A new study suggests the ancient calendar used by Maya and Olmec cultures may date back as early as 1100 B.C.E., centuries earlier than previous estimates.
In the western, volcano-ringed highlands of Guatemala, Willy Barreno Minera keeps watch over the skies. As an, a daykeeper and spiritual guide, the stars and landscape help him keep track of the 260-day calendar that has ruled the life of his Maya K’iche’ community—an Indigenous group of about 1.6 million people—in Quetzaltenango for generations. Exactly how long people have been using this timekeeping system has posed a mystery.
found in San Bartolo, Guatemala, dated to 300 B.C.E. Such written records offer a spotty account of the region’s history, though, Stuart says, because the Maya frequently used perishable materials that have been lost to time. The team found that most of the complexes showed an east-west alignment, and almost 90% of them featured architectural points that aligned with sunrises on specific dates. Most commonly, these sunrises fell on. The earliest of these complexes date to about 1100 B.C.E., in an era known as the Formative period, suggesting the 260-day calendar is at least that old.
The new results present “good, tight evidence that the Mayan calendar had its origins way back before we have the actual written evidence for it,” he adds. “To see it architecturally is fantastic.”
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