Before the Mayans developed the well-known Long Count calendar sometime between 300 BC and 100 AD, they were using a long count calendar based on the orbit of Mars. The Mars tables in the Dresden Codex might provide more information, but there are also clues of this in the Mayan history book, the Popol Vuh. In fact, I believe that this calendar was developed in El Salvador and dates back to somewhere between 7500 BC and 9500 BC, which I think would make it one of the oldest calendars known to humankind. My guess is that the calendar might have been developed by about 7500 BC and then "a rope was tossed backward in time" to estimate dates of previous events.
The proto-Mayans began using a base 20 counting system, most likely while still in La Gruta cave in eastern El Salvador, i.e. 9000 or 9500 BC. The counting system of bars and dots shown on Mayan Classic-period stella were likely sticks and rocks in the beginning. In the cave, the proto-Mayans were given a challenge, make the stars stand still and you will be liberated. While their liberation from the cave itself was likely a typical escape scene, even on the outside the Mayans were not able to be totally free from the rule of the cave dwellers until they could make the stars stand still, in order to win over the respect of the underlings, the "manikins" as the Popol Vuh states, of the cave leaders.
The proto Mayans would have noticed that at least three stars (planets) did stand still and move backward - Venus, Mars, and Jupiter, and maybe Saturn as well. They might have noticed Mercury but it is never high above the horizon and is hard to see, especially in a hilly landscape.
Venus has a synodic period - the length of time from one retrograde motion until the next retrograde motion - of about 584 days. One could track Venus with 73 8-day weeks, and eventually the Mayans probably did this. But 584 is not evenly divisible by 20, so it was not possible to predict its retrograde motion with a base 20 system.
Jupiter has a synodic period of just under 399 days. That is close to 20 20-day weeks, but is not close enough to being evenly divisible by 20 to serve as a long-count calendar. Saturn has a synodic period of 378 days and is close to 19 20-day weeks, but, like Jupiter, would not serve as a long-count calendar.
Mars has a synodic period of 779.96 days. This is almost exactly 39 20-day weeks. Embedded within that 780 day cycle are three 260 day segments, and this likely gave rise to the 260 tzolkin calendar, with 13 20-day weeks in each segment. At some point very early, perhaps when they also began tracking the tides which have a 13 to 14 day pattern in El Salvador, this was switched to 20 13-day weeks.
The three 260 day segments are:- Middle night to evening star: station (turn) retrograde, retrograde, station direct, direct
- Evening star to invisible: evening star, heliacal setting, invisible (conjunct Sun)
- Morning to middle night star: heliacal rising, morning star, to middle night star
Based on the characteristic of the week in relation to the first segment, the retrograde period, the weeks of the tzolkin can be placed in four groups. Mars always stations retrograde within the same 52 day span (4 13-day weeks) of the tzolkin, Group 'A' in the table below. And it stations direct each time within the same 52 day span, Group 'C', below.
The following table describes how the four groupings of weeks fall within the three 260-day cycles of Mars. Note: I will use the following convention when referring to day signs (Chorti/Quiche/Yucatec/Aztec/English). The four weeks mentioned below are: Cimin/Kame/Kimi/Miquiztli/Tapir; Tahsib/Tijax/Ets'nab/Tecpatl/Flint stone; Kanoa/K'at/K'an/Cuetzpallin/Canoe; and Kilis/Ajmak/Kib/Cozcacuauhtli/Falcon.
Phase . . . . 1. Middle night to evening star 2. Evening star to invisible 3. Morning to middle night star | Group A Second half of Cimin to first half of Tahsib52 days . Turns retrograde . Evening star . Heliacal rising | Group B
Second half of Tahsib to first half of Kanoa 26 days . Always retrograde . Early evening star . Morning star | Group C Second half of Kanoa to first half of Kilis Turns direct . Heliacal setting Early morning star | Group D Second half of Kilis to first half of Cimin Late evening star Invisible or briefly visible Middle of night star |
The key driver of the Mars calendar is the station retrograde. When Mars is ready to turn retrograde it rises in the late evening - between 8:30 pm and 10:00 pm. Because Mars' orbit is highly elliptical it probably took some to track it with the calendar. The elliptical nature of Mars' orbit is due, in part, to the gravitational pull of the center of the Milky Way galaxy. Visually this is located at the dark spot in the middle of the Milky Way, the 'void', which is, literally, a large black hole.
