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The Mayan numeral system was the system to represent numbers and calendar dates in the Maya civilization. It was a vigesimal (base-20) positional numeral system. The numerals are made up of three symbols: zero (a shell), [1] one (a dot) and five (a bar). For example, thirteen is written as three dots in a horizontal row above two horizontal ...
In a vigesimal place system, twenty individual numerals (or digit symbols) are used, ten more than in the decimal system. One modern method of finding the extra needed symbols is to write ten as the letter A, or A 20, where the 20 means base 20, to write nineteen as J 20, and the numbers between with the corresponding letters of the alphabet.
The Maya numeral system was essentially vigesimal (i.e., base-20) and each unit of a given position represented 20 times the unit of the position which preceded it. An important exception was made for the second-order place value, which instead represented 18 × 20, or 360 days, more closely approximating the solar year than would 20 × 20 ...
Rather than using a base 10 scheme, the Long Count days were tallied in a modified base-20 scheme. In a pure base 20 scheme, 0.0.0.1.5 is equal to 25 and 0.0.0.2.0 is equal to 40. The Long Count is not pure base-20, however, since the second digit from the right (and only that digit) rolls over to zero when it reaches 18.
In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) system. [305] The bar-and-dot counting system that is the base of Maya numerals was in use in Mesoamerica by 1000 BC; [306] the Maya adopted it by the Late Preclassic, and added the symbol for zero. [307]
The lords of the night are known in both the Aztec and Maya calendar, although the specific names of the Maya Night Lords are unknown. [2] The glyphs corresponding to the night gods are known and Mayanists identify them with labels G1 to G9, the G series. Generally, these glyphs are frequently used with a fixed glyph coined F.
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Although the Maya did not actually write alphabetically, nevertheless he recorded a glossary of Maya sounds and related symbols, which was long dismissed as nonsense (for instance, by leading Mayanist J. E. S. Thompson in his 1950 book Maya Hieroglyphic Writing) [21] but eventually became a key resource in deciphering the Maya script.