Ancient calendars in the Holy Bible had lunar/solar calendar origins. The work at Time Emits develops tools from the three oldest known lunar/solar calendars: Jewish, Mayan and Egyptian. My goal here is to provide an overview that connects the Mayan calendar with the earliest Bible calendar — the Antediluvian Patriarchs. Chapter 5 in Genesis lists the ages of the Antediluvian Patriarchs. The “begat” family of Adam measured time with a lunar/solar calendar similar to the Mayan calendar.
The traditional Jewish lunar/solar calendar measures differences between the moon and sun to intercalate about 209-days over 19-years. Some 7-months add to catch up the lunar-side with the solar-side of the Jewish calendar. The Mayans adapted the same reasoning for a 20-year lunar/solar cycle and embedded the extra 210-days using a different method. I hope to dispel some of the mystery and confusion surrounding the Mayan calendar. Hyphens help to improve phrase clarity.
The Mayan 52-year Calendar Round accomplishes needed intercalary time with a dual year system. The Mayan 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-year was part of a 365-day-solar-year. Alongside the 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-year, a 360-day-Tun-year kept track of civil functions. The 360-day-Tun-year marked the approximate middle point between 12-lunar-months or 354-days, and the 365-day-Haab-solar-year. Following the 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-year, 105-days more were included to finish the 365-day-Haab-solar-year. Sister cultures such as the Inca and Aztec used an identical system of counting. Inclusively, I call them the Sun Kingdoms’ Calendars, a name typically used to describe the Mesoamerican calendar style.
Mayan astronomer-priests were very good at calculating multiples of days and years. Mayans purposely addressed a 360-day-Tun-civil-year with prefixes in order to lengthen the calendar. Prefixes are the “Katun” that describes 20-Tun-years and the “Baktun”, meaning 400-Tun-years. They multiplied the 20-year lunar/solar cycle by 20-years again, thus squaring time. Multiples of lunar/solar 20-year cycles occur in the form of 20-year Katun cycles and 400-year Baktun cycles. Mesoamerican chronologists accept the 400-year Baktun cycle was an integral part of the Mayan calendar system.
The 365-day-Haab-year and 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-year combine to form the Sun Kingdoms’ 52-year cycle, or Calendar Round. The 52-year chronological summit was the cornerstone of the dual calendar system. A complete Calendar Round repeated after 18,980-days. The Calendar Round 52-Tun-civil-years multiply by 360-days to produce 18,720-days. Working like meshed gears, 72-Tzolken-sacred-years of 260-days each multiply to equal the same 18,720-days. The last five special holidays are the Wayeb. The Wayeb separately accrues every year to add the final 260-days in the Calendar Round. One extra 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-year adds to 72-sacred-years for 73-Tzolken-sacred-years. Multiplying 73-Tzolken-sacred-years by 260-days per sacred-year gives the equivalent 18,980-days for a Calendar Round. The 52-year Calendar Round equals 73-Tzolken-sacred-years and both equal 18,980-days. The total 52-year Calendar Round is 18,980-days. By this calendar system, only once in 52-years would any day of the 260-day-Tzolken-sacred-year coincide with any day of the 360-day-Tun-civil-year. A complete Calendar Round would restart again the next dual sequence. Names for gods and their particular meanings often varied across the cultures. Calendar math remained the same.