The Mesoamerican Calendar

Поділитися
Вставка
  • Опубліковано 11 чер 2024
  • Ancient Mesoamerica had one of the most incredible calendars ever devised. Discover how they created and used this calendar to track their history and the cosmos.
    Patreon: / ancientamericas
    Facebook: / ancientamericas​
    Bibliography, Sources and Credits at:
    drive.google.com/open?id=12uy...

КОМЕНТАРІ • 492

  • @jjt1881
    @jjt1881 3 роки тому +163

    1:50 It is the "Vigesimal system" not "Vegesimal system"

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +90

      Yup. You are correct. I really need to hire an editor that is smarter than me.

    • @ericktellez7632
      @ericktellez7632 3 роки тому +1

      @Jill Atherton
      Si.

    • @bonefetcherbrimley7740
      @bonefetcherbrimley7740 3 роки тому +8

      @@AncientAmericas Cool vid. Ya done good!

    • @timetraveller6643
      @timetraveller6643 2 роки тому +29

      A vegesimal system is based on 20 potatoes. It was abandoned in favour of the vigesimal system based on 20 pedantic comments.

    • @Yentzie
      @Yentzie 2 роки тому +1

      @MichaelKingsfordGray That assumes the editor is a person and not a machine

  • @Gr95dc
    @Gr95dc 3 роки тому +328

    I'm from Mexico and even tho I like learning history, I kinda have always left the history of my own country and ancestors aside. Finding this channel is the highlight of my week, even tho it doesn't centers only in Mexico, I'm very excited to learn more about the cultures that flourished in this territory

    • @MrSilz-jb4ik
      @MrSilz-jb4ik 3 роки тому +4

      I can highly recomend this podcast regarding the rise and fall of the Aztecs (or more correctly of course, the Mēxihcah) on Spotify: open.spotify.com/episode/0b4bQQv1DdmPufeecBZU1E?si=FgT9AJvgR5GN1bZQuPYkuA&dl_branch=1

    • @mekkler
      @mekkler 2 роки тому +6

      A fascinating and ancient culture. I hope you are very proud.

    • @hiera1917
      @hiera1917 2 роки тому +22

      For me coming across this channel has helped me realise that I have some decolonising work to do in myself. I’m half K’iché Mayan, but I’m pretty disconnected from that culture because I grew up in the US (with a white family). Learning about all this makes me emotional and makes my heart feel warm because I’m being re-connected with something I didn’t recognise was there. It’s like a hug reaching out to me from the distant past

    • @MrSilz-jb4ik
      @MrSilz-jb4ik 2 роки тому +11

      @@hiera1917 although i am from a white middleclass background, i have two Bolivian adopted sisters and i have such a profound attachment to all native american cultures, art and peoples. It is such a crime against history that we don't teach more about all of these cultures and peoples in a pre-colombian context. I am a university history student in denmark and we have no courses at all that revolves around pre-colombian civilizations. It is a crime that people need to educate themselves in the subject.

    • @NwordOutward
      @NwordOutward 2 роки тому

      Forsure man, I'm glad to see other people with these interests. Do you live in Mexico?

  • @andreaaa978
    @andreaaa978 3 роки тому +136

    My parents are from Yucatán, Mexico so i have grown up seeing the Mayan calendar but never actually understood how it worked. This is really impressive.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +3

      Thank you!

    • @JuanMartinez-mw5rc
      @JuanMartinez-mw5rc 3 роки тому

      Do you speak and understand spanish?

    • @slavenarkaimovski3897
      @slavenarkaimovski3897 2 роки тому +1

      Try using slavic aryan calendar,it have 9 months,365 days,and 7 days in week.For yours home project i recommend,that you take pensil,paper,and ruler,and make calendar with following pattern.Pattern of the days in months goes,41,40,41,40,41,40,41,40,41.Pattern of the days goes Monday to Sunday.And ending day in 9th month will be monday,and 1st day in first month of the second year will be tuesday.That means that with 365 days calendar,it will take 7 years to make full circle.The leap year just like daylight savings,is pointless fradulant creation,so stick with this calendar instede.

    • @HVLLOWS1999
      @HVLLOWS1999 Рік тому +1

      @@slavenarkaimovski3897
      The Slavic calendar is the Julian Calendar right, the one the Orthodox use rather than the Catholic Gregorian Calendar.
      Or is the calendar you are referring to pre-christian?

    • @malcomx-snowden-assange9673
      @malcomx-snowden-assange9673 4 місяці тому

      Listening to a European tell you about your culture on a UA-cam video is Not "Understanding", that's the opposite of research let alone Understanding.
      Listening to and ready to repeat Gossip is more like what you're doing.
      🇲🇽

  • @bluebird5173
    @bluebird5173 3 роки тому +110

    3:17 "Pretty simple, right? Not too difficult to learn!"
    If that was simple then I must be slow because I'm still trying to process it all.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +19

      You and me both.

