familiar with the number zero, so all the flaps start to count with zero.

Since 13 august 3114 BC^* till today, the 17th of October 2004:
12 baktun have past, 19 katun, 11 tun, 12 uinal and 11 kin

So the longcount for today will look like this: 12.19.11.12.11

^*The exact starting date (i.e. the correlation date) is subject to discussion,
but it is beyond the scope of these descriptive pages.

The Mayan Class Structure
Visegimal system
Haab
Skye - Eilean a' Cheò, The Misty Isle

Longcount

Kulkulkan pyramid
The Chachapoyas
Temple of Inscriptions