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The Mayan Calendar, Solar - Agricultural Year, and Correlation Questions

Assertion 1

Assertion 1: that 1 Poop fell on the 16th of July, Julian calendar.

The text called U Kinil Uinaloob 7  is a list of the uinals or 20-day months in the year. There are six sources from which the composite edited version given below is derived: the Códice Pérez, Na, and Kaua sources, which in almost all essentials are the same, and the Tizimin, the Ixil, and the Chumayel sources. While these last three sources are each distinct in their presentations of this material from the first three, all with the exception of the Ixil, which gives no christian dates at all, agree with each other and with Landa on when each of the uinals should begin according to the Julian calendar.

U Kinil Uinaloob

 
U yax chun licil u naatabal u kinil uinaloob
cu cultal ichil u xoc kinoob ichil u tuliz haab.
Hun hunkal kin u cuch hunppel :U:.
He u tzolaanoob cabal lae: 8 
 
Poop 16 julio oc nal kin 9 
Uoo 5 agosto oc nal kin
Zip 25 agosto yoc buul10
Zodz 14 septiembre     
Zec 4 octubre  
Xul 24 octubre licil u yalancal cayi11
Dze Yax Kin 13 nobiembre ti cu uadzal nali12
Mol 3 diziembre  
Cħeen 23 diziembre  
Yax 12 enero u kin hoch utz13
Zac 1 febrero licil u lolancal zacoob14
Ceh 21 febrero  
Mac 13 marzo licil u yalancal aci15
Kan Kin 2 abril  
Muan 22 abril licil u mumtal u nak u caanil kini16
Paax 12 mayo oc nal kin
Kayab 1 junio oc nal kin, yoc chicam17
Cum Ku 21 junio  
U Uayab Haab    11 julio ca tun culac hoppel cħic haban kin,
   ixma kaba kin, u tich kin18

There are three points which emerge from this list which concern the Colonial Yucatecan Mayan view of how the Mayan calendar worked: 1) that 1 Poop falls on July 16th, 2) that several month names are descriptive of the uinal which they name, and 3) that certain agricultural and natural events occur in specific uinals. These points are supported throughout the colonial literature. The implication of these points is that the Maya had some method of intercalating for the solar year. Unfortunately, in all the material presented in the Books of Chilam Balam and in all the other source material for Yucatecan Mayan Colonial literature there is not one clear reference to a leap year system, although such terms as ixma kaba kin, lamay tun, and mol box katun are imperfectly understood and may hold the key to how and when leap years were accomplished, if in fact they were. In particular, in the calendar discussions given in U Uichoob u Uoohil u Zanzamal Kin Xocoob19  and Zac Patay Haabil20  there are discussions of how the calendar worked, but no definite discussion of a leap year system is to be found.

Before considering how and when the intercalating day was added, let us consider why such an event must have occurred based on the evidence given by these three points.

The first point is that 1 Poop falls on the 16th of July in the Julian calendar. Rarely is a date given throughout the Yucatecan Mayan literature in which this point is not substantiated, even in texts in which the primary purpose is not related to working with calendrical material. For example, at the end of the text called the Cuceb21  there is the statement lay tun u kinil tu bulucte Chuen, tu holahunpiz kin febrero 1544 haab (thus then on the day 11 Chuen, on the 15th day of February in the year 1544). Two lines above the day is given in relationship to the uinal date: tu uaxaclahunte Zac ti bulucte Chuen (on the 18th of Zac on 11 Chuen). Given the intercalating mechanism alluded to by Solís Alcalá on pages 365-366 of his edition of the Códice Pérez, and which will be discussed below,22  this would be the correct correlation of the Christian and Mayan dates.

The second point is that certain uinal names are related to the solar - agricultural year. Thompson in Maya Hieroglyphic Writing23  gives an extensive review of the names of the uinals in the various Mayan languages and their meanings. Concerning the Yucatecan names and their relation to the calendar let me review the ones which are pertinent to the question of whether or not the Mayan calendar and the solar - agricultural year were interrelated.

Uoo means "frog", and from evidence of usage today in particular means bull frog. The Motul Mayan-Spanish dictionary is not very precise in this case: "Uo: unas ranas de mucho unto y manteca, buenas de comer." Today the animal is called uoo much or becerro much, and it becomes common and vocally active in the henequen fields during the month of August.

Xul means "end"; the end of the rainy season is in October.

