Mayan calendar - mysterious predictions of the ancient Indians. Calendars of different nations

For all time: how did our ancestors count the days?

Of course, one of the most famous ancient calendars is the calendar of the Mayan people. Some four years ago, mass speculation about the predicted end of the world blew up the Internet and the minds of people around the world, and this story of the apocalypse has become a dense part of Internet memetics, becoming a topic for jokes. Of course, no end of the world happened, and certainly should not have happened, simply because a particular calendar ended. Modern calendars are also made in the format for a maximum of a couple of years ahead.

But this episode, unfortunately, overshadowed much more interesting topic: how our ancestors measured time. The very word “calendar”, and literally “announcing”, was invented by the Romans, but the first calendar was created not by the Romans and Indians, but by the Egyptians. The ancient Egyptian calendar, as in many later cultures, was associated with agriculture. Agriculture in arid North Africa completely dependent on one river. It was the Nile, and its floods marked the seasons for this ancient civilization. The Egyptians had three seasons in total. The Egyptians did not know the clock, in the sense that we know now. They roughly divided the circle along which the shadow of the obelisk passed into ten parts and added one for sunset and dawn. Thus, it turned out 12 hours in light day. Since this people counted in dozens, then at night there were also 12 unequal shares, because no one even thought to measure the length of an hour: in ancient egypt At night, time was measured by the positions of the stars. Thus, a 24-hour system for measuring the day was born, reminiscent of the one we use.

The Roman calendar was more like ours. Less accurate, but more convenient. At first, according to the Greek tradition, there were only ten months, and another 61 days before the onset of spring were simply missed, pretending that they were not there. Of course, this was not very convenient for people and the Romans added 2 more months to the calendar, creating such a 12-month calendar similar to the modern one. True, with the clock in the era of centurions and emperors, there was an old problem that haunted the Egyptians. The length of the hour varied different time almost twice a year. In summer it was almost eighty minutes, and on the mildest day of winter it was about forty. And almost until the 14th century, no one knew what to do with it, until someone put forward the idea of ​​“gathering everything and dividing it”. An hour became 60 minutes.

As we can see, with the course of centuries, the calendar began to take on its familiar form. It is rather ironic that the Aztecs and the Mayans already four millennia BC had a year in the calendar of exactly 365 days, as is now recognized by astronomers. Remarkably, both of them lived according to the "human" calendar, which was 260 days, and the "correct", "divine" calendar was needed for prayers and sacrifices. It was he who was similar to ours, in contrast to the Mayan household agricultural calendar. But these civilizations were destroyed and their legacy forgotten. The modern calendar, called the Gregorian, in honor, respectively, of Pope Gregory XIII, was introduced only in late XVI century. It was compiled by astronomers, not plowmen, so it is quite accurate, like those compiled by the Aztec priests.

24.11.2015

The Mayan calendar is the generalized name of the calendar system created by the Indians of the Mayan civilization of the pre-Columbian era. This time system was used (after the Maya) by the Aztecs, Toltecs, Mazatecs and other Central American peoples.

At present, interest in the Mayan calendar has revived, since the system, according to experts ancient history, was devoted not only to determining the past tense, but also to predicting future events. In other words, the ritual calendar of the Indians is not just a chronograph familiar to all of us in the form of a wall and pocket calendar, but a whole science that studies vast cycles of time.

Mayan calendar - description and general information

A little about the history of the Mayan calendar. The Indians themselves believed that ancient calendar given to them by divine beings who descended to Earth in time immemorial. There were two types of reckoning:

• Tzolkin (ritual calendar);
• Haab (civil calendar).

Haab was used for agricultural purposes, its cycle consisted of 365 days - the approximate time of the complete revolution of our planet around the sun. Another name for the system is solar calendar. The year was divided into 19 months. 18 of them consisted of 20 days, one month - of 5 days (the so-called "days without names"). Haab was intended to hold field work and applied in Everyday life.

The ritual calendar of the Mayan Indians (Tzolkin) lasted 260 days. It consisted of periods of 20 and 13 days, which succeeded each other. Every day had own name and the corresponding symbol, the solar seal. The Indians combined both calendars into one, which was called the "calendar circle".