    • @JuanRamirez-fx3tf
      @JuanRamirez-fx3tf 3 роки тому +11

      I got lost here. I am not a mathematician.

    • @boredcoke
      @boredcoke 3 роки тому +34

      I think I got it?! Basically multiply by x20 to jump numeral places instead of x10.
      So 1307 written in math for us is
      1’s place = 1x7 = 7
      10’s place = 10x0 = 0
      100’s place = 100x3 = 300
      1,000’s place = 1000x1 = 1000. Added up is 7+0+300+1000=1307
      For them it’s
      1’s place = 1x7 = 7
      20’s place (our 10’s) = 20x5 = 100
      400’s place (our 100’s) = 400x3 = 1200
      then added up, you get
      7+100+1200 = 1307
      Hopefully it makes sense. I’m no math teacher lol

    • @akatosh2795
      @akatosh2795 3 роки тому +6

      @@boredcoke This was so helpful!

    • @BanneroftheSun
      @BanneroftheSun Рік тому

      ..it does take take tedious and laborious work to make something simple though 😅

  • @wooddad100stuff
    @wooddad100stuff 2 роки тому +55

    Spent time in Guatemala in the highlands with the K'iche (or Quiche, as I knew them). The base-20 system was fun to learn, and the number 20 was called "juwinak," which was a contraction for "jun winak," or "one person." So the supposition that 20 was based on 10 fingers and 10 toes is not unreasonable.

  • @fmulder6564
    @fmulder6564 3 роки тому +70

    I feel like for base 20 counting system it's more likely they used both sides of their hands versus hands and feet. Count to ten with your palms up, them flip them over and keep going up to 20.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +21

      A very neat idea!

    • @freealter
      @freealter 3 роки тому +2

      Yeah definitely this

    • @johnyarbrough502
      @johnyarbrough502 3 роки тому +2

      I just always assumed it was because we have toes 😄

    • @jaybyday2381
      @jaybyday2381 3 роки тому +5

      Thats so obvious it Makes anthropologists look Silly.

    • @RufoTamales
      @RufoTamales 2 роки тому +3

      That is a very very interesting idea, specially when you think about the concept of Ometeotl and how this religion/spirituality was closely related with their math, by doing so (the flipping hands technique) you add color(palms and counter palms contrasting colours) as a category of sorts into counting/math! That's another linearly indepent variable of sorts! Me emociono mucho con descubrir la matematica "prehispánica" , saludos!

  • @selatoski
    @selatoski 3 роки тому +84

    As a lay student of Mesoamerican history, I really appreciate the information in your videos and how it is explained. I'm glad to have come across your channel and look forward to seeing more!

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +10

      Thank you! There will be more!

    • @tloquenahuaque3910
      @tloquenahuaque3910 3 роки тому +5

      I recommend you stop referring to mesoamerican history that is a Eurocetric term and offensive to our culture and history of Anahuac! It is known as ancient Anahuac. NOT MESOAMERICA

    • @BardChords
      @BardChords 3 роки тому +4

      @@tloquenahuaque3910 Hahahahaha, why are you writing in english? That's pretty anglo-centric of you.

    • @tloquenahuaque3910
      @tloquenahuaque3910 3 роки тому +1

      @@BardChords Titlahtoa nahuatlahtolli? Axqueniuhqui pitzo!

    • @BardChords
      @BardChords 2 роки тому +2

      @@tloquenahuaque3910 Que?

  • @HVLLOWS1999
    @HVLLOWS1999 Рік тому +104

    I can only imagine what was recorded in the Mayan books and codexes that Diego De Landa burned in the mid sixteen century. With as accurate as the Maya were with dates and how much they loved to write about themselves, they must have inscribed an amazing amount of information
    It’s no wonder De Landa wrote that while he burned the Mayan historical texts the native people wailed in agony over their books which made him curious. After all the Maya were kind of huge nerds.
    They were loosing their meticulous accounts of history and religion/mythology. So sad. De Landa I wish you were never born.

    • @boardcertifiable
      @boardcertifiable Рік тому

      I hope he's burning in the deepest, pustule filled pit of Xibalba and the Lords of Death send jaguars and caimen to chew on his roasted leg and arm stumps while he wails in agony, as his flesh blisters and festers and his eyes fall out.
      And yes, as a descendant of the Maya people and as a huge book nerd, I feel my ancestors pain and indignity. I thank this channel for doing its part to rectifying that great injustice.

    • @huascar66
      @huascar66 11 місяців тому +7

      A curse on Diego De Landa and the Catholic priests that labelled the Mayan books as "of the devil". A curse on them forever. What knowledge did we lose? The loss is unfathomable.

    • @theamazingfuzzlord
      @theamazingfuzzlord 8 місяців тому +2

      May he burn in Hell forever. Him and the rest of the colonizers

    • @MrDrProfessorPurple
      @MrDrProfessorPurple 8 місяців тому

      @@theamazingfuzzlord a damnation to hell is what got us in this mess in the first place, Don't be like the catholics of the past. Do better than those jabronis!

