Mayan Numeric System

Mayan Numeric system seen as a religious and cosmological perspective. Numbers were not just for mathematical purpose in the Ancient Mayan World.

1. Edice Hua
Maya Civilizations
6
th
April, 2017
Mr. Cesar Ross

2. 1.Introduction
2.Concepts of Mayan numeral
I.Significance of the number
13 and 9
II.Significance of the number
1 and 2
III.Significance of the number
4 and 7

3. •The Mayan numeric system
was developed in the Classic
Period 250-900 A.D) for
religious and mathematical
purposes.
•It was extremely significant
because it played a vital role
in making the Mayan
calendars.
•Maya numerical system is
quite different from the
number system we use today.

4. •According to some scholars, the 13
numbers with the idea that there were 13
heavens in the ancient Mayan
Otherworld. Others link this number to the
amount of joints we have in our body (13
in all: ankles, wrists, kneecap, elbows,
shoulder, hips, neck, etc) thus, the number
13 means humanity.
•To the Mayas, even numbers were often
notified as positive qualities into events
while odd numbers were seen as
challenging or intense.
•Unlike numbers of the contemporary
world, each numbers of the Maya numeral
hold great symbolism.

5. •In the Maya’s view of numbers, they
believed it flows in a wave-like
motion. Small numbers such as
0,1,2,3,4 and 5 are regarded as mild
and soft. However, the middle
numbers such as 6,7,8, and 9,
represents the days of balanced
energy and power.
•The final days such as 10, 11, 12 and
13 are too high, thus are potentially
dangerous and too powerful.
•Because of this, many rituals were
conducted on the balanced days at
the center of each trecena (13 day
period in the tonalpohualli [260
days] calendar).

6. •As previously mentioned, high numbers
were regarded as too powerful or very
intense.
•However, there are exceptions even to
this rule. On 13 days, it is said that the
spirit world is closer. Thus, a 13 day is
the best day upon which people
meditate, seek visions, and cultivate
psychic prophecies.
•The number 9 is an odd number, but
known to be an extremely positive one,
mostly used for ritual purposes.
Inscriptions surviving from the Classic
period suggests that 9 was the day
most favored for the timing of
coronations and other important
ceremonies

7. •The number 1, indicates a new start or
beginning, unity, the original energy of
creation. As a low number, it is powerful, for
it has to do with the energy of the new
trecena which is making its arrival.
•The number 2 is a symbol of duality. Maya
think in terms of cosmic polarities. This is
represented in their mythology: there are
two Hero Twins, two principal Lords of the
Underworld, as well as the two monkey
twins who represent the day-sign Chuen.
There is the eternal dichotomy of this world
and the Underworld, day and night,
darkness and light. These themes run like a
common thread in all of Mayan myth,
especially in the sacred book the Popol
Vuh.

8. •The number 4 symbolizes wholeness. It
could be linked to Ahau, the Sun God as
cosmic lord (the word ahau literally
means lord). Why is this a solar
number? The word for “day” (k’in in
Yucatec or q’ij in K’iche’) is the same as
the word for “sun”; a day is a complete
passage of the sun. The day has four
transitions: dawn, noon, sunset and
midnight. These four components of
each day, each “sun,” can be
conceptually expanded to include the
solstices and equinoxes; thus the year is
also a 4.
•There is evidence that the Classic Maya
divided the universe into four sections
marked by the two intersections of the
Milky Way with the ecliptic. Thus we live
in a fourfold universe. The Maya still lay
out their ritual altars in a fourfold pattern.

9. •As confusing as it sounds 7,
represents death, or at least “endings.”
The reason for this may not be readily
apparent. In order to explain this, take
a closer look at any tzolk’in diagram.
Interestingly, the sequence of numbers
in the top row will be:
•1, 8, 2, 9, 3, 10, 4, 11, 5, 12, 6, 13, 7
•“Any day-sign sequence beginning
with 1 will end in a 7. This is why 7 is
so often considered a symbol of
endings. In the Popol Vuh, the Hero
Twins are named 1 Hunahpu and 7
Hunahpu, while the most important
Underworld Lords are named 1 Death
and 7 Death. When 1 and 7 are paired
together in such a fashion, it is as if we
were saying: “The beginning and end
of the Hero Twins archetype,” or “The
alpha and omega of the Death
archetype.”

10. Mayan Philosophy of Numbers: a
Mathematical Perspective
Kieran Samuels
Maya Civilizations in Belize
6
th
April, 2017
Mr. Cesar Ross

11. •Mayan & other Mesoamerican cultures used the
vigesimal number system. Vigesimal system based on
base 20 and to some extent base 5.
•Theory suggest that it was develop from using the fingers
and toes.
•Dates back to the 4
th
cent. Approximately 1,000 years
more advance than the Europeans

12. •Mayan number system consist of three symbol. A shell
that represent zero, a dot represent one, and a line
represent five. One could write up to 19 with the these
symbol. Mayans were one of the only civilization that
understood the concept of zero from 36 BCE.

13. •Mayans number system was used by merchants and in
speeches.
•Places values are arrange vertically.
•Numbers can be found on stelae and monuments.
• Mayan may have used a “ Abacus”

14. •Number system included Calendar dates. They used
head glyphs as numbers sign i.e. 1 is often depicted as a
young earth goddess, 2 represent the god of sacrifice. It
can be illustrated by face-to-face glyphs or pictures

15. •The concept of fraction was not included, however they
made accurate astronomical observational discoveries.
Main function was to keep tract of time.

16. •Mayan Calendar used base 18.

17. •Hoffman, Mary Ann. "Mayan Mathematics." In The history of the
Maya: using computational skills in problem solving, 18- 24.
New York: PowerKids Press, 2005.
•Johnson, Kenneth. "The Mayan Philosophy of Numbers." The
Mayan Philosophy of Numbers | The Mayan Calendar Portal.
November 22, 2009. Accessed April 05, 2017. http://www.maya-
portal.net/blog/ken/mayan_philosophy_of_numbers.
•Macdonald, Fiona. "Numbers of the Mayas." In The Aztec and
Mayan worlds, 47-49. New York: Rosen, 2009.
•O'Coner, J. J. (2000). Mayan mathematics. Retrieved from
http://www-history.mcs.st-
and.ac.uk/HistTopics/Mayan_mathematics.html
•David E. Smith and Jekuthiel Ginsburg. Numbers and Numerals. W.
D. Reeves, 1937
•Edkins, J. (2006). Mayan Numbers. Retrieved from
http://gwydir.demon.co.uk/jo/numbers/maya/