Rediscovery of the Maya Era Date 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u

Era day passage from Palenque, Temple of the Cross, Main Panel (Photo by  by Paul Johnson)

The rediscovery of the base date of the Maya Long Count was claimed two early Maya scholars: J.T. Goodman and Ernst  Förstemann. But as we shall see, it was Förstemann who must be given proper credit for discovery of the inaugural date. Initially, Goodman surveyed the calendar data largely from the stone monuments and the corpus of inscriptions gathered by A.P. Maudslay while Förstemann analyzed the dates and inscriptions in the Dresden Codex, one of the few surviving handbooks of a Maya priest.

In the commentary “The Archaic Maya Inscriptions” appearing in February of 1897 the Volume VI Appendix of A. P. Maudslay’s great work “Biologia Central Americana”, Goodman (1897:10) described how he labored for well over “seven years” to reconstruct the values of the Maya Long Count from numerical signs (the “bar and dot” and “head variants” of numbers) of the stone inscriptions and from calendar and mathematical data gleaned from the writings of Diego de Landa and Pío Pérez. He states quite emphatically that:

“I ascertained the first cycle [the bak’tun] was composed of twenty katuns . . . I finally deduced a chronological calendar . . . and after reversing the process, succeeded in restructuring the outline of the entire Archaic chronological scheme . . .” (Goodman 1897:13).

Yet curiously on page 93 of his 1897 work, he offers an example of the 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u era date reckoning not from the stone inscriptions to which he was intimately familiar but from page 51 and 52 of the Dresden Codex Lunar Tables! This leads one to suspect that Goodman was aware of Förstemann’s previous 1887 deductions from the Dresden Codex concerning the era date and had knowledge of the German scholar’s early discoveries (Thompson 1971:30). Goodman tables do indeed provide the era day base date in conjunction with their Long Counts. About the era date on page 51 of the Dresden Codex, Goodman (1897:93) states that the 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u date is “the beginning of the 54^th great cycle of the Archaic era.” What does he mean by the 54^th great cycle? At the time, Goodman (1897:25) believed that the Initial Series Introductory Glyph (ISIG) represented various Great Cycles where one “Great Cycle” equaled 13 bak’tuns. These “Great Cycles” in turn produced an even larger “Grand Era” that was comprised of 73 “Great Cycles.” At the end of the “Grand Era” the day name and month repeat the same calendar positions[1]. In Goodman’s view the era date was but one of many probable starting points and one that corresponded with the current cycle of 1-13 bak’tuns. Goodman did not offer a straightforward mathematical explanation of how he arrived at the era date. The calculations are inferred from his Long Count charts representing the “54^th Great Cycle.” The charts note the “ 54^th Cycle” begins with the date 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u. Already, Goodman (1897:127, 135) anticipates the idea that the era date and the Great Cycles are related to some great time station by which the calendar returns to a start date and is renewed. Goodman could have reckoned the era date from Maudslay’s drawings of Quirigua Stela C and Palenque’s Temple of the Cross Sanctuary Panel, both of which record the era date which no doubt was verifiable against his Long Count charts and calculations of Maya dates

In the later part of the 1880s E. Förstemann (1904:403) in his examination of the Dresden Codex, reckoned the era date for the Long Count since it served as a base date for the Venus Table calculations as well as several other almanacs. Förstemann saw the zero date being employed for a start date on page 24, 51, 60, 62, 63, and 69 of the Dresden Codex (Förstemann 1906:115, 197, 222, 224, 234). By 1887 in “Zur Entzifferung der Mayahandschrift”, Förstemann announced that the Long Count was indeed reckoned from a 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’ubase date and was able to explain the rational of “Ring Numbers” or numbers that were used to count backward from a base date. In his essay “Aids To Deciphering Maya Manuscripts”, Förstemann restates his earlier discovery:

“A perfectly exact computation was attained only by deciding on some fixed day (the creation of the world, perhaps, or the birth of a principle god) as a point of departure, and by counting the days from zero point . . . this important day is a 4 Ahau 8 Cumku” (Förstemann 1904:399).

Here, Förstemann attaches more than a mathematical importance to the era base date and delves into the possible mythic significance of the day. He conjectures that the date could signify a greater meaning and relate to some cosmogonic or theogenic act of creation. It would be nearly seventy years until such speculation was visually verified with the discovery of the Vase of the Seven Gods (Coe1973:106-109). It was Förstemann then, who was also first to speculate on the mythic significance of the base date.

