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THE MAYAN CALENDAR BASE-13 THEORY CALENDAR THE MAYAN BASE-13 THEORY Thirteen was used as the base or root number of a series which in turn related to many astronomical cycles, proving their significance to Mayan culture. he ancient civilisations of Mesoamerica pose many unsolved mysteries, not the least of which are their calendar and mathematical systems. I began studying the Mayan, Toltec, Olmec and Aztec cultures in the late 1970s and only pierced through the veils of some of the more profound enigmas within recent years. One of the more pressing and misunderstood mysteries has been the overarching signif- icance of the number 13 to their cosmological and calendrical systems. Westerners have their own ingrained block against understanding the crucial importance of this number in astronomical and even physiological terms. However, the ancients not only grasped its central role they also understood that it could be used as the root of a numeric series that, once unfolded, embodied the prime numbers governing planetary cycles. I discovered the proposed base-13 series after decades of research into the Mayan-Aztec calendars and realised the potency of the table may well rival that of the famous Fibonacci series, which yields the Golden triangle. Maya (Mesoamerican) scholars and independent researchers have long known that the numbers 13, 26, 39, 52 and 104 were key to the calendar system. These numbers are found in the first row of table 1 [see next page]. In this presentation I will attempt to show that the number 13 was actually used as the base or root number of a series. Starting with 13 and adding that number to each succeeding sum generates the series. I will show that the resultant numbers track astronomical cycles, in terms of days, weeks, months, planetary synodic periods, Venus transits, solar eclipse cycles, etc. For example the table contains the number of years in a Venus Round (104), as well as the number of Venus synodic periods in that cycle (65). The number of days in the Mars syn- odic year is found to be 780 (the 60th number in the series) and the number 78 is the 6th number. The number of days in the ‘accounting’ and ‘lunar/fertility' year(s)—364, is the 28th number and is also the number of years in a specific interval between Venus transits (1518-1882). It has long been known that the Maya were keen astronomers who had charted the cor- rect number of days in a year to two decimal places and knew the actual synodic periods of Venus and Mars, as well as the solar eclipse cycle. Yet in spite of their nearly exact astronomical knowledge they chose to build a calendar system that was a whole number synthesis of many interwoven cycles and periods. REPRESENTATION OF SOLAR PERIODS AND PLANET CYCLES The problems encountered in trying to formulate a composite calendar system are con- siderable. Astronomical cycles do not fit into whole number counting systems neatly, especially over extended time periods. For example, decimals are used to express the tropical year at 365.2422 days, the lunation at 29.5306 days, or the average synodic period of Venus, which is 583.92 days. This is the case because these numbers, to their decimal place values, reflect the actual time periods. Nonetheless, knowing the scientific data and trying to use that even in a single, civil (solar) calendar are two different issues that do no necessarily come together. Our own modern calendar must be adjusted every fourth "leap" year to account for the .2422 dis- crepancy, the additional days that are not in the annual calendar. In four years they add up to a whole day that is added to the calendar. Now, imagine that it is necessary to represent not just the solar period but the important cycles of the planets and people in an intermeshed set of calendars. Our idea is to bring these cycles into relation with one another and, most importantly like the Maya, into an JUNE — JULY 2005 NEXUS = 51 by Will Hart © 2004 cwillwrite1@hotmail.com www.nexusmagazine.com