    • @malcomx-snowden-assange9673
      @malcomx-snowden-assange9673 4 місяці тому

      You are lost in Gossip my child.
      Highest achievement of our people were far removed from simple writings, written accounts is the weakest form of sharing information, they knew that you clearly don't.

  • @jdmccaffrey
    @jdmccaffrey 3 роки тому +30

    wow this calendar is actually really cool, love the cyclical nature of it versus our linear calendar

  • @Yeszur
    @Yeszur 2 роки тому +71

    The 20 days represent our fingers and toes and the 13 months represent our joints: ankles, knees, hips, wrist, elbow, shoulder, and neck. This represents the 260 day calendar. Xichen itza has 91 steps on each side with one platform on the top to make 365 steps. So much interesting and intelligent findings with the maya people!

    • @alangivre2474
      @alangivre2474 2 роки тому +3

      Wowwww. Thank you!!!!

    • @k_tess
      @k_tess 2 роки тому

      Um 91x4=364 where the fifth step?

    • @pachucotirili
      @pachucotirili 2 роки тому +8

      @@k_tess the platform on top

    • @NCRonrad
      @NCRonrad Рік тому

      @@pachucotirili 👏🏾

    • @Mockingbird_Taloa
      @Mockingbird_Taloa Рік тому +4

      It should be noted that terrapins (turtles) have 13 major plates on their shell--many (though not all) Indigenous nations of Turtle Island (north, south, and central) associate 13 months with at least one of their sacred cycles and relate that back to the landmass of N & S "America" being founded on Turtle's back.
      I'd never heard of the 13 month cycle being associated with 13 non-digit joints, but it does make sense. It's always nice when important numbers have multiple instances of being 'significant' throughout the created order!

  • @philipptomic6310
    @philipptomic6310 3 роки тому +74

    These dudes where really smart like holy moly ;-;

    • @HVLLOWS1999
      @HVLLOWS1999 3 роки тому +15

      It's all that good corn. Eat ur veggies kids

    • @sittingstill3578
      @sittingstill3578 2 роки тому +4

      There are bright people everywhere. It all depends on what are the problems a culture is facing as to where that intellect is applied. Then it is important that ideas or concepts are tools used by intellectuals to make abstractions and implications.

    • @fredriks5090
      @fredriks5090 2 роки тому +3

      @@sittingstill3578 Which is why "degeneration" through culture is a thing that should be taken seriously and not just brushed away as criticism of change.
      A wolf can turn into a Chihuahua if a stupid ape is allowed to breed it.

    • @bleachno9
      @bleachno9 2 роки тому +5

      @@fredriks5090 shut up fascist

    • @fredriks5090
      @fredriks5090 2 роки тому +1

      @@bleachno9 Go drink your mandated coolaid, your Tics are starting again.

  • @xyldkefyi
    @xyldkefyi 2 роки тому +10

    After this I'm both in awe of the mesoamerican calendar and thankful for the simplicity of the calendar I use.
    Although I guess if you dig deep into things like leap years or the julian/gregorian shift, that calendar can also get quite complicated.

  • @Lord1001
    @Lord1001 2 роки тому +11

    The Wayeb for Mayans or Nemontemi for Mexicas was not an unlucky time as the video suggests. According to the teacher Ocelocoatl Ramírez these were days of fasting, meditation, and self-care. Similar to how you take a car in to get a tune up, our bodies are also in need of some care. Other than that I appreciate learning about the count in English. Thanks

    • @twilight6779
      @twilight6779 9 місяців тому

      That explains Emmett Till July 25th💔

  • @daviddeltoro1808
    @daviddeltoro1808 3 роки тому +15

    There really needs to be a mobile app or a website with virtual Maya calendars that you can play around with like you did in the video. I'm legitimately stupid with numbers, but you made it a little easier to understand

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +7

      There are! I actually use one called Katun. It's free to download.

  • @partiellementecreme
    @partiellementecreme Рік тому +2

    There's a remarkable dearth of intelligent videos on UA-cam explaining the Mesoamerican calendar, and intelligent content about Mesoamerica more broadly. This is excellent.

  • @quitethesoph3558
    @quitethesoph3558 3 роки тому +1

    Found your channel by happy accident. Thank you for this wealth of information! You've definitely earned a new subscriber after watching three of your videos back to back. 👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

  • @johnyarbrough502
    @johnyarbrough502 3 роки тому

    Good summary. Impressed you provide a list of sources and credits.

  • @larrybrown1124
    @larrybrown1124 Рік тому

    WOW - I had heard bits and pieces about their calendars... but this really is impressive and amazing. Thank you for going through the details in this way! I really appreciate your methods of explanation and presentation - Keep up the Great Content!!

  • @debbralehrman5957
    @debbralehrman5957 2 роки тому +3

    I have to say both. Amazed at their calendar and glad I have the one I do.
    Thank you for going over this with us.
    Now I know I can count to Twenty. I think the most interesting part is that so many of shared the same basic calendar.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  2 роки тому +2

      People in Mesoamerica really liked their calendar.