Dze Yax Kin, or at times Yax Kin: yax kin is the term used today for "dry season". Dzedz means "little". When a noun is commonly combined with dzedz the second dz is frequently dropped.24  Dze Yax Kin literally translated would be "little dry season". November is the beginning of the dry season. Incidentally, the hieroglyphic representation of this month has always been yax-kin or in some instances yax-kin-il, without an indication that there should be the syllable dze. In any case, at the time the Motul Mayan-Spanish dictionary was written, that is about 1580-1620, the term yax kin had much the same meaning as it does today: "Yax kin: el estio y otoño desta tierra en que no llueve y se secan y agostan los campos; tiempo de seca." It seems reasonable to assume that the term yax kin = "dry season" is of long standing and extends back into the pre-Columbian era. Furthermore, the uinal Yax Kin, or variants thereof, and the meaning of yax kin = "dry season" is to be found in several other Mayan languages.25  This wide acceptance of the term yax kin in the month of November fits the weather for that month throughout the Mayan area.

Mol means "gather", and December is the time when the corn harvest gets underway.

Ceh means "deer". Because of a lull in the slash and burn process, namely during the time that the newly cut forest is drying out so that it burns well, there is time for alternative activities. Today during the month of March one of the various alternative activities is deer hunting. Aside from the increased amount of time which can be allotted to this alternative activity, it should be noted that deer hunting is made easier at this time of the year because most of the deciduous trees have lost their leaves, thus giving the hunters a better view of what is in the forest.

Kan Kin means "yellow day" or "yellow sun". April is the time for burning the slash in the gardens plots in preparation for the new planting season. During April the sky turns orange from the smoke and everything one looks at has an orangish tinge. Some examples of the hieroglyph for this month are significant in this case. These show what looks like a leafless tree, sometimes with the sun in the branches. The trees at this time of year are in fact generally leafless because of the drought. The sun which is represented in the hieroglyph is cross-hatched, and conveys the feeling one gets about the sun at this time of the year, since it is somewhat obscured by the smoke. Incidentally, the implication of this hieroglyphic representation is of course that even during the classic period the Yucatecan Mayan calendar was tied to the solar - agricultural year.

Muan, often spelled Moan, is by all accounts a bird which announces the beginning of the rainy season. There is some confusion as to what this bird actually is. Thompson (1960, 1972) and Barrera (1980) list the bird as being an owl, in particular the Yucatecan screech owl (Otus choliba thompsoni). Some people though have considered that some of the hieroglyphic representations of Muan is not owl-like, and that the bird being represented is of the macaw or parrot family. The word moo is the Mayan word for "macaw", and there may be a relationship between the words moo and Muan / Moan. In Quintana Roo, where there are a considerable number of parrots, when a rain shower begins these birds do make a lot of noise. In any case, whether the Muan is in fact an owl or a parrot, it seems that the function of the bird in part is to announce rain. In this context, since late April or early May is when the rainy season begins, the uinal Muan is properly placed as the uinal which announces the coming of rain.

Cum Ku, or occasionally Hum Ku: the derivation of this name is unclear, although in this context Ku means "god". However, Cum Ku / Hum Ku could be parallel to the name of the lord of the underworld, Hum Ahau / Cum Ahau, in which hum / cum means a loud noise and Ahau means lord, ruler. U hum chac, literally "the noise of the rain god Chac", means thunder. If Cum Ku / Hum Ku is parallel in meaning to Hum Ahau / Cum Ahau and u hum chac, then Cum Ku / Hum Ku would also mean "the noise of god", and by extension thunder. June and July are the months when thunder is most frequent.

Aside from the meaning of specific uinal names cited above, in the Motul Mayan-Spanish dictionary there are two entries which specify the time in which a milpa is planted. These entries are Macil te and Poopil te. In both instances, the time is specified by giving the uinal name in which the planting occurs.

Macil te: On page 283r of the Motul Mayan-Spanish dictionary there is this entry: "Macil te: milpa temprana, que siembran en el mes de março llamado Mac." The fact that the early planting of a milpa is tied by name to the month in which it is planted would seem to indicate that this month comes at a specific time of the year, and is not a movable event. Note that the dictionary specifies that Mac is in the month of March, which is in line with the colonial calendar.

Poopil te: On page 381r of the Motul Mayan-Spanish dictionary there is this entry: "Poopil te: milpa tardia que se siembra despues de sanct Juan en el mes llamado Poop. ¶ In poopil te lo: esta milpa mia es tardia." As noted above for Macil te, the fact that the late planting of a milpa is tied by name to the month in which it is planted would seem to indicate that this month comes at a specific time of the year, and is not a movable event. Note that the dictionary specifies that Poop comes after the feast day of Saint John (June 24), which is in line with the colonial calendar.

