Jan
15
Is there any connection between the Mayan Calendar and Astronomy?
Like did the Mayans create their calendar based on astronomical findings or anything of that sort?
Answer by Anthony VanDeLinder
the mayans looked up in space all the time
the calender is based off where certain stars were at certain times.
they found seasons, years, and days of the stars
Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!
Actually the Mayans had more than a single calendar, but all of them were based on astronomy *and* superstition and myths.
The planet Venus is important to there calendar.
The Mayan Long Count is more based on the number of fingers and toes we have than anything astronomical.
The base unit is the Winal of 20 days.
Then there is the Tun of 18 Winals or 360 days, so roughly a year.
Then we have the Katun of 20 Tuns or 7,200 days and the Baktun of 20 Katuns or 144,000 days, which is 394 years. Baktun 13 ends on 21st December 2012.
So nothing astronomical, just nice round numbers. The start date was a suitable date far back in time before their civilisation when two particular dates in their other calendars coincided, so that wasn’t based on any particular event either.