  • @pentelegomenon1175
    @pentelegomenon1175 2 роки тому +6

    Random theory: if you make a lunar calendar where you only count 21 days after every full moon (for some reason), a year would be almost exactly 260 days (really 259.7333), so maybe they had a calendar like that once. I can't help but notice that 260 is almost exactly the amount of weekdays in a year, which makes me imagine a strange scenario where an ancient insane Meso-American dictator effectively bans their culture's equivalent of weekends.

    • @weepingbones_2
      @weepingbones_2 Рік тому

      From memory they did have a 260 day calendar for events or ceremonies but I could be wrong

  • @someguy8732
    @someguy8732 3 роки тому +3

    Good video, looking forward to the rest!

  • @urielantoniobarcelosavenda780
    @urielantoniobarcelosavenda780 2 роки тому +5

    Thanks for sharing this, Im mexican and really intersted in the ancient cultures, however, because education is mostly focus on the last 200 years, I really have only learned about it recently, half youtube and half from indigenous teachers that my mom knew

  • @howardstrauss5166
    @howardstrauss5166 3 роки тому +4

    Thank you my teacher

  • @BeyondEcstasy
    @BeyondEcstasy 3 роки тому +12

    The Aztec Sun Stone (the first image used in the video) is not a calendar although historically thought to be one. It's now believed to be a platform for gladiatorial combat.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +6

      Yes. I didn't fully understand that when I made the video. I'm learning more everyday.

    • @tloquenahuaque3910
      @tloquenahuaque3910 3 роки тому +3

      It's not the aztec either. It's the Anahuac sun stone! Made by the Anahuacas.

    • @diansc7322
      @diansc7322 Рік тому +2

      @@tloquenahuaque3910 but it was discovered in the Aztec templo mayor

    • @helmar_rudolph
      @helmar_rudolph 5 місяців тому

      ​@@tloquenahuaque3910 Annunaki? Just wondering...

  • @kalrandom7387
    @kalrandom7387 Рік тому

    I am both amazed and thankful

  • @luedog8385
    @luedog8385 6 місяців тому

    Thank you for these videos I recently found your Channel and I have a lot of videos to watch now😅

  • @lynnmitzy1643
    @lynnmitzy1643 3 роки тому

    I am really enjoying your videos, thank you.

  • @PaulRoberts61877
    @PaulRoberts61877 2 роки тому +2

    I have followed the haab for 12+ years and think you did a great job on the piece.

  • @Flurdaman
    @Flurdaman Місяць тому

    My search was “how do we reconcile ancient Mayan dates with modern dates” you nailed it! thank you for the awesome video.

  • @JCO2002
    @JCO2002 2 роки тому

    Both in awe and thankful.

  • @k-rloz2999
    @k-rloz2999 3 роки тому +5

    very helpful video, thanks

  • @stuarthdoblin
    @stuarthdoblin 3 роки тому

    Really wonderful! Quite the education, thank you for taking the time.

  • @JumpForMeBlue
    @JumpForMeBlue 3 роки тому +3

    Thank you I love these!

  • @Santu7220
    @Santu7220 10 місяців тому

    Great visualization. The specific day quality is intersting to feel.

  • @ulisesromo7347
    @ulisesromo7347 2 роки тому +1

    Thank you for your work on these peoples.

  • @jimmytovar2844
    @jimmytovar2844 2 роки тому

    Wow! Thank you for making this information accessible

  • @user-ye4dp9bp5y
    @user-ye4dp9bp5y 11 місяців тому

    Absolutely interesting how such calendars were created! Excellent program.

  • @believeinpeace
    @believeinpeace 6 місяців тому

    Absolutely fascinating. Thank you!

  • @ricardoarce1037
    @ricardoarce1037 3 роки тому +6

    Excellent video, really interesting

  • @8roomsofelixir
    @8roomsofelixir Рік тому +2

    The way the Sacred Calendar counts days looks quite similar to how the Chinese Sexagenary Cycle counts days. The Sexagenary Cycle employs a 10/12 combination of naming days (compared to Sacred Calendar's 13/20) which forms a 60-day cyrcle that intertwined with the normal 30-day months. It could also be used to name years as well, thus creates a 60-year cyrcle.

  • @jammrock9436
    @jammrock9436 2 роки тому

    That was amazing! Thank you so much

  • @pine1780
    @pine1780 3 роки тому +1

    I love this channel so much, please keep making more!!

  • @jaysonparkhurst7422
    @jaysonparkhurst7422 3 місяці тому

    This really opens my mind

  • @heven729
    @heven729 3 роки тому +1

    Thank you for this!

  • @pro5alfa0
    @pro5alfa0 4 роки тому +3

    Great stuff!

  • @ronydio9590
    @ronydio9590 3 роки тому +3

    Excellent video!

  • @andreaskallstrom9031
    @andreaskallstrom9031 Рік тому

    Super interesting, thank you!