Because the above uinal names, or in these last two instances activities which carry the names of these uinals, are linked to the solar - agricultural year, it would seem difficult to imagine that the uinals wandered throughout the solar year for lack of some intercalary system to keep them synchronized with the seasons and seasonal activities which are related to their names. Further, it would seem quite coincidental that the European calendar should be introduced into Yucatan and fix the Mayan calendar at a time when the uinals happened to be in the position to correspond with their namesakes. From the foregoing it would seem that contrary to the common belief of Mayan scholars, based on the meanings of the uinal names the uinals should be tied to the solar - agricultural year.

The third point raised in U Kinil Uinaloob is that certain corn planting dates and other corn farming activities, and also certain natural events are linked with certain uinals. Corn planting dates (oc nal kin) among some of the present day Maya vary widely and depend in part upon the variety of corn being planted. The length of growing season for different varieties of corn varies considerably. Some varieties require one and a half months to reach maturity (nal thel), others two months (x-mehen nal), and still others as long as four to five months (x-nuc nal). The Mayan farmers with whom I have talked on the subject of variety selection say that ideally the corn should be fully developed when the rainy season stops. Earlier ripening in constant rain results in moldy corn, and ripening after the rain has stopped yields drought stricken corn. The good farmer, they say, will recognize the type of weather the growing season will bring through the use of a U Xoc Kin.26  He will plant the appropriate varieties to take advantage of the predicted weather. The planting dates in U Kinil Uinaloob, while not specific about the varieties of corn to be planted, do fall when the planting is being done. These planting notes are supplied by three of the six sources: Códice Pérez, Kaua, and Na. The Chumayel, which is different from the other sources in its presentation of the material on the uinals, has among other notes these two notes: "dzeyaxkin = 13 Nobe = ti cu uadzal nali" (Dze Yax Kin, 13th of November, this is when the corn is bent) and "yaax = 12:hemero u kin hoch utz" (Yax, 12th of January, a good time for harvest). The bending of the corn stalks is still an important part of corn growing in Yucatan, and takes place as the corn dries, usually in October or November. The harvest begins any time after the corn dries, which may be any time after November. However, recently a friend of ours in Piste mentioned that he usually starts to harvest in earnest on January 12th, which matches the note in Chumayel. How it is that he chooses this date is something which we have not been able to determine.

Again, just as above where a floating calendar would render the uinal names useless, so too would a floating calendar render these agricultural notes useless. The implication again is that the Maya had some way of intercalating.

As was noted in the opening paragraph of this paper, it is generally assumed by Mayanists that there was no system for intercalating days. However, in the colonial sources written by Spanish friars, one from Yucatan and the others from the Mexican highlands, state that a leap year system did exist. Relating to the Yucatecan Mayan calendar, Landa, not necessarily an impeccable source,27  states that the Maya added a day every four years, although he does not write exactly how this was done: "Otra manera de meses tenían de a 20 días, a los cuales llaman Uinal Hunekeh;28  de éstos tenía el año entero 18, más los cinco días y seis horas. De estas seis horas se hacía cada cuatro años un día, y así tenían de cuatro en cuatro años el año de 366 días."29

Both Sahagún and Durán, in writing about the Aztec calendar, a system which while not exactly the same as the Mayan calendar is parallel in most aspects, corroborate Landa’s statement. Sahagún has this to say about the extra days at the end of the year following the 360 days of the regular year (i.e. 18 months of 20 days each): "The five remaining days of the year, which are the four last of January and the first of February, they named Nemontemi, which meaneth barren days. And they regarded them as unlucky and of evil fortune. There is conjecture that when they pierced the boys’ and girls’ ears, which was every four years, they set aside six days of Nemontemi, and it is the same as the bissextile which we observe every four years."30  Durán agrees that a day was added every four years, and gives the following rather vague description of the leap year mechanism: "These people observed the leap year much as we do. If we look closely at the illustration (for the month Izcalli), we shall see that the dominical symbol is on top of a small hill, thus beginning the new month. Even though the last day fell under the sign of Flower, this other sign was added in order to pass from Flower to Head of Serpent. It is similar to the way in which we change the a to g in our leap year."31

Diego Muñoz Camargo, who wrote a description of Tlaxcala in the 1580’s, gives a similar explanation of the leap year system.32

In a more recent description of the Mayan calendar as used by the Tzeltals during the 1930’s and 1940’s, Villa Rojas has this to say about the leap year: "Por lo que respecta al día que se intercala en los años bisiestos, es cosa que ninguno de mis informantes ya citados pudo explicar; parece probable que no existan años bisiestos en este calendario y que el día que corresponde a ellos se pase sin contar, logrando asi que no se altere la equivalencia con ciertas fechas catolicas en las que se efectuan las fiestas de los santos patronos de cada municipio."33


