concepts du calendrier maya

Le Compte long maya et le cycle de 13 baktuns

Le Compte long est la réponse maya à la datation absolue — un décompte linéaire de jours depuis un point mythique de création, le 11 août 3114 av. J.-C. Cinq unités vigésimales fixent tout événement à un jour près.

The five Long Count units

Long Count is mostly base-20, with one twist. K'in (1 day) → Winal (20 k'in) → Tun (18 winal = 360 days) → K'atun (20 tun = 7,200 days) → B'ak'tun (20 k'atun = 144,000 days). The break at winal-to-tun (18 not 20) keeps a tun close to a solar year. A Long Count date is written big-endian and dot-separated: 12.19.6.15.2. Higher units exist on rare inscriptions — piktun (~7,890 years), kalabtun, k'inchiltun — but five fields handle all historical needs.

The epoch: 11 August 3114 BCE

Long Count 0.0.0.0.0 corresponds to the Tzolk'in/Haab' date 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u, equivalent to 11 August 3114 BCE in the proleptic Gregorian calendar (or 6 September 3114 BCE in Julian). This is Julian Day Number 584,283 — the Goodman-Martinez-Thompson (GMT) correlation that academic Mayanists use. The same correlation aligns with the unbroken Tzolk'in count kept by Guatemalan day-keepers. AMS radiocarbon studies have since reinforced GMT against rival correlations.

The 13-baktun Great Cycle and 2012

A Great Cycle is 13 baktuns = 1,872,000 days = ~5,125 tropical years. The current cycle ran from 0.0.0.0.0 (11 Aug 3114 BCE) to 13.0.0.0.0 on the winter solstice, 21 December 2012 (4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in). Maya cosmology described this as a renewal — like an odometer rolling — not the world ending. The 14th baktun is now in motion; the next major rollover (14.0.0.0.0) lands on 21 March 2407.

Calendar Round: how Long Count meshes with Tzolk'in and Haab'

A complete Maya date stacks all three calendars: 12.19.6.15.2 11 Ik' 10 K'ank'in. The Tzolk'in/Haab' pair is the Calendar Round — period LCM(260, 365) = 18,980 days, or 52 Haab' years. A date like 4 Ajaw 8 Kumk'u repeats only once per Calendar Round, so the Long Count exists precisely to disambiguate which 52-year era an event belongs to.

Why the Long Count matters today

For astrology, the Long Count places a person in cosmic history. We are early in the 14th baktun (started 21 Dec 2012) — useful narrative framing for readings about generational shifts, cycles ending, and what comes next. Computationally, Long Count is the cleanest data structure: convert Gregorian to a day count, then derive Tzolk'in and Haab' positions from it.

Questions fréquentes

  • What does 13.0.0.0.0 mean?

    It is the Long Count date that ended the 13-baktun cycle on 21 December 2012, signalling the start of the 14th baktun — a calendrical reset, not a prophecy of doom.

  • How long is one baktun?

    One baktun is 144,000 days, roughly 394 solar years.

  • What is the GMT correlation?

    The Goodman-Martinez-Thompson constant (584,283) maps Maya Long Count day 0 to Julian Day Number 584,283, equivalent to 11 August 3114 BCE Gregorian.

  • Why is the tun 360 days, not 400?

    Long Count is mostly base-20, but the winal-to-tun step uses 18 instead of 20, keeping the tun close to a solar year.

  • When does the 14th baktun end?

    At Long Count 14.0.0.0.0 on 21 March 2407 — about 394 years after 21 December 2012.