Mesoamerican Long Count calendar

The completion of 13 bʼakʼtuns (August 11, 3114 BCE) marks the Creation of the world of human beings according to the Maya.

The setting of the three stones centered the cosmos which allowed the sky to be raised, revealing the sun.

The numbered Long Count was no longer in use by the time the Spanish arrived in the Yucatán Peninsula, although unnumbered kʼatuns and tuns were still in use.

The supplementary series is optional and contains lunar data, for example, the age of the moon on the day and the calculated length of current lunation.

[3] [2] Takalik Abaj Stela 2's highly battered Long Count inscription shows 7 bak'tuns, followed by k'atuns with a tentative 6 coefficient, but that could also be 11 or 16, giving the range of possible dates to fall between 236 and 19 BCE.

[c][citation needed] Although Takalik Abaj Stela 2 remains controversial, this table includes it, as well as six other artifacts with the eight oldest Long Count inscriptions according to Dartmouth professor Vincent H. Malmström (two of the artifacts contain two dates and Malmström does not include Takalik Abaj Stela 2).

The Maya and Western calendars are correlated by using a Julian day number (JDN) of the starting date of the current creation — 13.0.0.0.0, 4 Ajaw, 8 Kumkʼu.

Using the GMT correlation, the current creation started on September 6, −3113 (Julian astronomical) – August 11, 3114 BCE in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar.

In Breaking the Maya Code, Michael D. Coe writes: "In spite of oceans of ink that have been spilled on the subject, there now is not the slightest chance that these three scholars (conflated to G-M-T when talking about the correlation) were not right ...".

[22] The Book of Chilam Balam of Chumayel[23] contains the only colonial reference to classic long-count dates.

Many indigenous communities in the Mexican states of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas[29] and in Guatemala, principally those speaking the Mayan languages Ixil, Mam, Pokomchí and Quiché, keep the Tzolkʼin and in many cases the Haabʼ.

[32] For example: An inscription at the Temple of the Sun at Palenque records that on Long Count 9.16.4.10.8 there were 26 days completed in a 30-day lunation.

Some authors analyze the lunar inscriptions based on this modern understanding of the motions of the Moon but there is no evidence that the Mesoamericans shared it.

Fuls[44] analysed these inscriptions and found strong evidence for the Palenque system and the GMT correlation; however, he cautioned: "Analysis of the Lunar Series shows that at least two different methods and formulas were used to calculate the moon's age and position in the six-month cycle ..." which gives eclipse seasons when the Moon is near its ascending or descending node and an eclipse is likely to occur.

Dates converted using the GMT correlation agree closely with the Dresden Codex eclipse tables.

Recently one of these, Lintel 3 from Temple I, was analyzed again using more accurate methods and found to agree closely with the GMT correlation.

According to the Popol Vuh, a book compiling details of creation accounts known to the Kʼicheʼ Maya of the Colonial-era highlands, humankind lives in the fourth world.

[f] There are only two references to the current creation's 13th bʼakʼtun in the fragmentary Mayan corpus: Tortuguero Monument 6, part of a ruler's inscription and the recently discovered La Corona Hieroglyphic Stairway 2, Block V.[57] Maya inscriptions occasionally reference future predicted events or commemorations that would occur on dates that lie beyond 2012 (that is, beyond the completion of the 13th bʼakʼtun of the current era).

[g] It does this by commencing with Pakal's birthdate 9.8.9.13.0   8 Ajaw 13 Pop (24 March 603 CE Gregorian) and adding to it the Distance Number 10.11.10.5.8.

[58][59] Despite the publicity generated by the 2012 date, Susan Milbrath, curator of Latin American Art and Archaeology at the Florida Museum of Natural History, stated that "We have no record or knowledge that [the Maya] would think the world would come to an end" in 2012.

[60] USA Today writes "'For the ancient Maya, it was a huge celebration to make it to the end of a whole cycle,' says Sandra Noble, executive director of the Foundation for the Advancement of Mesoamerican Studies in Crystal River, Florida.

To render December 21, 2012, as a doomsday event or moment of cosmic shifting, she says, is 'a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.

'"[60] "There will be another cycle," says E. Wyllys Andrews V, director of the Tulane University Middle American Research Institute (MARI).

To summarize: the Long Count date 9.10.11.17.0 corresponds to November 3, 644 CE, in the Proleptic Gregorian calendar.

Taking as an example a Calendar Round date of 9.12.2.0.16 (Long Count) 5 Kibʼ (Tzolkʼin) 14 Yaxkʼin (Haabʼ).

It is perhaps easier to find out how many days there are since 4 Ajaw 8 Kumkʼu and show how the date 5 Kibʼ 14 Yaxkʼin is derived.

[65][66][j][67] Many inscriptions give the date of the current creation as a large number of 13s preceding 13.0.0.0.0   4 Ahau 8 Kumkʼu.

60, 77)[73] Palenque Temple of the Cross, tablet, Schele (1987 p.) 12.19.13.4.0   8 Ajaw 18 Tzek in the prior era 6.14.0 Distance number linking to the "era date" 13.0.0.0.0   4 Ajaw 8 Kumkʼu Palenque Temple XIX, South Panel G2-H6 Stuart (2005 pp.

60, 77) 12.10.1.13.2   9 Ikʼ 5 Mol   (seating of GI in the prior era) 2.8.3.8.0 1.18.5.3.2   9 Ikʼ 15 Keh   (rebirth of GI, this date also in Temple of the Cross) The tablet of the inscriptions contains this inscription:[72] 9.8.9.13.0   8 Ajaw 13 Pop 10.11.10.5.8 1.0.0.0.0.8 The Dresden codex contains another method for writing distance numbers.

Ring Numbers are intervals of days between the Era Base date 4 Ajaw 8 Kumkʼu and an earlier Ring Base date, where the place-holder for the numeral of days in the interval is circled by an image of a tied red band.