The Mesoamerican Calendar

Ancient Mesoamerica had one of the most incredible calendars ever devised. Discover how they created and used this calendar to track their history and the cosmos.

Bibliography, Sources and Credits at:

[jjt]

1:50 It is the "Vigesimal system" not "Vegesimal system"

[Grdc]

I'm from Mexico and even tho I like learning history, I kinda have always left the history of my own country and ancestors aside. Finding this channel is the highlight of my week, even tho it doesn't centers only in Mexico, I'm very excited to learn more about the cultures that flourished in this territory

[andreaaa]

My parents are from Yucatán, Mexico so i have grown up seeing the Mayan calendar but never actually understood how it worked. This is really impressive.

[bluebird]

3:17 "Pretty simple, right? Not too difficult to learn!"

If that was simple then I must be slow because I'm still trying to process it all.

[wooddadstuff]

Spent time in Guatemala in the highlands with the K'iche (or Quiche, as I knew them). The base-20 system was fun to learn, and the number 20 was called "juwinak, " which was a contraction for "jun winak, " or "one person." So the supposition that 20 was based on 10 fingers and 10 toes is not unreasonable.

[selatoski]

As a lay student of Mesoamerican history, I really appreciate the information in your videos and how it is explained. I'm glad to have come across your channel and look forward to seeing more!

[jdmccaffrey]

wow this calendar is actually really cool, love the cyclical nature of it versus our linear calendar

[Yeszur]

The 20 days represent our fingers and toes and the 13 months represent our joints: ankles, knees, hips, wrist, elbow, shoulder, and neck. This represents the 260 day calendar. Xichen itza has 91 steps on each side with one platform on the top to make 365 steps. So much interesting and intelligent findings with the maya people!

[Flurdaman]

My search was “how do we reconcile ancient Mayan dates with modern dates” you nailed it! thank you for the awesome video.

[fmulder]

I feel like for base 20 counting system it's more likely they used both sides of their hands versus hands and feet. Count to ten with your palms up, them flip them over and keep going up to 20.

[LMmd]

Hello AM!
Fist, as a Mexican I really appreciate all your hard work in creating such good videos
I think there's an error at 17:05 since 4400/165=26.667 and the correct number of lunations would be 149
[4400/149=29.53]
That's also what a few sources say from what I've been able to find
Please let me know if this is correct
Thanks in advance!

[SpiderEnjoyer]

Showing up here after the interview with Veritas et Caritas to say that your videos are great, man.

And also, the whole 2012 end-of-the-world thing being essentially mayan Y2K is profoundly funny to me for some reason!

[hvllows]

I can only imagine what was recorded in the Mayan books and codexes that Diego De Landa burned in the mid sixteen century. With as accurate as the Maya were with dates and how much they loved to write about themselves, they must have inscribed an amazing amount of information
It’s no wonder De Landa wrote that while he burned the Mayan historical texts the native people wailed in agony over their books which made him curious. After all the Maya were kind of huge nerds.
They were loosing their meticulous accounts of history and religion/mythology. So sad. De Landa I wish you were never born.

[xyldkefyi]

After this I'm both in awe of the mesoamerican calendar and thankful for the simplicity of the calendar I use.

Although I guess if you dig deep into things like leap years or the julian/gregorian shift, that calendar can also get quite complicated.

[AnarchyIsLove]

I actually made it here from finding your Maya Collapse video! ya mentioned there were other parts, so I just kept scrolling and noticed most of your videos build on each other, to the point I realized I gotta start here lol. Thanks for all of this, time to binge!

[abcdeshole]

There's a remarkable dearth of intelligent videos on YouTube explaining the Mesoamerican calendar, and intelligent content about Mesoamerica more broadly. This is excellent.

[Lord]

The Wayeb for Mayans or Nemontemi for Mexicas was not an unlucky time as the video suggests. According to the teacher Ocelocoatl Ramírez these were days of fasting, meditation, and self-care. Similar to how you take a car in to get a tune up, our bodies are also in need of some care. Other than that I appreciate learning about the count in English. Thanks

[debbralehrman]

I have to say both. Amazed at their calendar and glad I have the one I do.
Thank you for going over this with us.
Now I know I can count to Twenty. I think the most interesting part is that so many of shared the same basic calendar.

[daviddeltoro]

There really needs to be a mobile app or a website with virtual Maya calendars that you can play around with like you did in the video. I'm legitimately stupid with numbers, but you made it a little easier to understand

[Riggsradar]

These dudes where really smart like holy moly ;-;