[Aztlan] 13 Baktun or 20 Baktun.

[John Major Jenkins]

Hello Baert Georges,

Instead of applying pure mathematics to the Long Count calendar, which
often results in inaccurate abstractions, one should acknowledge that
the Long Count is an expression of a World Age doctrine that finds
mythological expression in the Maya Creation Mythology (the Popol Vuh).
In addition, general principles derived from seemingly obvious
mathematical deductions don't necessarily reflect how the Maya
themselves utilized their Long Count system. For example, a hypothetical
20-baktun cycle does not reflect the evidence found on carved Creation
monuments that indicate quite clearly that a cycle of 13 baktuns was a
World Age. Thus, though the Long Count can technically be extrapolated
forever into longer periods, in practical terms the system was harnessed
to a World Age doctrine in a Creation Mythology (expressed secondarily
via ballgame symbolism). We can access information from these other
areas of Maya symbolism to understand how we should think about the Long
Count (if we want our thoughts to reflect the original Maya concept).  

The idea that 26,000 tuns may have been an important cycle in the Maya
World Age doctrine is not so much an invention of modern scholars, but a
possible inference based on the general Mesoamerican doctrine of 5 World
Ages, each of which (in Maya calendrics) consists of 13 baktuns. See
also my essay:
http://www.alignment2012.com/app5.htm

Best wishes,
John Major Jenkins

"...the great year of equinoctial precession emerges as a missing link
between the local political chronology of our era and the vast
evolutionary philosophy of time so vividly testified to in the Popol
Vuh." - Gordon Brotherston.

 

-----Original Message-----
From: aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org
[mailto:aztlan-bounces at lists.famsi.org] On Behalf Of
lahunik.62 at skynet.be
Sent: Saturday, February 10, 2007 7:26 AM
To: Aztlan
Subject: [Aztlan] 13 Baktun or 20 Baktun.

One says that the counting began on 11 August 3114 BC, 

if one use the JDN 584283.

In fact this was the beginning of a cycle of 5200 tun, or 13 Baktun.

The first day began with the LC 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 8 Kumku.

In 2012 AD this cycle will end on the 20 December, 

with the LC of 12.19.19.17.19 3 Cauac 2 Kankin.

The next day a new cycle of 5200 tun will begun, 

with the LC of 13.0.0.0.0 4 Ahau 3 Kankin.

In fact there is no 0.0.0.0.0 date as I often stumble across in many
Maya-literatures.

In fact it is an endless counting with no beginning and no end.

Was this really the way the Maya count the days?

For the longer count of a Baktun, didn't they use a Pictun (of
400X20=8000
tun),

a Calabtun (8000X20=160000 tun) and even a Alautun of 64 million ears?

But if they really used a Pictun, than you don't have to stop on the
13th
Baktun, 

but on the 20th Baktun.

Than cycles must not be organized in groups of 5200 tun, but in cycles
of
8000 tun.

Than great cycles of 26000 tun is an invention of modern Mayanists?

 

Lahun Ik 62

Baert Georges

Flanders Fields

 

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