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Long Count Calendar

The Maya people used many calendars, each for a specific purpose. The one known as the Long Count is much like a car odometer. An odometer counts how many miles a car has been driven since it left the assembly line. The Long Count totals how many days have elapsed since the beginning of creation (which the Maya believe occurred in 3114 BC). An odometer reads 0–9 on each dial; the Long Count uses 0–19, since the Maya use a vigesimal (base-20) counting system, rather than our decimal (base-10) system.

In classical dot-and-bar notation, a Long Count date is written vertically and read from the top down. In modern notation, it’s written from left to right with a dot between each segment.

Just like on an odometer, each segment of a Long Count date has a different value according to where it is placed. If a car odometer reads 123,679, we know that means:

123,679 = (1x100,000) + (2x10,000) +(3x1,000) + (6x100) + (7x10) + (9x1).

The Long Count Calendar sections, from top to bottom, or left to right, have the following designations and counts:

• Baktuns equal 144,000 days (20 katuns) and are counted from 0 to 19.
• Katuns equal 7,200 days (20 tuns) and are counted from 0 to 19.
• Tuns equal 360 days (18 uinals) and are counted from 0 to 17 (to approximate a year).
• Uinals equal 20 days (20 kins) and are counted from 0 to 19.
• Kins equal 1 day and are counted from 0 to 19.

The date above represents 13.0.5.1.17; 1 January 2019.

See also: Long Count Calendar Math, Calendar Correlation, New Fire vs Long Count Calendar