  • @TimL1980
    @TimL1980 Рік тому +3

    Very interesting video and good explanation! It is easy to get lost with a language that doesn't resemble any of the ones one knows - and the crammed, stylized weird symbols don't help either, but you're doing a great job! (And honestly: a story about Kyle, Kevin, Ken and Kaleb get's confusing enough.... especially if it goes on for a hundred years and they all start naming their sons after their best buddies!

  • @mark2406
    @mark2406 2 роки тому

    Been watching all your vids, keep up the great work, it's hard to find alot of in depth content on ancient Americas, can't wait for your El Mirador vid to drop, any hints to what you are working on now?

  • @per4mexbagger541
    @per4mexbagger541 3 роки тому +4

    Outstanding

  • @aserher215
    @aserher215 2 роки тому

    I love your channel!

  • @Dreamspan
    @Dreamspan 6 місяців тому

    I have an assignment on this due in 2 days, this streamlined most of the important information into very a understandable video. thank you

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  6 місяців тому

      Happy to help! It's not an easy thing to understand on the first try.

  • @davidmontemayor4383
    @davidmontemayor4383 2 роки тому

    Amazing! Thank you so much!!!!

  • @jesserichards5582
    @jesserichards5582 Рік тому

    Very fascinating, I'm not one for math but this is a interesting topic to learn more & understand fully. Especially if it corresponds with our every day life cycle

  • @jonnygonzales3875
    @jonnygonzales3875 Рік тому

    Thank you so much for this great channel and information! My roots are Mexican and English though growing up in ENgland all my life I have longed to connect with my Mexican roots. This channel really deepens that connection so thank you!

  • @luyzqint3760
    @luyzqint3760 3 роки тому +1

    Just, wow!. Thanks for another great video.✌️

  • @danielmartinez5505
    @danielmartinez5505 Рік тому +1

    This is so cool. I would love to replicate something similar for my DnD homebrew setting

  • @markthomas8766
    @markthomas8766 8 місяців тому

    That was great. Enjoyed it immensely. The only other utube video I saw on the "Mayan" calender that really good was where it was proposed the reason for some of the longer cycles was related to multiples of the orbit lengths of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. This sort of gives the idea that the cyclic nature of our solar system effects the cyclic nature of life on earth and again promotes the idea that time is a cycle or orbital in nature, and not linear. I was trying to find that utube video when I came across yours! Many thanks.

  • @allones3078
    @allones3078 3 роки тому +3

    Great video

  • @samurachi420
    @samurachi420 Рік тому

    Love the channel. Would love to see a breakdown of yaqui

  • @igor-yp1xv
    @igor-yp1xv 3 роки тому +4

    This video is awesome.
    Lord Of The Night sounds like something from Game of Thrones.

  • @raider_reaper_4194
    @raider_reaper_4194 4 місяці тому

    This was freaking amazing

  • @amphibiousone7972
    @amphibiousone7972 2 роки тому

    Outstanding 💪 THANKS 🙏

  • @JoeKThePotter
    @JoeKThePotter 3 роки тому +1

    I was saving watching this episode until last, until I saw the others first. I was not disappointed. Thank you for the respect , sensitivity and attention to detail you give to these topics. It is heart warming. Thank you . 🙏🙏👏👏🤘🤘

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +1

      You're welcome! Thank you for your kind words.

  • @BeYeSeparate
    @BeYeSeparate 3 роки тому

    Very informative videos friend thank you! (btw, I would love to know what font that is, big fan.)

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +1

      Thank you! And to answer your question, the font is IM Fell.

  • @habitualforeigner
    @habitualforeigner 3 роки тому +6

    In several Mayan languages, the word for "twenty" is either the same as, or very similar to, the word for "man" or "person." In Guatemala there are some differences between language groups about when to observe the completion of the 260-count but, I believe, the names may have in some cases changed as Mayan languages diverged. Many communities have a "day counter" ( "aj q'ij") who keeps track of the names of the days, important for remembering auspicious days, etc. An anthropologist colleague of mine discovered that hand signs that women used to indicate the phase of the moon (when calculating gestation), matched hand signs in calendar inscriptions from the classical period that apparently denoted lunar phases. I hope you address in future videos something about Mesoamerican astronomy. Several classical Maya sites are oriented toward Venus and other heavenly bodies besides "just" the sun and moon.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +1

      That is really interesting! Yes, I do want to do an episode on Maya astronomy someday but that's a long ways in the future.

    • @JuanRodriguez-qk2eq
      @JuanRodriguez-qk2eq 2 роки тому +3

      In the Yaqui language (a Uto-Aztecan Native language from Sonora, Mexico) the word for 20 is the same as body. The number 5 is similar to hand, the number 10 is 2 hands, 15 is 10+5, and finally, 20 is a body. Then you go all the way counting 40 as 2 bodies, 60 as 3 bodies, until mixing Spanish numbers for larger amounts. I don't think in Northern Mexico there were calendars at all, but makes me wonder how extended is the vigesimal system and how many languages express this unit as a person, body or so. Within and outside of Mesoamerica.