Eduard Seler (1904:26) in his paper “The Mexican Chronology” also gives credit to his German colleague for the discovery noting that:

“In a paper presented before the International Americanists Congress in at Berlin E. Förstemann, to whom we owe so many discoveries, especially in regard to the mathematics in the Dresden manuscript, furnished proof that . . . the day 4 Ahau (4XX), the eighth of the month Cumku (the last of the eighteen festivals), is to be regarded as zero mark” (Seler 1904:26).

As to Goodmann’s claim of discovery of the era base, the current researcher has not found any written rebuttal by Förstemann noting his opinion on the matter. However, it is clear the German scholar thought lowly of the American’s contributions to field by sourly noting elsewhere :

“In his work “The Archaic Maya Inscriptions,” 1897, which on the whole, contains more imagination than of science  .  .  .” (Förstemann 1906:233)

Thompson (1971:300) finally weighed in on the question of discovery with the evidence against Goodman’s claims:

“Irrefutable evidence, however, that Goodman had read Förstemann comes from his own pen. In discussing the chronological calendar, Goodman writes, ‘It has been known that the Mayas reckoned time by ahaus (e.g. tuns), katuns, cycles (e.g. baktuns), and great cycles (e.g. pictuns).’ That information is in that none of the early sources, but was brought to light only through the studies of Förstemann. Furthermore, Brinton (1895) gives many details of Förstemann’s researches, including the reading of IS [Initial Series], and such matters as the glyphs for the katun and tun, in his Primer of Maya hieroglyphics, which surely must have come into Goodman's hands.”

Ultimately the field of Maya studies benefited from both Förstemann’s and Goodman’s early decipherments and calendar calculations that in the end proved that the mathematics of inscriptions and the codices were based on the same mathematical logic and their Long Count calendars were indeed reckoned from the same base date.

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[1]Spinden (1969:36) sums Goodman’s argument for a “Grand Era” as follows: “Goodman sees a neater finish to the chronological problem in a round of 73 times 13 baktuns, which would bring not only the day but the month position back again as a terminal date of a great cycle. He argues that the great wheel of time began from a great cycle of 73 ending on a day 4 Ahau 13 Yax and that the great cycle of the era recorded in the inscriptions was really the 54^th in order from this far off beginning.”

Works Cited

Förstemann, Ernst

1887    Die Maya-Handschrift der Koniglich-Sachsischen Bibliothek zu Dresden. Ascher, Dresden.

1904    Aids to The Deciphering Of The Maya Manuscripts. In: Mexican And Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems, And History, Bureau Of American Ethnology, Bulletin 28 Edited by Charles P. Bowditch, pp. 397-407. Smithsonian Institution, Washington.

1906    Commentary of the Maya manuscript in the Royal Public Library of Dresden. Papers, 4(2), pp. 53-266.  Harvard University, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology: Cambridge, MA.

Goodman, J.T.
1897    Archaic Maya inscriptions. In: Biologia Centrali-Americana; or Contributions to the 

Knowledge of the Fauna and Flora of Mexico and Central America. R. H. Porter, 
Washington D.C. 

Seler, Eduard

1904    The Mexican chronology, with special reference to the Zapotec calendar. In: Mexican And Central American Antiquities, Calendar Systems, And History, Bureau Of American Ethnology, Bulletin 28 Edited by Charles P. Bowditch, pp. 11-56. Smithsonian Institution Washington.

Spinden, Herbert J.

1969    Reduction of Mayan dates. In: Papers, 6(4)  Harvard University, Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology., Cambridge, MA

Thompson, J. Eric S.
1971    Maya hieroglyphic Writing: An Introduction. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press.

A Great Maya Calendar for 2012

Hi All,

I just wanted to let you know that Paul Johnson just published his Maya Calendar for 2012. It really is a great product and I buy several each year for friends and family:

http://www.amazon.com/Lords-Time-Maya-Calendar-Johnson/dp/0984886516/ref=cm_rdp_product

and 

http://lordsoftimemayacalendar.com/

The graphics are just beautiful.

Let the countdown begin!

Best,

Carl

Ancient Endings and New Beginnings: Maya Cosmology for 2012*

Carl  Callaway, of Australia’s La Trobe University, cuts through

the hype to look at our current understanding of 21 December 2012.
 The latest advances are fascinating,
 but much remains to be discovered.