Probably every person imagines what the Mayan calendar looks like: it is a stone circle delimited into sectors. The calendar demonstrates a deep knowledge of astronomical cycles. It turns out that the ancient Indians calculated the almost exact duration of the solar year - 365, 242 days. Scientists believe that for such exact calculations Maya would need about 10,000 years of constant observation. However, the period of existence of this civilization is only 3,500 years. How the ancient astronomers managed to obtain such reliable information about the celestial cycles remains a mystery.

In addition to the two above-mentioned calendars, the Indians also had a third one - the so-called "long count calendar". It was intended for large intervals of time. The duration of one complete cycle is 5125 years. The current cycle began in 3224 BC. and ended in 2012. In addition to a cycle of 5,000 years, the calendar mentions an even longer cycle, the duration of which is 26,000 years. Scholars link given period with the galactic alignment cycle.

The end of the Mayan calendar means not just the end of one cycle and the debut of another - it implies the complete destruction of the civilization existing in this time period. The current cycle is already the fifth. The previous ones, according to the history of the Maya, ended, respectively, with earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanic eruptions, and a flood. The fifth cycle was to end with the movement of the Earth's orbit and an evolutionary leap.

Since no special cataclysms happened in 2012, the predictions of the Mayan calendar should either be considered erroneous, or the end of civilization should be understood in a metaphorical sense - as the end of a purely materialistic period in the history of mankind and the striving for spiritual development.

Expert opinion

The Mayan civilization ceased to exist over a thousand years ago. The reason for her disappearance is unknown. Some historians believe that this ancient culture was destroyed internecine wars, others hypothesize that the death of the Maya was caused by natural disasters. The indigenous people of Central America left to their descendants only stone pyramids, writing and evidence of extensive knowledge of astronomy and mathematics.

Researchers believe that true value The Mayan calendar is connected to the natural rhythms of energy in the universe. If you consider your date of birth in the Tzolkin ritual calendar system, you can determine the name of the day and its solar seal. In Mayan chronology, each day is considered unique and has its own message and purpose. You can find information on each day and try to correlate the natural rhythms of the cosmos with the events of a particular human life. The Mayan calendar gives a person a chance to move from a purely material approach to a spiritual and intuitive one.

On the physical plane this system reckoning is fully consistent with the cycles of movement of large and small celestial bodies. The Indians made not only detailed star charts, but also predicted eclipses of the sun and moon. In addition, they already knew about global wars, outbreaks of global terrorism and other events that had an impact on the history of mankind.

For the people of the ancient Maya, the calendar was just as important in everyday life as it is for our contemporaries.

The Maya civilization originated in Mesoamerica ( Central America). This region lies between Mexico and South America, and has been home to many other cultures, including the Aztecs, Olmecs, Teotihuacan, and Toltecs. The Maya lived in places where today the states of Guatemala, Belize, Honduras, El Salvador and in the South of Mexico (Yucatan, Campeche and Quintana Roo, Tabasco and Chiapas) are located.

The history of the Maya consists of three periods:

1. Preclassic - 2000 BC before 250 AD

2. Classic - from 250 to 900

3. Postclassic - from 900 to the Spanish conquest in 1400

Writing in Mesoamerica arose in the middle of the Preclassic period. The Maya were the first to create historical records and keep a calendar. For this, steles or stone monuments were used, on which events were carved. civil life Maya, calendars and astronomical knowledge. They also depicted their religious beliefs and mythology on pottery.

maya attached great importance records of the history of his people. They were not the first civilization to use a calendar, but they developed four separate calendars that lasted for discrete periods of time. Depending on their needs, the Maya used different calendars or some combination of two calendars to record each event. Their calendar Long Count, which we will learn about in more detail later, expired in 2012, causing what some believed was to be an apocalyptic event.

But in order to decipher these different calendars, you must first learn short lesson in Maya mathematics.

Numbers and Mathematics Maya

Along with their calendars - Tzolkin, Haab, Round Calendar and Long Count - Maya also created their own own systems computing. They used a series of dots and lines to represent numbers. One dot represented one unit, while one line represented five units. The shell symbol stood for zero.

The Maya wrote the digits vertically, while we do it horizontally. For example, we write the number 27 as the number 2, denoting tens, and the number 7, to the right of it.

The Maya wrote 27 vertically. Their number seven (a line representing five ones with two dots above it) was at the bottom, and the number 20 (a dot one line above) was directly above it.

The same is true for other numbers, such as 29.