  • @hallowacko
    @hallowacko 3 роки тому +11

    This and your Olmec video really drives home that, if we are going to refer to the myriad north-afro-euro-near-asian cultures that used the 7-day-week as a single "Western Civilization", then we must do the same with Meso-America (plus the north american and south american cultures influenced by them).
    Tin Foil Hat Time: were the Mississippians influenced by Meso-America? And do we know anything about their own calendar? I look at stuff from Cahokia on wikipedia, ,and it feels like theres a similar art style happening there to some Meso-American stuff.
    Love your channel, so glad I found it. Episode Request: Effigy Mounds? (I'm a Wisconsinite, so... a little selfish there :P)

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +8

      If you're from Wisconsin, you'll be very pleased with the next episode that's coming.

    • @hallowacko
      @hallowacko 3 роки тому +5

      @@AncientAmericas AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH EXCITED SCREAMS

    • @NCRonrad
      @NCRonrad 2 роки тому +2

      Jurucan - Hurucan; a shared deity between Maya, Atlantic islands, and tribes/nations of the Mississippi/florida

  • @simritnam612
    @simritnam612 Рік тому

    Amazing.
    Ty!

  • @vortiz3509
    @vortiz3509 3 роки тому +29

    Sir, the "calendar" graphic is not a calendar. It is thought by many that it is but it is not. It is an Aztec sun stone and it depicts the five consecutive worlds of the sun from Aztec cosmology. Please, do not confuse them.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +18

      You are 100% correct. I was ignorant at the time. That's my mistake.

  • @henrikkrusty8065
    @henrikkrusty8065 3 роки тому

    i hope this channel blows up

  • @joeygarza9550
    @joeygarza9550 10 місяців тому

    I remember there was a cool bar in the meatpacking district in NYC back in the 90s -- the 1990s -- called Baktun, and it was smooth, adobe, sandstone interior, almost similar in style to the Mos Eisley bar in SW, but it was definitely based on the Mayan calander, and the only cheap beer they sold, and only in cans, was Tecate -- no Bud, Coors, or Miller. It was definitely a scene! Alas, the bar, as well as the scene, ended up like the ancient Mayan civilization and it is long gone.

  • @epicweedskrrtswag7872
    @epicweedskrrtswag7872 Рік тому

    Didn’t really understand the calender, but love your enthusiasm

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  Рік тому +1

      It's ok. I didn't get it the first time around either and had to reread the same stuff over and over again to understand it. It's not easy.

  • @OmnipotentO
    @OmnipotentO Рік тому

    Mind blowing how clever they were

  • @lolaojeda1206
    @lolaojeda1206 Рік тому

    This is how my Grandfather 91.6%Mesoamerican Jose Lino Sandate Morales was named!! Born September 23, 1940!! Family from San Luis Potosi born Brewster TEXUS!!

  • @birgaripadam7112
    @birgaripadam7112 3 роки тому +1

    My god that was complex and I love it

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +1

      Thank you!

    • @birgaripadam7112
      @birgaripadam7112 3 роки тому

      @@AncientAmericas a was interested in pre-colonisation history af America and currently I loving it
      One can only wonder what would there civilization (if left alone) evolve to

  • @philipptomic6310
    @philipptomic6310 3 роки тому +11

    i think we dont know enugh of the history of the pre columbian Americas

  • @Ottmar555
    @Ottmar555 3 роки тому +11

    Cipactli is pronouned /sipaktli/. C in classical nahuatl is used the same way as in spanish, remember. /s/ before e and i and /k/ before a and o. Atlcahualo means "The water(s) leave".

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +1

      I wish I'd had your expertise a year ago. I don't speak nahuatl or spanish. Definitely good to know!

    • @gleann_cuilinn
      @gleann_cuilinn 3 роки тому +2

      The reason why the /s/ sound is spelled c/z in Nahuatl is kinda interesting.
      In late medieval Spanish, the letter was pronounced “retracted”, almost like “sh”, while and were pronounced like an “s” but with the very tip of the tongue on the teeth.
      Early Spanish colonists thought that the Nahuatl sound was more like their than their (at the time).
      Also, unlike in Modern Spanish, was pronounced like “sh” back then, so that was used to write the Nahuatl “sh” sound in words like xitomatl and nixtamalli.

    • @Ottmar555
      @Ottmar555 3 роки тому +1

      @@gleann_cuilinn I'd argue that the modern peninsular spanish still sounds quite like an "sh". The distiction between two "s" sounds is still retained in Euskera, their "s" is like the spanish sound and their "z" like english "s". Even the nahuatl speakers themselves thought the sounded like "sh", as they transcribed spanish loanwords with an , such as Xinola for Señora.

  • @nicktohzyu
    @nicktohzyu 3 роки тому +1

    could you please create a playlist with all your videos? because youtube "watch all" doesn't allow us to reverse it!