When Mars stations (turns) retrograde opposite the center of the galaxy, i.e., in Taurus or Gemini, its retrograde station occurs very late in the tzolkin, but when it stations retrograde in Scorpio or early Sagittarius the retrograde station occurs very early in the tzolkin. It's important to use the tropical zodiac rather than the sidereal zodiac since the impacting force is the center of the galaxy not individual stars which are precessing through the galaxy's elliptic. Every 7th or 8th Mars' synodic period, every 15 to 17 years, will produce a retrograde in Scorpio or early Sagittarius.
A Mars station retrograde is considered significant in the calendar when it moves the Mars calendar backward by one day. For example, on March 24, 1952, the Mars retrograde station occurred on 8 Ak/Aj/Ben/Acatl/Reed (the 8th day of Cimin/Kame/Kimi/Miquiztli/Tapir week). It was a significant retrograde since previously the calendar was set on 9 Ix/Ix/Ix/Ocelotl/Earth (the 9th day of Cimin week). Considering for the moment only Mars retrogrades that occurred in Scorpio or early Sagittarius, 15 years later, on March 7, 1967, Mars turned retrograde on 9 Ix (Cimin week); this was not significant. Seventeen years later, on April 4, 1984, Mars turned retrograde on 7 Ch'ak/Kan/Chikchan/Malinalli/Tooth (7th day of Cimin week); this was significant. Fifteen years later, on March 17, 1999, Mars turned retrograde again on 7 Ch'ak (Cimin week); this was not significant, since it did not lower the day in Cimin week. Today we are still at 7 Ch'ak on the Mars long count calendar.
Generally anytime that the Mars retrograde starts between March 19 and April 8, it will be a significant retrograde for the calendar. This corresponds to a location of Mars between 13 Scorpio and 0 Sagittarius.
There is a significant problem with the Mars retrograde calendar - it is extremely sensitive to changes in either Earth's or Mars' orbit. For example, if the synodic period of Mars changes from 779.96 days to 779.92 days, it will essentially cut in half the length of time that it takes the calendar to go through one 13-day week, from 675 years to 338 years. And Mars' orbit did shorten, moving slightly closer to the sun 2,000 to 3,000 years ago, and its synodic period is now closer to 779.94 days. The Mayans may have discovered this between 500 BC and 200 AD.
Thus, the Mayans decided to replace it with the solar elliptic based long-count calendar. The Mayans tried to estimate the length of time it takes for one day to precede through the Mars retrograde calendar by constructing the calendar round, which consists of 73 tzolkins, 52 365-day years, or 51.9644 Julian years.
How did the proto-Mayans keep track of time for thousands of years? I guess that they did it by body painting, body piercing, and scarring. It would have been necessary to track only two calendars: the tzolkin and the Mars calendar date, in order to keep track of the Mars long count.
The tzolkin, which changed each day, was likely tracked in a non-permanent way, such as with body paint on people's toes and fingers. I'm not sure how the name of the day was tracked, perhaps early glyphs were used or perhaps each day name had a number associated with it.
The Mars long count itself was most likely tracked with piercings or scarring, since a change in the count would occur only every 30 to 60 years. This was probably done only on the shaman-astronomers themselves. They probably used the body parts least likely to be lost - the face, chest, and abdomen. In fact, I think that the later practice by the priests of cutting themselves on the ear or genitalia was a symbolic reference back to the days when shaman kept track of the Mars long count in that manner. When a new shaman was being initiated part of the initiation was to repeat the scarring or the piercing of the outgoing shaman so that the historical record was not lost.
When Mars rose an hour or two after sunset, i.e. about to turn retrograde, and nearing the center of the galaxy, several days of celebration would ensue as people waited to see if it heralded a new calendar day. The shamans were able to predict the exact date of the retrograde motion by seeing how close Mars was to the center of galaxy when it was about to turn. The Popol Vuh describes precisely this "ball game" contest with the lords of Xibalba, when Hunahpu (Sutz') and Xbalanque (Ixbalamque) were in the razor room and made the razors stand still. (Tedlock, pg. 123). Note: the page numbers that I reference are from the Revised Edition, 1996, of Dennis Tedlock's English translation of the Popol Vuh.