Numbers were of great importance in the Mayan culture. For example, the number 20 means the number of digits a person has - 10 fingers and 10 toes. The number 13 concerns large joints human body where diseases occur: one neck, two shoulders, two knees, two wrists, two hips, two knees and two ankles. The number 13 also represents the levels of the heavens where the sacred rulers of the earth reside. It was these two numbers, 20 and 13, that were used to compile the Tzolkin calendar, the first calendar used by the Maya.

Tzolkin calendar

Like many Mesoamerican calendars, Tzolkin, or Sacred Circle, the calendar is designed for a 260-day cycle. One theory of the meaning of just such a cycle length claims that 260 days symbolizes pregnancy. Another theory suggests that the calendar represents the length of time it takes to grow corn. However, it is more likely that it was based on Mayan reverence for the numbers 13 and 20.

In the Gregorian calendar, we have seven days in a week and, depending on the month, 28 to 31 days in a month. The Tzolkin calendar consists of a set of 20 day names symbolized by images called glyphs and 13 numbers. As a result, each day has a number from 1 to 13, in addition, the days have names that repeat with a period of 20. Each name of the day has its own symbol, the so-called Solar Seal.

The Tzolkin calendar begins on the first day, under the glyph Imish and number 1. The days continue in order - on the second day there will be a combination of the glyph ik with number 2, and so on, until all 13 numbers have been used.

After the calendar reaches the 13th day (indicated by the glyph Ben and number 13), the day numbers start again at 1, but the day names continue forward from the 14th glyph, ik.

Thus, we get 260 unique combinations of the day name and its number. Combination 13 Ahab marked the end of the year.

It is easy to understand the importance the Maya placed on the Tzolkin calendar. For example, they believed that your date of birth determines the characteristics that you can see in your personality, in the same way that some people consider the astrological symbol for a birthday today.

The holy men could also schedule certain events throughout the year based on the Tzolkin calendar. At the beginning of each unial(a period of 20 days), the shaman could determine the religious and ceremonial events that would take place at that time. In addition, he chose the dates that would be most fortunate for the prosperity of the community.

Despite its many useful functions for society, the Tzolkin calendar could not measure solar year, time required for Earth to do full turn around sun. Because of this, the Maya needed a more accurate calendar.

Haab calendar and round calendar

Haab calendar very similar to the Gregorian calendar we use today. It is based on the cycle of the Sun and has been used for agricultural, economic and accounting activities. Like the Tzolkin calendar, it also includes a unial (periods of 20 days) and each day has its own hieroglyph and name. However, instead of 13 uniques in 260 days, the Tzolkin calendar has 18 uniques in 360 days in the Haab calendar.

Mayan astronomers noticed that 360 days was not enough for the Sun to complete a full cycle of solar activity. They argued that the calendar should follow the solar cycle as closely as possible. But Mayan mathematicians disagreed. They wanted to keep the calendar simple, in increments of 20, just like their math systems.

Astronomers and mathematicians eventually agreed to 18 unials of 360 days, but with five "nameless days" called Wayeb.

This five-day period was considered a very dangerous time. The Maya thought that the gods rested during this time, leaving the Earth undefended. The Maya performed rites and rituals during the Wayb, hoping that the gods were to return to them once again.

While the Haab calendar was longer than the Tzolkin, the Maya wanted to create a calendar that would reflect even more time. For this reason, the Tzolkin and Haab calendars were merged into round calendar.

In the Round Calendar, the 260 days of the Tzolkin calendar are combined with the 360 ​​days and five unnamed days of the Haab calendar. This Round Calendar works on the principle of the Tzolkin calendar and gives 18890 unique days with a time period of about 52 years.

At the time, the Circular Calendar was the longest calendar in Central America. Maya historians, however, have been willing to record Mayan history for future generations. To achieve this, they needed a calendar that would be relevant hundreds, even thousands of years from now.

Long Count calendar

Maya designed Long Count calendar for 5125 years, the period of time they referred to as Great Cycle. The Long Count calendar is divided into intervals:

1 day - kin

20 days - unial

360 days - tun

7200 days - katun

144,000 days - baktun

2880000 days - piktun

57600000 days - kalabtun

1152000000 days - kinchilbtun

23040000000 days - alautun

The English anthropologist Sir Eric Thompson developed a technique for converting Mayan Long Count dates into a Gregorian date known as Thompson correlation. The events that took place during the Spanish rule were recorded on the Long Count and Gregorian calendars. After that, the scientists compared the dates in both calendars and compared them with Dresden Code, one of four Mayan documents that have survived from the time of the Spaniards. This code confirmed the date of the beginning of the first Great Cycle - August 13, 3114 BC, which ended on December 21, 2012.

