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

Assertion 2

Assertion 2: that the Ahau Katun consists of a cycle of 24 years, and thus that the complete cycle of 13 Ahau Katunoob is 312 years.

The Yucatecan Mayan scribes are very insistent that the major calendrical cycle which they used, the U Uudz Katunoob, is composed of 13 Ahau Katunoob of 24 years each, making a complete cycle of 312 years. As the calendrical discussion given in the Zac Patay Haabil notes, Hun hunkal haab u cuchoob hun huntul Ahau Katun, he tun canppel ixma kaba haaboob. ("Twenty years is the burden of one Ahau Katun, but then (there are) four nameless years.")⁴⁷  Notice that the scribe is talking about a haab which is the 365 day year versus tun which is at times, but certainly by no means always, taken to mean a period of 360 days. Given that the scribes of the colonial texts used the term katun rather indiscriminately to talk about any cycle, as for example the 52 year cycle called U Bubukil Haaboob,⁴⁸  it is entirely possible that the Ahau Katun of 24 years talked about by the Mayan scribes of the colonial period is quite distinct from the katun of 20 tuns (i.e. 360 days times 20) which pertains to the long count.

The following table⁴⁹  is the basis for how the colonial scribes correlated Mayan and christian dates:

The colonial scribes were very consistent in using this scheme of correlation, even in instances where the Christian and Mayan dating systems are given in an off-handed way in relationship to one another. An example of this is from the section named Zuyua Than yetel Naat, called "The Interrogation of the Chiefs" by Roys in his translation of the Chumayel.⁵⁰  According to the Tuz Ik version of this text, this interrogation occurred on September 4, 1628,⁵¹  which according to both the Tuz Ik and Chumayel texts is three years before the end of 3 Ahau Katun.⁵²  This correlation between the Mayan and Christian calendars is in keeping with the calendar correlations generally presented throughout the Yucatecan Mayan Colonial manuscripts. Another example of this cross-correlation is given in the Chumayel in reference to the landing of Cortés at Cozumel: tu uucpis tun Buluc ahau u katunil tiix hoppi xpnoil lae, tu habil quinientos dies y nuebe años Do 1519 as.:⁵³  "It was in the seventh tun of Katun 11 Ahau that Christianity then began; it was in the year A.D. 1519."⁵⁴

Endnotes

47. Lines A607-608. See Appendix 1 for lines A601-A614 in which this statement is incorporated.

48. Appendix 3, lines A440-A480. See in particular line A480.

49. Lines A730-A755.

50. Roys, 1967, page 88.

51. Line I002. See Appendix 2 for the complete introductory text in which these statements are made.

52. Lines I020-I023.

53. Lines G292-G293.

54. Roys, 1967, page 143.

Previous Page  |  Table of Contents  |  Next Page

Return to top of page