The Legacy of Mesoamerica History and Culture of a Native American Civilization, 2nd Edition

CHAPTER 1 ORIGINS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MESOAMERICAN CIVILIZATION 63

Box 1.5 The Long Count Calendar

Sometime in the Late Formative period a system of dating was developed that we call the long

count. The long count system allowed for much more precise dating than did other dating meth-

ods (such as the calendar round) because it was a linear count of days rather than a repeating cycle.

The Classic Mayas made greater use of the long count system than did any other group, although

the system was developed initially by non-Mayan peoples (probably Mixe-Zoqueans) before the

beginning of the Classic period.

The long count system was based on a hierarchy of progressively larger units of time that

were tied primarily to the vigesimal—or base 20—system of mathematics. To depict numbers

from 1 to 20, a system of bars and dots were used, with a dot equalling 1, and a bar equaling 5.

With a combination of bars and dots, numbers up to 20 could be recorded. Each Mayan long

count date has five notations that represent the following units of time:

kin = 1 day

uinal = 20 days (or 20 kin)

tun = 360 days (or 18 uinals)

katun = 7,200 days (or 20 tuns) (approximately 20 years)

baktun = 144,000 days (or 20 katuns) (approximately 400 years)

Each long count date, then, tells us how many kin, uinals, tuns, katuns, and baktuns have

passed since the beginning of the current “great cycle” (a period of approximately 5,128 solar

years), which began on a mythical starting date of zero in 3114 B.C. in our own calendrical system.

A long count date of 9.15.5.0.0 simply means that 9 baktuns, 15 katuns, 5 tuns, 0 uinals, and 0 kin

have passed since the Maya zero date, or 3114 B.C. in our calendar.

The earliest long count dates currently known come from the sites of Chiapa de Corzo (36

B.C.) and Tres Zapotes (31 B.C.). But as we mentioned earlier, the Classic Mayas made the most ex-

tensive use of the long count system. Hundreds of long count dates appear on stelae during the

eighth and ninth baktun cycles. The decline of the Classic Mayas of the southern lowlands took

place during the ninth baktun cycle, and the last long count date of 10.4.0.0.0 (A.D. 909) was

recorded at the site of Toniná.

idence from Copan indicates that Late Classic populations suffered from malnutrition
and other chronic diseases. The environment simply could not sustain indefinitely
the large populations of the Late Classic period.
A series of repeated droughts occurred between A.D. 760–910 around the time
that southern cities were abandoned, and advocates of the “Great Mayan Drought”
model argue that the droughts may have been the final straw for vulnerable portions
of the Mayan lowlands. This factor cannot be universally applied across the Mayan
area, as archaeological sites in northern Yucatán—an environment notoriously drier
than the southern lowlands—did not suffer population declines during the drought
interval. In some areas, strategies for subterranean water collection and variations in
local rainfall may have buffered local populations from drought impacts.
Warfare was another significant cause of the Classic Mayan collapse. Evidence
now suggests that warfare between Mayan polities increased during the Late Classic
period in areas like the Usumacinta, the Petexbatun, and the Pasion, to the extent