  • @anam2996
    @anam2996 Рік тому +1

    MUCHÍSIMAS GRACIAS! estoy haciendo mi tesis de licenciatura y ha sido muy difícil para mí entender las explicaciones sobre los calendarios en la bibliografía especializada, gracias por tan buena explicación! Saludos desde México!

  • @bumbleguppy
    @bumbleguppy 3 роки тому +8

    I bet your birthday translated to the long count would make a pretty strong password.

    • @habitualforeigner
      @habitualforeigner 3 роки тому

      Great idea, but the day name of my birth date is "skull/death" and I'm not very goth. LOL.

  • @TheSuzberry
    @TheSuzberry 3 роки тому +2

    Thankfully in awe.

  • @conradnelson5283
    @conradnelson5283 3 місяці тому

    Their calendar is pretty amazing. I’d never know what day it was. I just barely know as it is.

  • @greatskytrollantidrama4473
    @greatskytrollantidrama4473 3 роки тому +1

    Pretty sure I've binge watched everything.
    Thank you

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому +2

      Thanks! Better get some sleep so you can watch tomorrow's episode.

  • @salvadoralvarez1248
    @salvadoralvarez1248 2 роки тому

    Congratulation.
    Thank you for so interesting facts,about my mayan culture.

  • @harpman476
    @harpman476 7 місяців тому

    For context:
    18,890 days = 51 years and 9 months in the Gregorian calendar.
    7,200 days or one K’atun = 19 years 8 months and 3 weeks
    144,000 days or one B’aktun = 394 years 6 months and 1 week

  • @Ewilds
    @Ewilds 2 роки тому +1

    So the Calendar Round completes one cycle every 52 years, and this calendar is a combination of the 260 day calendar and the 365 day solar calendar. The Long Count Calendar counts the numbers of days but it does try to approximate a solar year because it multiples 20 days by 18, and not the normal 20, to get 360. (I assume the Maya wanted to avoid fractions and not multiply 20 by 18.2621 to get 365.242 days in a solar year). One Baktun is 144,000 days and one great cycle completes in 13 Baktuns, which is 1,872,000 million days. 1,872,000 days is about ~5125 solar years if you use 365.242 as the number of days in a solar year. But the Long Count uses a 360 day solar year. So if you divide 1,872,000 by 360 you get exactly 5200 solar years, again using 360 days as a year. The Calendar Round completes in 52 years, and Long Count in 5200 years. Is this a coincidence or is it by design?

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  2 роки тому +1

      Never noticed that. No clue if that's happy coincidence or not. Very interesting though!

    • @carlborg8023
      @carlborg8023 Рік тому +1

      52 and 5200 are base 10 numbers though. In base 20, 52 would be written 2(12) (the twelve in () is a single digit) whereas 5200 would be (13)00. So I think it mere coincidence. The way, and how tidily, numerals play together varies quite a bit by number base used, and base 10 is decidedly inferior to the likes of 6, 12, 16, 60... or so I've heard, I've only played with 12, 16 and 20 myself, and can say 12 and 16 are good 20 is nothing special, about the same as 10.

    • @Ewilds
      @Ewilds Рік тому +2

      @@carlborg8023 The Long Count isn't base 20, either, in the sense that a tun has 360 days (20*18). The Calendar Round completes after 52.00 years because that is how long it takes for the ritual calendar of 260 days and the civil calendar of 365.00 to repeat. 52 is 13*4. The Long Count is 13*400, starting with the base of 360.

  • @JamesFenczik
    @JamesFenczik 2 роки тому

    @13:20 did I understand correctly that they dated/anchored their Calendar to ~3500 bc (5000 yr ago) and they said that the previous world ended ~5000 yr before that? (14 baktun) for a total of ~10,000 years ago?

  • @exitolaboral
    @exitolaboral 2 роки тому

    Y like these calendars, after a while I get dizzy and do time travell !!

  • @darlenequezada908
    @darlenequezada908 Рік тому

    What is the calendar round date that follow 4 Ajaw 8 Kumku ?

  • @nhenhe2214
    @nhenhe2214 2 роки тому +1

    ¿DÓNDE ESTÁN LOS SUBTÍTULOS EN ESPAÑOL Y PORTUGUÉS?

  • @felipeandrusco6478
    @felipeandrusco6478 6 місяців тому

    just to add to the why of the 260 days of tzolkin, its 20*13, which are both sacred numbers to the mayas for a *number* of reasons

  • @jarkokuklovsky9239
    @jarkokuklovsky9239 22 години тому

    The vigesimal system is from galactic center of Jar/ Pot with 9 stars on the outside and 11 stars inside! Se Codex Mendoza, the galavtic center as WOMB!!!