December 21, 2012 marks a momentous

occasion on the ancient Maya calendar: the close

of the 13th Bak’tun period from their Long Count

Calendar. This transition is a cyclic event that

occurs approximately once every 5125 years—

every 13 x 144,000 days, to be exact—so the last

time a 13th Bak’tun ended was at the start of the

current Maya era, on 11 August 3114 BC. It was

a day that straddled the cusp of a new era—the

point between a cycle just ended and one about to

begin. Fast forward to today: in the entire corpus

of Classic Maya (250- AD 900) inscriptions, there

is but one surviving text that speaks of 2012,

found in the final passages of the stela known as

Monument 6 at Tortuguero, an archaeological site

in the southernmost part of Tabasco, Mexico.

Final Passage on Tortuguero Mon. 6 (drawing by Sven Gronemeyer)

As 2012 approaches, an exact interpretation

of the Tortuguero inscription has become the

subject of much scholarly and popular debate—a

Google internet search on “Maya 2012 prophecy”

produces a mere 1,200,000 hits! There is no

consensus within current academic discussion

about whether the Tortuguero inscription is

linked to a prophetic statement. Yet that said,

there can be little doubt the ancient Maya would

have seen the date as a numerological echo of

the current era’s start date, and they would

have marked the occasion of 13th Bak’tun with

great solemnity and fanfare—as they had done

throughout their history—erecting temples, altars

and carved stone pillars called stelae. Inscribed

stelae recorded time’s passage (typically in

20-year spans called “k’atuns”) by charting the

sun and moon’s exact positions, as well as by

celebrating those gods and sacred acts thought

to preserve community order and life.

For the ancient Maya time’s custodial gods were

tangible beings resembling humans, worshiped

and deified as living gods (for example, the

number eight was the Maize God). The dedicatory

date on a stele was often expressed in fully

animated portraiture, featuring the custodial

gods of time hoisting, dragging, and carrying the

day and month cycles into place, like packaged

goods being toted to a modern day marketplace.

Copan’s Stela D, from Honduras, illustrates this

time anthropomorphism wonderfully, depicting

personified and animated numbers who carry

Long Count cycles and days’ names in tumplines

strapped across their foreheads. The gods rest

just long enough to be recorded and then return

to fetch a new burden for a new day.

Copan Stela D  (drawing by Linda Schele)

 As mentioned, the last time the end of the 13th

Bak’tun occurred was at the start of the current

Maya era on 11 August 3114 BC. Its modern

notation is 13.0.0.0.0  4 Ajaw 8 Kumk’u. The era

date corresponded to the start of the Maya Long

Count Calendar that tracked the number of days

from a “zero date" or fixed point in time, from

which all mythical and historical dates were later

calculated. Historically, 3114 BC predates Classic

Maya civilization by at least 2500 years, so the

3114 BC zero date was most likely conceived

of as having taken place within the murky,

mythic depths of primordial time—a period of

cosmogenesis when germinal energies awakened

and the drama of creation unfolded. Fortunately

for students of Maya mythology, there are about

fifty ancient Maya inscriptions that detail events

thought to have occurred on this first day of the

new era. According to these texts, day one was

very busy, with at least fifteen distinct events

on the agenda. As a whole, events emphasize the

orderly framework of the cosmos. It is an order

not only related to knowledge of the world, but a

cosmic order that arises out of the great mystery

of the universe—the mysterium tremendum—a

secret that revealed itself both through the Maya

calendar’s intricate mathematical machinations

as well as through the culture’s priestly

divinations.

In virtually every era-day text, this cosmic

order is in some way reaffirmed. One era-day

inscription is found on a chocolate cup known

as the Vase of the Seven Gods . The vase boasts

a fine-line painting that is the mythic “snapshot”

of a pivotal era-day event that occurred in the

underworld mountain palace of God L, who is

pictured on his jaguar throne inside a caiman-topped

temple. Like a group of ancient calendar

priests, the gods gather within the dark interior

of a primordial mountain. The accompanying

Vase K2796 (Photo by Justin Kerr from mayavase.com)

text says that on the day 4 ajaw 8 Kumk'u, the gods
 present were “ordered.” The word—"ts’ak"—that

describes this ordering of the gods is intrinsically

linked to the same eternal and meaningful order

embedded in the natural world: cycles of wind

and rain, sun and moon, light and darkness.