Now we have the start date of the Grand Cycle, let's see the Long Count calendar in practice. We will take a date that is familiar to many: July 20, 1969, the day Apollo 11 landed on moon. In the Long Count calendar, this date is written as 12.17.15.17.0. You will notice that the date contains five digits. Reading from left to right, we get the number of baktuns since the beginning of the Great Cycle. In this case, there were 12 baktuns, or 1,728,000 days (144,000 x 12) since August 13, 3114 BC. The second number means the number of katuns. This is followed by tun, unial and kin.

As the Long Count calendar drew to a close, doomsday theorists predicted the worst. The Gregorian date is December 21, 2012, indicated as 13.0.0.0.0 on the Long Count calendar, signaling the end of the current Grand Cycle.

However, Mayan Indians and scholars who rejected apocalyptic theories noted that the end of the calendar would be seen as a time of celebration, similar to modern new year holidays. There are no Mayan inscriptions that predict the end of the world when the Grand Cycle ends.

The most notable event that happened on the day winter solstice 2012, was that for the first time in 25,800 years The sun was aligned with the center of the galaxy Milky Way. While the event sounds impressive, it had absolutely no effect on Earth, just as the astronomers claimed. So the next Great Cycle was quietly started anew.

There is currently a second Grand Cycle or New Era, which will continue for another 5125 years.

Hello, I’ll start with the fact that the calendars left to us by the ancients do not at all speak of the inevitable end of the world, but first of all they are interpreted in this way. And therefore they cannot serve as a source of solid information.

However, most predictors of the future, rely precisely on the chronicles that came out of ancient times. Sometimes deliberately emphasizing that in ancient times, people were better versed in the non-material world, and communicated with the gods.

Practically all conclusions about the coming apocalypse, which awaits us in December 2012, the end of the world, lie on legends and myths. And also on what is listed in the calendars of ancient civilizations. It is surprising, but ancient civilizations, not familiar with each other, sometimes came to the same opinion.

For example, reflecting on, one gets the impression that the ancients had on their hands common project, the purpose of which was the development of the Earth with pyramids. Exactly the same consensus was held by ancient civilizations when compiling calendars. That is, the civilizations that lived earlier agreed on the possible end of the world. At the same time, pointing to almost the same date.

Often astrologers try to predict end of the world considering these facts. However, these facts can only indirectly state that the ancients had knowledge of the events of the future. Of course, the distant past carries a lot of mystery, beckons the unknown. Recent times, they talk a lot about the change of the era of the fifth Sun, saying that the coming event brings death to all living things. This is associated with the fact that Earth will happen change of poles.

And the process seems to have already started., which is why we are seeing more and more powerful tsunamis, hurricanes and typhoons, a hurricane has just raged in America. Earthquakes are gaining strength, and they occur more often But you ask for information about these natural disasters in the past century. See that frequency and power natural phenomena and then she was strong. Climatologists also say that there are no prerequisites for climate change on the planet.

But a man always attracts the mysterious and incomprehensible, any phenomena that are difficult to explain plain language. Therefore, the end of the world, which is based on the prediction of the approaching era of the new Sun, is so attractive and discussed. Of course, it cannot be denied that by analyzing the change of civilizations, one can see how they echo the change in the solar cycle.

For this period significant natural disasters occurred in the life of the planet. It should be emphasized that this did not happen suddenly and at once, but took a long period of time. And there is no need to fear the end of the world for the next half century, let alone say that it will happen in December 2012. Why half a century? - because a person in pursuit of progress can destroy himself, but you can’t blame nature for this, or talk about external factors strength.

Considering information expressed by various kinds of predictors should not be relied upon as a solid source. As mentioned above, climatologists do not associate natural disasters on Earth in connection with the era of the new Sun.

Yes, experts have long been sounding the alarm. However, this is due to the fact that a person, developing infrastructure, increasingly violates natural balance. Developing own level life, increasing technology, we do not always think about how much we weaken the resources of the planet that cares about us. And this is another factor that natural disasters when the Earth is tired of enduring what is happening on its back, it can throw us off.

In more detail about what basis lies in the predictions about the change solar cycles, read in . The conversation will be about a large basalt monolith. This is stored in the Mexican Museum of Anthropology, the Aztec calendar, Sun Stone.