The Popol Vuh appears to embed dates from the Mars long count calendar by using pairs of names and by using other symbols that appear to be placed in the narrative for no apparent reason. The most obvious pairing of names are "One Cimin, Seven Cimin" (Cimin/Kame/Kimi/Miquiztli/Tapir), "One Sutz', Seven Sutz'" (Sutz'/Junajpu/Ahaw/Xochitl/Lord or Bat), and "One Monkey, One Artisan" (Ma'x/B'atz'/Chuen/Ozomatli/Monkey) and (Manix/Kej/Manik'/Mazatl/Artisan). In the case of One Sutz', Seven Sutz', the Popol Vuh states (pg. 91) that Seven Sutz' "has no wife. He's just a partner and just secondary; he just remains a boy." That to me is a clue that it is a date reference rather than an actual person.
Because the calendar is moving backward through the signs, the week identifier does not start until the calendar is down to the first day of the week. For example, we are now in the 1 Makchan (Makchan/Kawuq/Kawak/Quiahuitl/Rainbow) week, which started with 1 Makchan and continues from the 13th to the 2nd day of Cimin week. This helps explain why the Mayans later used the last day of a time period to identify that period rather than the first day.
Prior to about 400 BC it took about 52 years for Mars to move backwards one day in tzolkin, since it is slightly less than 780 exact days. This would be the equivalent of about 675 years, or about 948 tzolkin cycles, for it to cycle through one 13-day week. Using 675 years for the weeks prior to 430 BC and 440 years for the weeks after 430 BC, I constructed this first draft of the Mars Calendar dates.Historic Era-Week in the Mars Calendar (Ch'orti/Quiche/Yucatec) 1 Ak/Aj/Ben 1 Sutz'/Junajpu/Ahaw 1 Manix/Kej/Manik' 1 Ix/Ix/Ix 1 Imix/Imox/Imix 1 K'ante'/Q'anil/Lamat 1 Sih Muahn/Tz'ikin/Men 1 Ik'/Iq'/Ik' 1 Tokar/Toj/Muluk 1 Kilis/Ajmak/Kib 1 Ak'bar/Aq'ab'al/Ak'bal 1 Tzi'/Tz'i'/Ok 1 Nok/No'j/Kaban 1 Kanoa/K'at/K'an 1 Ma'x/B'atz'/Chuen 1 Tahsib/Tijax/Ets'nab 1 Chan/Kan/Chikchan 1 Ch'ak/E/Eb 1 Makchan/Kawuq/Kawak |
Approximate Start Date 9200 BC 8500 BC 7900 BC 7200 BC 6500 BC 5800 BC 5200 BC 4500 BC 3800 BC 3100 BC 2500 BC 1800 BC 1100 BC 430 BC 10 AD 450 AD 900 AD 1337 AD 1779 AD |
It may take another look at the original Quiche text of the Popol Vuh to tease out more of the embedded Mars long count dates. The repeated references to "One Cimin, Seven Cimin", which Tedlock translates as "One Death, Seven Death", may refer to the date that the Mayan and other people liberated themselves from the cave. Seven Cimin would occur about halfway between 1 Ak and 1 Sutz', which would be about 8800 BC, using the calendar above.
The date 7 Sutz' (Sutz'/Junajpu/Ahaw/Xochitl/Lord or Bat) also appears to be an embedded date which refers to two occurrences. The first, on pages 96-97, is One Sutz' (leader of all four Mayan clans) making a mistake when predicting the motion of a planet - most likely Venus, following Tedlock's note. One Sutz' is beheaded and his head stuck on a tree at the crossroads. But the Popol Vuh states that his death was not in vain, the Mayans learned from it in terms of becoming better predictors of planetary motion. His sacrifice helped to later save the Mayan people. One Sutz's head then becomes a calabash, a squash. This may be indicating that the Mayan people first domesticated the squash at this same time. The date 7 Sutz' falls about halfway between 1 Manix and 1 Ix or at 7500 BC. This date is certainly plausible for the first domestication of squash.
It will take more careful reading of the Popol Vuh, as well as other ancient texts and glyphs on monuments and stella, to determine if there are more embedded Mars retrograde long counts. I continue to look for a more accurate ephemeris - please let me know if any of you readers know a good source that dates back to 9000 BC.
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