Incidentally, this cosmic order—first practiced by

the gods—later became part of a sacred charter

that governed elite Maya conduct, so ultimately,

cosmic order was the source moral order. The vase scene

also shows that the gods arrive bearing tribute

caches and a bundled altar capped by feathers

(the altar is pictured in the lower register beside

the lower, front-most god seated before God L),

that will likely be set as a foundation stone

to mark this auspicious occasion.

Another era-day passage from Stela C at Quirigua

in Guatemala recounts the next stage in the story,

when four primordial gods set three like-in-kind

altar stones in a triad-based arrangement. A

 Quirigua Stela C (drawing by Annie  Hunter)

                                                                                                           

jaguar-, serpent- and water-stone are placed at the

edge of the sky, at a sacred locale called the New

“Three-Stone” Place. A creation event that is participatory, and where

no single god or causal force brings forth the

world, is a key pan-Mesoamerican idea. As in the

opening chapters of the Popol Vuh, a Colonial-era

document detailing the Quiché Maya creation

story, the world is built not by a single cosmic

force or god, but through a conversation between

two or more primordial gods. Specifically, the

opening chapters of the Popol Vuh state that

the Heart of Sky, along with the Sovereign

and the Quetzal Serpent, created the world

through council, by reaching agreements and

consolidating their ideas. This meeting of the

minds is not unlike how we humans might

initiate a building project: gathering together to

draw up a set of blueprints. Thus every invention,

divine or human, begins with a conversation.

Prior to this renewed order, another era-day

inscription reveals a glimpse of the frenzied

disorder that existed in what were most likely

the nocturnal hours prior to the first dawn. Page

Page 60, Dresden Codex Section a (photo courtesy of FAMSI)

 60 of the Dresden Codex, one of few surviving

Maya screen-fold books, shows two gods engaged

in combat. The god holding a spear thrower

and darts (on the viewer’s right) is Bolon Yokte’.

The deity on the left, under attack, is God N.

What forces of nature do God N and Bolon Yokte’

represent? Brandishing such fearsome weapons

as the spear thrower (and in other cases a rope,

a spear and a shield), the Bolon Yokte’ is shown to

possess a war-like destructive force and is a god

associated in the inscriptions with major calendar

transitions and death (though his exact duties

and profile are yet to be fully understood). God N

is well known as a sky-bearer akin to Atlas from

Greek mythology. An attack by the Bolon Yokte’ is

nothing short of disastrous. Logic dictates that

as God N, the sky-bearer, falls, the sky’s supports

are threatened, and with them, the space-time

continuum. It seems ancient scribes understood

that order only exists in juxtaposition to disorder.

Notably, Bolon Yokte’ is the primary god linked

to the Tortuguero Monument 6’s** inscribed

2012 passage. So Maya scholars must learn

more about this enigmatic deity as a way of fully

understanding the significance of his presence in

the context of the 2012 event.

Maya cosmology is a rich and varied realm that

in part expresses how the cosmic order first

came into being. So while the study of Maya

mythology is still in its infancy, the future holds

great promise for new insights and revelations.

As new texts come to light, scholars continue to

make inroads into the core mythos that shaped

and guided one of the great civilizations of the

Americas. Our hope is that 2012 will be a year

of new discoveries in Maya mythic history—a

year that will have us remembering the gods of

the ancient Maya as they take their rightful place

alongside those of Mesopotamia, Egypt and

Greece.

*This article first appeared in the Dec. 2011 issue of Hacienda Magazine:

http://catherwoodtravels.com/wp-content/uploads/magazine/dic2011.pdf 

**For more information on this text see:

http://www.wayeb.org/notes/wayeb_notes0034.pdf

Cosmogony and Prophecy

A few people have asked me to share the abstract of the paper I gave in Peru on Maya cosmology in the context of the 2012 Prophecy. I'm happy to do so:

The Maya prophecy foretells events that will occur at close of the current Maya era and at the end of 13th B’aktun period of the Maya Calendar in the year 2012. This paper explores the mythic and astronomical events that occurred previously at the start of the current Maya era in 3114 BC corresponding to the close of the first 13th B’aktun period. These two 13 B’aktun Period Endings, separated by a span of 5125 years, are like two bookends that inextricably link Ancient Maya conceptions of time, mythic history and prophecy. My presentation will demonstrate how in this case, the past is prologue. Mythic events and godly actions recorded at the beginning of the era directly parallel those actions that will occur at the end of the era. In addition, I will share new insights into how ancient Maya scribes linked these Era Day events to temple dedications and architecture to reflect the sun’s daily solar trek- a journey charted and revered by ancient peoples from all corners of the Americas.

