Calendar round
The calendar round is an element of the Mesoamerican calendar , especially known in the Aztec calendar and Mayan calendar . It is created by combining the 260-day ritual calendar ( Aztec Tonalpohualli and Tzolkin of the Maya) with the 365-day common year (Xihuitl of the Aztecs and Haab of the Maya).
Since the least common multiple of the periodicities of the Xihuitl or Haab (365 = 5 × 73 days) and the Tonalpohualli or Tzolkin (260 = 4 × 5 × 13 days) is 4 × 5 × 13 × 73 days, the combinations of both are repeated Cycles identical after this time (18,980 days). This period is called the calendar round (Aztec: xiuhmolpilli , annual bond ). Within this period, a date consisting of the two shorter cycles, e.g. B. of 6 Edznab 11 Yax in the Mayan calendar clearly. A corresponding day designation by the Aztecs is not known.
For the common years (Xihuitl, Haab) fixed days were used to name the years. These year names consisted of the numbers 1 to 13 and 4 of the 20 characters of the Tonalpohualli or Tzolkin (these were called the year bearers, but were not identical in the different calendars). The order of these year names was repeated identically over and over again within the calendar round and was used to mark the years throughout Mesoamerica . However, there was no counting of the calendar rounds.
For longer periods of time, the Maya and neighboring, earlier cultures ( Olmecs ) used the long census , which allowed historical data to be clearly stated.
literature
- Hanns J. Prem : Manual de la antigua cronología mexicana , Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, México 2008. ISBN 978-968-496-694-9