Endnotes

  1. Lines A030-054.
  1. Translation: To start with it is to be understood on which days the uinals / are seated in the count of the days during the whole year. / Twenty days is the burden of one month. / They are given here below:
  1. Oc nal kin = corn planting time, from oc = to plant, nal = corn, and kin = time. This is not to be confused with ocnal kin. (Motul Mayan-Spanish dictionary, page 342v: Ocnal kin: a puestas del sol.)
  1. Yoc buul = plant beans.
  1. Licil u yalancal cayi = fish spawn.
  1. Ti cu uadzal nali = corn plants are bent over.
  1. U kin hoch utz = good time to harvest.
  1. Licil u lolancal zacoob = white (plumeria flowers) blossom.
  1. Licil u yalancal aci = turtles give birth.
  1. Licil u mumtal u nak u caanil kini = there is a halo around the noonday sun. As pointed out the in Motul Mayan-Spanish dictionary, p. 313r, this is a sign of approaching rain.
  1. Yoc chicam = plant jicama.
  1. Ca tun culac hoppel cħic haban kin, ixma kaba kin, u tich kin = Then are seated five cħic haban kin, nameless days, the extra days. The meaning of cħic haban kin is unclear: perhaps u cħic haban kin, from which Roys gets a meaning "Festival of the Pisote and branches." (Tozzer, 1978, p. 157, note 802) or u cħicahaan kin, which would be "impaled days", is meant. However, if this name is related to the fiesta Chic Kaban which Landa placed in the last five days of Xul, then either Landa has misplaced this fiesta or the scribes who placed cħic haban kin with ixma kaba kin / u uayab haab are mistaken.
  1. Lines A320-428.
  1. Lines A600-650. See Appendix 1 for a transcript and translation of lines A600-614 of this text.
  1. Line C568.
  1. See the discussion entitled "An Apparent Contradiction: July 16th Julian does not always fall on a recognized Ah Cuch Haab."
  1. Thompson, 1960, pages 107-119.
  1. Some examples: dze na gives "little mother", meaning "aunt", and dze yum gives "little father", meaning "uncle".
  1. Thompson, 1960, pp. 106, 110.
  1. "Count of the days", a tabulation of cloud formations during the month of January with the first 12 days being the months counted forwards, the second 12 days being the months counted backwards, the next 6 days being the months counted forwards every half day, and the last day of January being the months counted forwards for each hour from 6 a.m. through 6 p.m. This U Xoc Kin is not to be confused with the pre-Columbian U Xoc Kin or calendar round of 260 days, often called by Mayanist U Tzol Kin.
  1. Coe, 1980, page 21, not withstanding.
  1. Probably U Kinil Uinaloob is meant here. Landa is not very precise about the spelling of Mayan words and in fact is frequently quite far off the mark.
  1. Landa, 1966, page 61.
  1. Anderson and Dibble, 1981, Book 2, page 35. See also Book 4, page 144: They observed another feast every four years, in honor of the fire [god], during which they pierced the ears of all the boys and girls; and they called it Pillauanaliztli. And during this feast it is likely, and there are conjectures, that they held their leapyear, reckoning six [days] of Nemontemi.
  1. Durán, 1971, page 471-472.
  1. Muñoz Camargo, pp. 170v-171r: Del Bisiesto. Para que este calendario no caresca de bisiesto, como no es razon, ase de notar que siempre sera bisiesto en el año Tecpatl Xihuitl, de quatro en quatro años, y no en otra de las quatro figuras, pues los años de Tecpatl Xihuitl, son bisiestos en esta man[er]a: El año de 1552 fue Ocho Tecpatl Xihuitl, y fue bisiesto el primer dia de aquel año, y fue Tepatl Xihuitl, que fue a 24 de Feb[e]ro que es ansi mismo çinquenta y çinco <171r> dias del año que fue á 15 de su terçero mes sobre la figura Malinalli, y ansi siempre sera en este dia de Malinalli bisiesto. Exempli gratia: el año de 1552 fue su año de Ocho Tecpatl Xihuitl, fue bisiesto aquel año á los 15 dias del terçero mes sobre la figura Diez Malinalli que cayo á 24 de Febr[er]o, y sobre esta figura se haran dos Dies diziendo oy Diez Malinalli, mañana Diez Malinalli, y luego proceder el dia sig[uent]e Onze Malinalli. El año de 1560 fue el primer dia del año Doze Tecpatl Xihuitl, fue el bisiesto a los 15 dias de su terçero mes, y ansi de todos los otros años sobre la misma figura Malinalli, Çe Malinalli, que es el quinzentro dia del terçero mes, y ansi de todo los otros años de bisiesto yran por esta forma regulado…
  1. Villa Rojas, 1990, 756.

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