I'll also add a photo of poster I made for the conference with the help of Paul Johnson. Enjoy!

Best, 

Carl

The Oxford IX International Symposium on Archeoastronomy in Lima Peru- The Ancient Maya Agenda

I just returned from the Oxford IX Conference. It was truly an international affair with speakers from all parts of the globe (for agenda see: http://www1.archaeoastronomy.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=69&Itemid=60&lang=en ) presenting on how cultures both past and present integrated astronomical knowledge into their art, architecture, religion and daily life.

 The Maya session went very well and included the following speakers and titles:

Mark Van Stone- ´It’s not the End of the World': emic evidence for local diversity in the Maya Long Count

Carl Callaway- Cosmogony and prophecy: Maya Era Day cosmology in the context of the 2012 prophecy

John Carlson- Lord of the Maya Creations on his Jaguar throne: the eternal return of Elder Brother God L to preside over the 2012 transformation

Michael Grofe- Measuring Deep Time: the sidereal year and the tropical year in Maya Inscriptions

Barbara MacLeod- The God’s Grand Costume Ball: a Classic Maya prophecy for the close of the thirteenth Bak'tun

John W. Hoopes: “New Age Sympathies and Scholarly Complicities: A Critical History of 2012 Mythology.”

All papers held several new insights into the gods, events, and historical authors of the Tortuguero Monument 6 text that hosts the Maya 2012 prophecy. 

The Dresden Codex at Hi-Res

Wow! I was just sent a link to the Dresden Codex at hi resolution. See:

http://digital.slub-dresden.de/sammlungen/werkansicht/280742827/0/

Best,

Carl

Well I made it to the Capital of Yucatan! Merida has a host of wonderful museums, not the least of which is the Palacio Canton- a pink and white marble palace (built around 1900) that houses many of Yucatan's finest archaeological treasures, not the least of which is the inscribed Panel 1 from Chichen Itza's Caracol-a stellar observatory with a spiral staircase and observational windows and a building that is a testament to the pinnacle of Maya Astronomy.

So the morning after I arrived (Palm Sunday-the streets were filled with processions of waving palms, song and dance), I walked the 10 blocks to the (it felt like 20) and was allowed to take many pictures of all monuments on display. Frustratingly, most of the monuments and artifacts are not labeled telling of their origins, but fortunately I knew most of them. Panel 1 from the Caracol is displayed in dim light and in the open air without protective glass which makes photographing it a lot easier. I asked if I could use my portable LED light to cross light while took photos and of course they said no. Regardless, I was great to be so very close to such an important inscription and allowed to photograph it at hi resolution. It had sustained a lot of damage since it was recovered in the 1930's with many chips, gouges and scrapes.

Why am I so interested in this monument? Well, it records one of the many Era Day inscriptions (and in reversed order at that!) in connection to the supposed founding of the Caracol. The stela also contains the last known inscriptions of one of Chichen's most prominent rulers that of the great K’ahk’-u-Pakal. It describes many doings of this ruler toward the end of his life and in connection with the 17th TUUN of K’ATUN 1 AJAW (beginning on 10.2.17.0.0. 13 AJAW 18 YAXK’IN and closing on 10.3.0.0.0. 1 AJAW 3 YAXK’IN or circa 886-889 AD). From the good work by other epigraphers such as Erik Boot and Alexander Voss, we can postulate that the Caracol was a building related to the divination and that the Itza B’olon K’awiil was the orator and the prognosticator of the Tz’ikinal (a name for the Caracol?) that had the function to announce and proclaim the prognostication for the year based on astronomical observations. Okay so what does all this mean for my work? Well, when the Caracol was built and Panel 1 dedicated, scribes tied the buildings celebration to not only the life of K’ahk’-u-Pakal but also to the beginning of time and the first day of the Current Era, the so called “zero date” of the Maya calendar. Which makes a lot of sense because the Era date 13.0.0.0.0. 4 AJAW 8 KUMK'U served as the initial base date for almost all Maya astronomical calculations as is exemplified so prominently in the Maya book known today as the Dresden Codex.

Needless to say I took a gazillion shots of everything. Its was then well into the afternoon and intensely hot, I made it back to the hotel soaking wet and exhausted yet happy with my cache of new photos.