This is the beginning of a new series based entirely around the 260-day Tzolkin, or “Sacred Calendar” of the Maya. The first part of this series will focus on the numbering system of the Maya. In order to understand some of the basics behind the Tzolkin I will be covering this little bit of information first. Each dot was used to represent a 1, and each bar was used to represent a 5. They would stack the numbers as they counted higher, refer to the image below to see an example of this.

As you can see, once they reached a count of 5 they would stack the next set of dots on top of the new bar. Instead of using 4 bars to count for 20 they would simply place one dot in a new place (20’s) above. For every 20 that was counted a new dot, or bar was placed in the 20’s position above the 1’s position. The Maya used a position for the 1’s, the 20’s, the 400’s, the 8000’s, et cetera. Each position would have a number between 0 and 19, once it received a 20 a dot would be used to count once in the power above. By using this very powerful system this gave the Maya the ability to calculate very mathematical equations very quickly.

The Tzolkin uses the Mayan numbers 1 through 13, so understanding all of this wont be required in order to understand the functionality.

If you would like to read more about this information you can do so by reading the entry titled Number Clarity

1. 
   Bobbie Ann
   May 16th, 2008
   
   
   

   Hi Mahendra:

   I’m having a problem picturing how the numbers 20 and above are written. Can you please show me? Any idea why they chose this representational system?

   Bobbie Ann
   
   
2. 
   Mahendra
   May 18th, 2008
   
   
   

   -Bobbie Ann

   I would be happy to cover this information again and make sure I clarify everything with a few additional images. I find that the visual aid with this information definitely comes in handy and I will admit that I was being a little too lazy when I first posted this, so I will be sure to clear this up for you. Thank you for the comment, I truly appreciate when someone lets me know that I haven’t made the information clear enough.
   
   

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