An ancient site in Guatemala has revealed a fascinating discovery: the oldest known Maya calendar.
The calendar was discovered in the muraled pyramid complex known as San Bartolo. Archaeologists have discovered what they believe to be a notation of the Mayan calendar on a pyramid known as Las Pinturas. The discovery was announced in a new study in science progress Written by David Stewart, Heather Hurst and colleagues.
The frescoes at Las Pinturas date back to the Pre-Late Classic period (400 BC to AD 200), when the first Mayan societies were on the verge of collapse. Those societies continued to regress during the Classical period. During the pre-classical era, Maya script systems were developed.
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Amidst the hieroglyphic texts adorning the murals of Las Pinturas comes one date: 7 Deer. These hieroglyphs are the oldest known evidence of the Mayan calendar. Much of the remaining fresco has been destroyed, so the date referred to, or whether it was accompanied by other dates, is not known.
The paper explains that the Mayan calendar consisted of 260 days, and each day is defined by two elements. The first element is a number from 1 to 13 associated with 1 of the 20 days, each with a name that refers to animals, elements, and other aspects of nature.
The history of 7 Deer is particularly special, according to Stewart and Hurst.
Their study indicates that across Central America, the seventh day is consistently associated with deer. “Meanings were often similar across languages, resulting in the formation of a calendar system that became a key factor in defining ‘Mesoamerica’ as a cultural region,” the paper says. For example, the word for the seventh day in Nahuatl is Mazatl (“deer”) which corresponds to Zapotec China (dir) Mixtec koa (Deer) … The various writing systems of ancient Mesoamerica reflect this widespread meaning, as nearly all show the head of a deer for the seventh day. “
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