  • @kovacskovacs3465
    @kovacskovacs3465 3 місяці тому

    *_Maybe_* the Mayan long calendar's cycle began in the year 3114 BC, because the Thuban star (which was the north star at the time) was at its discernibly and relatively closest point to true north in that year. Today we know that Thuban was at its absolute closest to true north in 2830 BC, when it was within ≈ 0.1667°; however, it remained within about 1° of this for almost 200 years following (≈ 2630 BC), and was within 5° from truth north for 900 years afterwards (≈ 1930 BC). A 1° change may not have been discernible to the naked eye, and thus may be indiscernible to the Mayans. Given that Thuban doesn't follow a perfectly circular path across the sky and is rather very slow in its change relative to true north, for 284 years before and nearly 200 years following Thuban's _actual_ closest proximity to true north, Thuban may have been calculated by the Mayans to be an unchanging north star for about 484 years starting in the year 3114 BC. That would imply that the Mayans' discernible accuracy limit would be within at least ±1° of a given celestial body to true north.
    For comparison, Polaris is about 0.7° off from true north today, and will reach its closest on 24 March 2100 when it'll be 0.4526° off. The Maya may have calculated that Polaris would reach its _discernibly_ closest proximity to true north on 21 December 2012, which we know today to be at 0.736° from true north. That's a deviation of 0.2834° in 88 years, or an ≈0.00322° average change per year. If the hypothesized discernible accuracy limit of < ±1° is correct with respect to a given north star, then we can refine the Maya's discernibility limit further with Polaris. For Thuban, it was only _assumed_ that beginning in the year 3114 BC, there was a 2° change that went unrecognized (1° before and after 1° its nearest point to true north). To the Maya, Polaris' peak proximity may have been calculated to be at 0.736° of true north, and they may believe that Polaris would remain that way for many decades following its actual peak in 2100. That gives us a discernibility limit of at least 0.5668° (2 x 0.2834°).
    This calculation could be done for each of the 12 north stars at the start and end of the Mayan long year. I haven't checked if all of those north stars align with the Mayan long calendar, or what the proximity of those north stars are at its nearest proximity to true north. But that would be prudent to check to validate this hypothesis. One may also have to consider if the Mayan calendar meshed together the duration of all 12 north stars across Earth's precessional cycle, in a way that made sense for the Maya's cultural purposes.

  • @Yentzie
    @Yentzie 2 роки тому

    9:53 where do you get that number? 52 years, excluding leap years, is 18,980 days so I wanted to check if it's a typo or I missed something

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  2 роки тому

      GAAAHHH!!! That's a typo. Totally dropped the ball on that one. 18,980 days is what it should be. You are correct.

    • @Yentzie
      @Yentzie 2 роки тому

      Ancient Americas, No worries you’re a history channel not a math one, still a wonderful video

    • @CultureTripGuide-HilmarHWerner
      @CultureTripGuide-HilmarHWerner 2 роки тому

      next big oddity (not to say blunder) - if i'm not wrong (i always hated math...): you say the maya said: 165 lunations = 4,400 days; then: 1 lunation = 29.53020 days. ok. but 165 times 29.53020 - according to my calculator - equals 4,872.483 days... so some explanation needed please - or deletion and a new fire ceremony for a new start (without the human sacrifice if you may)...

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  2 роки тому

      @@CultureTripGuide-HilmarHWerner ugh, I'm gonna have to check my sources and confirm. I didn't do any of the math myself and just uses what was in the books.

  • @DocZom
    @DocZom 3 роки тому

    I think I will have to watch this twenty times before I understand it all.

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  3 роки тому

      Believe me, it took me many tries to grasp this.

  • @NicholasHara
    @NicholasHara Рік тому

    Quick question, how did the meso American calendar handle the slow drift of the calendar without leap years?

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  Рік тому +1

      Good question. They didn't adjust for it using the sacred calendar although they knew perfectly well that a solar year was slightly more than 365 days. (For that reason, the ha'ab cycle is often called the vague year.) However, using the long count, they could account for it there.

  • @anthonylezama1645
    @anthonylezama1645 3 роки тому

    4:13 and that tradition continues to this day! Although the days pertain to specific saints, it can be yet another way these people kept their customs alive

    • @priscilajaneth4695
      @priscilajaneth4695 3 роки тому +1

      That and christianity appropriating "pagan" traditions.

  • @michaelanthony4750
    @michaelanthony4750 4 роки тому +3

    This will be the first youtube video to win an Oscar.

  • @reginajohnson188
    @reginajohnson188 3 місяці тому +1

    I actually have a app and I put together my own Mayan calendar 📆 🎉🎉 that is because the Mayan calendar was not meant to be a doomsday calendar 📆 it only marks the end of a cycle and starts anew cycle ❤❤

  • @GMnoMon
    @GMnoMon Рік тому +2

    That lunation calculation does not maths. My calculator says 4400 days is 149 lunations. That might look like crazy talk, but if You've watched 'till the end it should make sens

    • @AncientAmericas
      @AncientAmericas  Рік тому

      It's ok, I didn't get it the first time either.

    • @a-world-view
      @a-world-view Місяць тому

      @@AncientAmericas sorry, but 4400:165=26.666. So how did this number come about?