Mesoamerican Long Count

Mesoamerican Long Count
Maudslay · Public domain · source
Name	Mesoamerican Long Count
Region	Mesoamerica
Period	Preclassic to Postclassic
Cultures	Olmec, Maya civilization, Teotihuacan, Zapotec civilization, Mixtec civilization

Mesoamerican Long Count is a vigesimal and modified base-20 calendrical system used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica to record linear dates over millennia. Developed and employed by major cultures such as the Maya civilization, Olmec, Zapotec civilization, Mixtec civilization, Teotihuacan, and groups in the Central America and Southern Mexico regions, it became central to inscriptions at sites like Copán, Tikal, Palenque, Uxmal, and Chichén Itzá. Scholars working at institutions including the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the British Museum, the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico) have advanced understanding through epigraphy, archaeology, and astronomy.

Overview and Calendar Structure

The Long Count records elapsed days since a mythic zero date using a place-value system that combines vigesimal and modified vigesimal positions reflected in inscriptions at El Baúl, Kaminaljuyú, Monte Albán, Yaxchilan, and Quiriguá. Researchers from the Carnegie Institution for Science, the University of Pennsylvania Museum, the Smithsonian Institution, the University of Pennsylvania, and the Peabody Museum compare Long Count dates with the Gregorian calendar, the Julian calendar, and astronomical tables developed by scholars like Joseph E. Colman and Sylvanus G. Morley. The calendar’s zero date relates to correlations proposed in debates between advocates of the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson correlation and alternatives such as the Fischer correlation and the Sproat correlation, with major implications for synchronizing Long Count dates with European contact chronologies and Colonial Mexico archival records.

Units and Notation

Long Count inscriptions combine units such as kin, uinal, tun, katun, and baktun appearing together in stelae, codices, murals, and monuments at Copán, Tikal, Bonampak, Dos Pilas, and Palenque. Epigraphers trained under figures like Tatiana Proskouriakoff, J. Eric S. Thompson, David Stuart, Linda Schele, and Miguel Ángel Fernández read numerals and bar-and-dot notation found on stairways, altars, and lintels. Numerical notation uses a base-20 scheme modified at the second position (18 uinal = 360 days) and records values in place-value columns on monuments preserved in collections at the Museo del Jade (Costa Rica), the National Museum of Anthropology (Guatemala), and the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. Notational variants appear on portable objects studied by curators at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico), and the Guggenheim Museum.

Historical Development and Use

Early use predates Classic period florescence and appears in contexts associated with the Olmec horizon and Early Classic centers like Teotihuacan and Monte Albán, with later adoption and elaboration by the Maya civilization across the Petén Basin, the Yucatán Peninsula, and the Chiapas Highlands. Royal dynasties at Copán, Palenque, Tikal, Naranjo, and Piedras Negras used Long Count dates to record accession, war, ritual, and dedication events, often alongside emblem glyphs tied to city-states and polities addressed in studies by Simon Martin, Nicola Grube, Kenneth Hirth, Michael Coe, and Richard D. Hansen. Religious and astronomical concerns linked Long Count reckonings to ceremonies at ceremonial centers such as Uxmal, Chichén Itzá, Kabah, and Calakmul and to celestial observations comparable to those recorded in the Dresden Codex, the Madrid Codex, and the Paris Codex.

Regional Variations and Correlations

Regional epigraphic traditions produced variations in Long Count syntax and calendrical correlations among the Mixteca Alta, Valley of Oaxaca, Guatemala Highlands, and Yucatán. Correlation debates among scholars like Eric Thompson, J. A. S. Thompson, Rodolfo Landa, John Teeple, W. E. Gates, Eric S. Thompson, Michael D. Coe, and J. Eric S. Thompson influenced assignment of Long Count zero to Julian Day Numbers used by astronomers at institutions such as the Royal Astronomical Society and the American Astronomical Society. Archaeologists at the Peabody Museum, the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico), and the National Museum of Guatemala document regional inscriptional practices at sites including Quiriguá, El Mirador, Seibal, Toniná, Yaxhá, and Nakbé.

Notable Long Count Inscriptions

Prominent Long Count monuments include Stelae at Tikal (Stela 31), the Hieroglyphic Stairway at Copán, the Temple of the Inscriptions at Palenque, the Dresden Codex references linked panels at Chichén Itzá, and stelae and altars at Quiriguá, Yaxchilan, Naranjo, and Piedras Negras. Monumental inscriptions recorded by explorers and collectors such as Alfred Maudslay, Teobert Maler, Stephens and Catherwood, and Diego de Landa have been central to epigraphic corpora curated by the British Museum, the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Museo Nacional de Antropología (Mexico), and university presses at Harvard University, Yale University, and the University of Oklahoma.

Modern Scholarship and Decipherment

Decipherment and interpretation emerged through work by scholars including Tatiana Proskouriakoff, Yuri Knórosov, David Stuart, Linda Schele, Michael D. Coe, Simon Martin, Nikolai Grube, and Flora Clancy. Interdisciplinary research integrates paleography, epigraphy, archaeology, and archaeoastronomy at centers like the Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, the Institute of Archaeology (UCL), the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH), and the Carnegie Institution for Science. Contemporary projects employ radiocarbon dating at laboratories affiliated with University of California, Berkeley, University of Arizona, University of Texas at Austin, and the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History to test chronological models, while digital initiatives hosted by the Mesoweb project, the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions, and university databases facilitate open scholarship and collaboration among epigraphers, archaeologists, and museum curators.

Category:Mesoamerican calendars