Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1931-03-14
SCIENCE MASTERS
/. INTRICATE MAYAN
MACHINE OF TIME
WigeSimaI System of Arith-
metic Used in Wheel CaIen-
dar Since 3113 BE-.
ASTRONOMY ADDS
TO COMPLICATIONS
DR.. John E. Teeple Of Carnegie In
stitution Explains Strange
Mechanics.

BY THOMAS X. HENRY.
The mechanics of the strange time
machine" of the Maya Indians, consid-
cred the supreme intellectual achieve
ment OF aboriginal American civiliza-
ton, has been worked out in part by
scientists OF the Carnegie Institution of
Washington.
This time machine" was the Maya
calendar. 1t was not an actual ma
chine, but an abstract idea which, the
Carnegie astronomers say, can best be
pictured as an extremely complicated
arrangement of wheels within wheels of
revolving time, clicking off the years and
days since approximately August IL,
BIB BIC. This date seems arbitrarily
to have been fixed as the beginning by
the builders of Yucatar cities.
The key 10 the machine, 1t is reported
by DIR. John E. Teeple, is the "vigesimal
system" of arithmetic evolved by the
Maya priests. The basis of modern
arithmetic is the decimal system. which
was only introduced into Europe through
Arabia in the Middle Ages. For at
least 1000 years before this the Mayas
had been using very similar system,
calculating IN twenties rather than tens.
There can be no doubt, DR.. Teeple says,
that 1t was purely native invention,
and while the priests had evolved this
extremely advanced abstract idea, they
had no concept of such simple device
as the wheel.
Year Was Called "Tun."
With this as a basis, the "time ma
chine" was constructed. The first unit
was the day, the period between sunrise
and sunrise. Twenty days made one
uinal. Then ID uinals, or $50 days,
made one tun or year. Twenty tuns
made one katun and 20 katuns one bak-
tun. This constitutes the outer wheel.
Every day had a name and also
number. While there were 20 DAYS,
there were only Is numbers. So there
| was another time division of ID days.
There were 20 of these divisions, con-
shutting sort of year within a year
the tzolkin. This is a second revolving
wheel.
In addition to this there was the
vague year" consisting of SOS days. or
20 uinals and five extra days. Each
uinal had a name. just as do months.
Because the calendar up to this point
was not based on astronomical phenom-
|, ena, any particular uinal would occur
at different time every year. So
complete Maya date would have to give
the day name and number, the month
name and its position in that particular
year, the trun, the katun and the bak-
tun. The Maya could figure out for
himself from this data the position of
the day in the tzolkin.
Outside these circles of time stalked
the mysterious lords of the night"
There were nine of them, pictured by
grotesque figures. This makes still an
other time division of nine DAYS, one
night for each of the nine lords in I'M
ending succession.
Arbitrary for While.
Up to this point, DR.. Teeples reports.
the time machine" has been purely an
arbitrary contrivance in the mind of
the Maya priest. AS he expresses it:
THE sun rises, another day is done and
recorded and everything goes forward
one point. The long count has added
one day to the $50 in a tun, the day
number has advanced to the next of
the ID, the day name advances to the
next of the 20, and the position in the
year advances to the next of the 265-
and so on relentlessly forever, regardless
of seasons, moons or planets" But so
perfect is the mathematical system of
the time meter that, given the first
figure, it is possible to deduce all the
others. If put in mechanical form, as
described by DR.. Teeple, it would be
somewhat like a combination of the
speedometer of an automobile and a
watch with hour. minute and second
hands. The likeness to the speedom-
eter is due to the fact that the Maya
always counted from zero instead of
one. In the Christian calendar time is
calculated from the first day of Janu-
airy of the year one. These would all
be zeros in the Maya calendar and the
year one would be the Christian year
two.
Prediction of EclipSes.
Having built up this elaborate mecha-
nism in his own mind, the Maya then
proceeded to throw 1t into gear with
astronomical phenomena, especially
with the progress of the moon and of
the planet Venus by adding at inter-
walls signs showing the exact positions
of these heavenly bodies at a particular
date. Here the calculations become too
complicated to be followed by any one
but specialist. Again there are re-
volving circles within circles but, DR..
Teeples reports, by his system the
Maya was able to arrive at the correct
length of the tropical year, determined
by the progress of the sun, closer than
was achieved by either the Julian or
the Gregorian calendars in Europe and
w Thin seconds of the calculations of
present day astronomers. Besides the
priests evidently were able to predict
moon eclipses with considerable accur-
acy and had developed a system of
mathematical astronomy superior to
anything known to the white race of
that period.
This, DR.. Teeples points out, must
have involved very long series of OBJ
servations of the heavens. How the
Maya priest made them is complete
mystery.