Researchers Find Oldest Examples of Mayan Time-Keeping System
2022-04-21
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1Scientists in Guatemala believe they have found the earliest example of the Mayan calendar inside the remains of an ancient building.
2The archeologists found pictures, called glyphs, from a Mayan pyramid.
3The glyph represents the day called "7 deer."
4It is one of 260 days with special names in the Mayan calendar.
5The researchers believe the glyph is over 2,200 years old.
6It shows the Mayan writing for the number seven above a picture of an animal called a deer.
7The picture came from a wall painting inside the pyramid known as Las Pinturas.
8It is in San Bartolo, an ancient Mayan place that became famous in 2001 when archaeologists found a buried room that contained colorful wall paintings, or murals.
9Those murals are thought to be about 2,100 years old.
10They show images of ceremonies and the ancient stories of the Mayan people.
11The deer glyph came from the same Las Pinturas pyramid. But it is older.
12Researchers believe the Mayans built smaller religious structures and then built the pyramids on top of them.
13David Stuart is a professor of Central American art and writing from the University of Texas.
14He wrote about the discovery in the publication Science Advances.
15He said the pieces from the mural fit in your hand, but they were once attached to a stone wall.
16He said the wall was torn down when the ancient workers were building the newer space that became the pyramid.
17He said the paintings from the older period are all broken up, unlike the newer murals found in 2001.
18Until the discovery, the oldest known example of the Mayan calendar came from about 2,100 years ago.
19The calendar is thought to be one of the top achievements of Mayan culture.
20It followed the movement of the sun, moon and planets and was based on a 260-day cycle.
21The Mayans also counted time based on the sun and considered one year to be 365 days.
22There was also a system based on the moon.
23The Mayans had a system of 800 glyphs.
24The earliest examples come from San Bartolo in the forest of northern Guatemala.
25The place was important to early Mayan society for over 600 years, until about 1,800 years ago.
26About 7,000 mural pieces have been found at San Bartolo.
27Some are as small as a fingernail, and others are over 400 square centimeters.
28Heather Hurst of Skidmore College in New York state is a co-writer of the study.
29She called the pieces a "giant jigsaw puzzle."
30The notation of "7 deer" and other calendar glyphs are shown on 11 mural pieces from San Bartolo.
31Researchers say that means the calendar was in use for a long time before the murals were built.
32As a result, Hurst believes older examples of glyphs from the calendar might be found in other places.
33Hurst said the culture's "well-established tradition of writing and art" shown on the mural pieces was "impressive."
34Some Mayan communities still use the ancient calendar.
35Stuart said the calendar has been used for at least 2,200 years, even during times of "incredible change, stress and tragedy."
36I'm Dan Friedell.