Earliest Evidence of Maya Calendar Found Inside Guatemalan Pyramid
17 April, 2022Share with a friend

A glyph representing a day called "7 Deer" on
mural fragments dating from the third century BC found inside the ruins of a
pyramid in Guatemala marks the earliest-known use of the Maya calendar, one of
this ancient culture's renowned achievements.
The fragments were found at the San Bartolo archeological site in the jungles
of northern Guatemala, which gained fame with the 2001 discovery of a buried
chamber with elaborate and colorful murals dating to about 100 BC depicting
Maya ceremonial and mythological scenes, researchers said on Wednesday.
The pieces with the "7 Deer" glyph were unearthed inside the same Las
Pinturas pyramid where the still-intact later murals were located. As was the
case with this structure, the Maya often built what initially were modest-sized
temples, then constructed ever-larger versions atop the earlier ones. This
pyramid eventually reached about 100 feet (30 meters) tall.
The glyph found on the mural fragments for "7 Deer," one of the
calendar's 260 named days, consisted of the ancient Maya writing for the number
seven over the outline of a deer's head.
University of Texas professor of Mesoamerican art and writing David Stuart,
lead author of the research published in the journal Science Advances,
described the fragments as "two small pieces of white plaster that would
fit in your hand, that were once attached to a stone wall."
"The wall was intentionally destroyed by the ancient Maya when they were
rebuilding their ceremonial spaces - it eventually grew into a pyramid. The two
pieces fit together and have black painted calligraphy, opening with the date
'7 Deer.' The rest is hard to read," Stuart added.
"The paintings from this phase are all badly fragmented, unlike any from
the later, more famous chamber," Stuart said.
Until now, the earliest definitive Maya calendar notation dated to the first
century BC.
Share with a friend