Year bearers. The sequence of four day-signs on which the first day of the haab can occur. There are four because of the relationship between the 20 day-signs of the tzolkin and the 365 days of the haab. 20 divides into 365 evenly with five days left over; thus, every year the year bearer advances by five.
Zero counting. Used by various groups to count the twenty days in the haab months from 0 to 19. The Ixil and Quiche Maya dropped zero counting at some point and began counting the haab days with 1.
Zero date, base date. Pertaining to the Long Count, corresponding to 0.0.0.0.0. The term “base date” is also used for other types of calculation bases found in Maya inscriptions.
*Definitions and discussions marked with an asterisk were adapted from their respective Wikipedia entries.
APPENDIX TWO
TIMELINE OF THE 2012 STORY
August 11, 3114 BC. 13.0.0.0.0. Beginning date of the current 13-Baktun cycle of the Long Count. It is a mathematical back-calculation generated when the Long Count system was inaugurated sometime between 355 BC and the first century BC.
355 BC. Long Count inauguration date suggested by Munro Edmonson; a hypothetical calendar reconstruction.
400 BC-1 BC. Izapa is thriving and its stone carvings are made, depicting early episodes of the Hero Twin Myth.
36 BC. Earliest dated monument in the Long Count, from Chiapa de Corzo.
31 BC. Long Count monument from Tres Zapotes.
19 BC. Latest possible date for a fragmented Long Count monument from Tak’alik Ab’aj, a “sister city” to Izapa. It may date to 39 BC, making it the oldest known dated Long Count monument.
37 AD. Long Count date from El Baul.
41 AD. Ending of Baktun 8.
83 AD and 103 AD. Early Long Count dates on Stela 5 from Tak’alik Ab’aj.
197 AD. Linda Schele’s dating of the Hauberg Stela.
292 AD. Dated monument from Tikal with full Calendar Round and Long Count information. It defined, for a previous generation of scholars, the beginning of the Classic Period (300 AD to 900 AD). Today the origins of Maya civilizations have been pushed back by new archaeological findings.
435 AD. Ending of Baktun 9.
620 AD-820 AD. Many Long Count dates at Classic Maya sites. Distance Numbers are used and Era beginning and end dates are found at sites such as Quirigua, Coba, Palenque, Copan, and Tortuguero.
612 AD. Balam Ajaw, king of Tortuguero, was born.
652, October. 13-Baktun Creation Date (3114 BC), first mentioned at Copan.
669, January. 13-Baktun end date (2012 AD) recorded at Tortuguero.
711 AD, December 3. (9.14.0.0.0). Astronomically significant Long Count date found at many sites, including Piedras Negras, Calakmul, Tortuguero, Palenque, Tikal, and Copan.
738, May 1. Copan king 18 Rabbit is ritually decapitated. It happened at the “Black Hole.”
830 AD. Ending of Baktun 10; Classic Maya civilization begins failing.
909 AD. Last carved Long Count monument, from Tonina: 10.4.0.0.0.
1000 AD. The Long Count calendar tradition continues in manuscript form, with Long Count dates and distance numbers recorded in the Maya’s Dresden Codex, Madrid Codex, and Paris Codex.
1100 AD-1500 AD. Katun counting is preserved in Yucatan. A Short Count form of the Long Count (a 13-Katun
1224 AD. Baktun 11 ending, probably noted in Yucatan.
1520s-1570s. The Conquest. Maya books are burned. Bishop Diego de Landa active in Yucatan, writes his
1520s-1700s. The
1550s. The Hero Twin Myth (
1618. Baktun 12 ending celebrated in Yucatan.
1697. The Itza Maya finally acquiesce to Spanish rule in Flores, Peten.
1700. Francisco Ximenez translates
1752. Short Count system recalibrated in Yucatan, changing the 20-year Katun cycle to a 24-year cycle. The continuity of the Katun sequencing is affected.
1761. Maya reform leader Jacinto Canek captured, tortured, and killed by Spanish army in Merida, along with many of his followers.
1770s-1790s. Spanish travelers take note of ancient ruins of Palenque.
1810s. Memory of pre-1752 placement of Short Count tradition dies with elders.
1800-1820s. Explorers such as Count Waldeck visit Maya sites.
1839. Catherwood and Stephens record monuments at Copan and Quirigua containing Long Count glyphs.
1860s. Brasseur de Bourbourg publishes
1880s. Maudslay makes high-quality photographs of Maya monuments, including Long Count inscriptions.
1880s. Forstemann decodes the Dresden Codex in Germany.
1897. Goodman’s appendix to Maudslay published, containing free-floating charts for Long Count dates.
1905. Joseph T. Goodman publishes “Maya Dates” in
1926-1927. Juan Martinez Hernandez and J. Eric S. Thompson confirm Goodman’s work, producing the original GMT (Goodman-Martinez-Thompson) correlation.
1927. Thompson publishes an article with a chart that could be extrapolated to reach an estimated cycle ending of December 23, 2012, but this never appears to have been done. The cycle ending remained unstated in the literature until Coe’s 1966 book
1920s-1940s. Ethnographic evidence for the survival of the 260-day tzolkin calendar in the Guatemalan highlands is documented. Invites a reassessment of the correlation by Thompson.
1946. Morley’s
1950. Thompson revises the original GMT by 2 days. The result brings the 13-Baktun cycle ending into alignment with December 21, 2012, although the fact has yet to be stated in the literature.
1956. The second edition of Morley’s
1966. Michael Coe’s
1967. William S. Burroughs mentions 2012 in a parody magazine, according to the
