The Meso-American Long Count

Stela C from Tres Zapotes (Olmec): the oldest, clearly written Long Count date found so far: 7.16.6.16.18 (September 1st 32 BC).

The Meso-American Long Count (by 32 BC) counts the number of days since the beginning of the world, since August 11th 3114 BC. It is also known as the Mayan Long Count since the Maya are the best known for putting it on their monuments.

The number zero: The Long Count is the first thing known to use the number zero. The earliest clearly written Long Count date found so far by archaeologists is 7.16.6.16.18 or September 1st 32 BC on the Gregorian calendar. By then the Long Count had probably been in use for hundreds of years, probably starting with the Olmecs.

Today on different calendars:

• Mayan: 13.0.5.16.4 (17 Yax 9 Kan)
• Gregorian: October 15th AD 2018
• Roman: October 2nd 2771 AUC
• Alexandrian: October 2nd AM 7511
• Byzantine: October 2nd AM 7527
• Athenian: Pyanepsion 6th Olympiad 699/2
• Hebrew: Heshvan 6th 5779 AM
• Islamic: Safar 4th 1440 AH
• Persian: Libra 23st 1397 AHS
• Julian Day: 2458406
• Unix: time() = 1539561600
• Discordian: Bureaucracy 69th YOLD 3184

The Mayan date:

13.0.5.16.4 (17 Yax 9 Kan)

in Mayan hieroglyphics it looks like this:

which reads roughly as follows:

Long Count
13 baktun, 0 katun
5 tun, 16 uinal
4 kin, 9 Kan
17 Yax, Lord of the Night

More on baktuns, katuns, etc below.

The date comes in three parts:

• Long Count: 13.0.5.16.4
• Tzolkin: 9 Kan
• Haab: 17 Yax

The Haab date was for farmers (it repeats every 365 days). The Tzolkin date was for priests (it repeats every 260 days). The two together determined daily life and repeated every 52 years. That made it terrible for history, monuments or long-term prophecies. Thus the Long Count, which can last over a billion years.

The Long Count is made up of five numbers:

13.0.5.16.4

Each number goes from 0 to 19, except for the second-to-last one, which only goes up to 17

Tomorrow will be 13.0.5.16.5, then 13.0.5.16.6 and so on till 13.0.5.16.19. The day after that will be 13.0.5.17.0. The day after 13.0.5.17.19 will be 13.0.6.0.0. And on and on.

Format: If Western dates, like October 15th 2018, were expressed the same way, they might look like this:

20.1.8.10.15

the format being:

century.decade.year.month.day

For the Long Count the format is:

baktun.katun.tun.uinal.kin

where the kin goes up by one every day, the uinal every 20 days, the tun every 360 days (almost a year), the katun every 7,200 days (19.7 years, almost a double decade), and the baktun every 144,000 days (394.3 years, almost a quadruple century).

So for 13.0.5.16.4, the first three numbers (13.0.5) are like a year, the next one (16) like a short month, and the last one is the day of that month, the first day being day zero.

The full format has four more numbers:

alautun.kinchiltun.calabtun.pictun.baktun.katun.tun.uinal.kin

An alautun is 23,040,000,000 days or 63,081,429 years. Twenty times that is 1.26 billion years. One alautun ago was about when a comet hit Mayan land, killing off the dinosaurs.

Oh, one more rule: If the gods destroy the world and recreate it, then the Long Count starts over, at 0.0.0.0.0.

End of the world: The last time the gods destroyed the world, the Long Count had reached 13.0.0.0.0. Which is why some thought the world would end on December 21st 2012, which was also 13.0.0.0.0. The Maya themselves never said that. What some of them say is that the world will end on 17.0.0.0.0, which is January 3rd 3590, a Wednesday.

– Abagond, 13.0.5.16.4.

Update: Added hieroglyphics for today’s date.

See also:

• External links:
  • Mayan calendar converter – where I got the hieroglyphics for today’s date from.
• Welcome to Hispanic Heritage Month 2018
• Meso-America
• 2012 as the end of the world
• Gregorian calendar
• Islamic calendar
• zero
• The Clock of the Long Now

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