The Maya Calendar — Tracking the Cosmos

The Maya did not have one calendar. They had three, running simultaneously — the 260-day Tzolkin sacred calendar, the 365-day Haab solar calendar, and the Long Count, which tracked time in cycles of millions of years. The intersection of all three calendars produced a date that repeated only once every 52 years — the Calendar Round — and the intersection of the Calendar Round with the Long Count produced dates so large they encompassed the entire estimated lifespan of the universe. The Maya did not fear the end of the world. They were tracking a cycle that had always continued before.

These signs carry the Tzolkin glyphs, the Long Count inscription, and the mathematical genius of the civilization that understood time better than any other.