In the first millennium, the Maya was the dominant culture in Mesoamerica, but its beginning dates back to the beginning of the first millennium BC. During this pre-classic period, the Maya also developed a calendar system, the origin of which can be more accurately determined by archaeological finds. Archaeologists led by David Stewart of the University of Texas have now succeeded in securing the oldest evidence to date of the 260-day calendar. They deciphered a date from this calendar on a section of the wall inscribed from the Maya site in San Bartolo, Guatemala. The discovery comes from the layer filling of the pyramid complex “Las Pinturas”. like researchers In “Science Advances” Report, they date the corresponding useful phase between 300 and 200 BC using the radiocarbon method. Human Rights Center.
The Maya created a complex calendar system. Part of it is a 260-day ritual calendar. Each day has a name with a number from 1 to 13 and one of the signs of 20 days such as “rabbit”, “water” or “dog”. Stewart and his team located a hieroglyphic on a piece of plaster called “7 deer”. Consists of a deer’s head and a number sign for seven.
“It has long been assumed that the 260-day calendar originated in the Middle Preclassic or even earlier,” says Nikolai Grob, a researcher in ancient America at the University of Bonn, who was not involved in Stewart’s research. “But until now there was no explicit evidence of the era.” In 2002, Grube, with Antonio Benavides of the Mexican Antiquities Authority INAH A discovery similar to what Stewart and his team are working on: the Mayan relief from the island of Jaina. The piece is also inscribed with a date from the ritual calendar and, due to its design, belongs to the period between 200 and 100 BC. “However, the Jaina relief that bears the mark today did not have a secure archaeological context,” says expert Maya Groppi. In San Bartolo, on the other hand, the context of the discovery can now be accurately dated. “That’s what makes this discovery so important.”
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