Milwaukee Public Museum: Pre-Columbian America
The foremost intellectual achievement of ancient man in the New World was realized in Middle America: a system of hieroglyphic writing and an accurate recorded calendar. These attributes of civilization were absent in the Central Andes. In Middle America, hieroglyphs and calendars were intimately related to religious concepts, and each graphic element featured deities or sacred symbols.
WRITING
The ancient Olmecs possibly invented writing in the first millennium before Christ, but the Classic-period Maya perfected the hieroglyphic system. Inscriptions were carved on stone monuments and also drawn on fold-out books of deerskin or lime-coated bark paper. Only three Maya books survived the ravages of time and the purges of the first Spanish missionaries.
Other systems of writing evolved in Middle America such as the Mixtec and Aztec. Many of these post-Classic period books, or "codices", have survived and they display a more simplified picture-writing.
MAYA HIEROGLYPHS
Only about 20% of Maya hieroglyphs have yet been deciphered, and most of the translated hieroglyphic characters pertain to the calendar. Some 400 discrete Maya hieroglyphs are known. They are basically ideographic (pictures representing units of meaning), but also have attached phonetic elements(expressing linguistic sounds). Other than the calendrical content of the inscriptions, many are esoterically religious, and some are straightforwardly historical.
BOOKKEEPING DEVICE IN THE CENTRAL ANDES: THE QUIPU
The closest approach to recording knowledge in ancient Peru was the use of an assemblage of knotted cords called quipu. Variously colored strings with differently tied knots were used as memory aids for recording numerical quantities of material goods in the fashion of bookkeeping. They were also used for taking censuses of populations. For any particular quipu we don't know if they were tabulating llamas, potatoes, beans, or people.
CALENDAR
The basic calendrical and notation system was probably invented by the Olmecs in order to predict seasonal changes for the benefit of agriculture. It was later elaborated by the Maya into an exceedingly complex ritual system. Other recorded calendars were used in Middle America, but all have in common:
The bar(for 5) and dot(for 1)...
Vigesimal counting (by twenties)...
A solar year (8 "months" of 20 days, plus an unlucky 5-day "month" to equal 365 days)...
A simultaneous "sacred year" of 260 days (the 20 day names in 13 revolutions)...
A 52-year "Calendar Round" (the interlocking solar and sacred calendrical cycles which both start over on the same day once every 52 years)...
The Maya are credited with using the concept of the zero before it was invented in the Old World. The Maya also had accurate supplementary Lunar and Venus calendars, as well as tables of eclipses. These calculations necessitated advanced mathematics and sophisticated astronomical observations. The calendar in common use in Middle America was astronomically more correct than the Julian calendar then available to Europeans.
"CALENDAR ROUND"
Only once every 52 years do the cycles of the 260-day sacred year and 365 day solar year mesh precisely at the same day, and start over again in endless revolutions.
The Maya did not visualize cog wheels, but they did keep close account of the intermeshing of the two simultaneous calendars.
MAYA CALENDRICAL INSCRIPTIONS
The Maya were fascinated by time, and recognized patron deities for each of the 20 named days and the 19 named months of the solar year, as well as years in multiples of 20. Each unit was represented by a glyph portraying the mythological patron deity, and a bar-and-dot number. Each calendrical date was recorded in a so-called Initial Series, or Long Count. This consisted of five positions, such as 9.17.0.0.0, which means:
9 Baktuns (9x400 years of 360 days)...
17 Katuns (7 x 20 years of 360 days)...
0 Tuns ("no" years of 360 days)...
0 Uinals ("no" months of 20 days)...
0 Kins ("no" days)...
...from the fictitious starting point of the calendar. Inscriptions are ordered in two vertical columns read left to right, top to bottom. The accepted correlation of the Maya calendar to the Christian calendar would place the Maya year 1 at 3113 BC. Therefore the inscription 9.17.0.0.0. translates to 770 AD.
Milwaukee Public Museum: Pre-Columbian America
The foremost intellectual achievement of ancient man in the New World was realized in Middle America: a system of hieroglyphic writing and an accurate recorded calendar. These attributes of civilization were absent in the Central Andes. In Middle America, hieroglyphs and calendars were intimately related to religious concepts, and each graphic element featured deities or sacred symbols.
WRITING
The ancient Olmecs possibly invented writing in the first millennium before Christ, but the Classic-period Maya perfected the hieroglyphic system. Inscriptions were carved on stone monuments and also drawn on fold-out books of deerskin or lime-coated bark paper. Only three Maya books survived the ravages of time and the purges of the first Spanish missionaries.
Other systems of writing evolved in Middle America such as the Mixtec and Aztec. Many of these post-Classic period books, or "codices", have survived and they display a more simplified picture-writing.
MAYA HIEROGLYPHS
Only about 20% of Maya hieroglyphs have yet been deciphered, and most of the translated hieroglyphic characters pertain to the calendar. Some 400 discrete Maya hieroglyphs are known. They are basically ideographic (pictures representing units of meaning), but also have attached phonetic elements(expressing linguistic sounds). Other than the calendrical content of the inscriptions, many are esoterically religious, and some are straightforwardly historical.
BOOKKEEPING DEVICE IN THE CENTRAL ANDES: THE QUIPU
The closest approach to recording knowledge in ancient Peru was the use of an assemblage of knotted cords called quipu. Variously colored strings with differently tied knots were used as memory aids for recording numerical quantities of material goods in the fashion of bookkeeping. They were also used for taking censuses of populations. For any particular quipu we don't know if they were tabulating llamas, potatoes, beans, or people.
CALENDAR
The basic calendrical and notation system was probably invented by the Olmecs in order to predict seasonal changes for the benefit of agriculture. It was later elaborated by the Maya into an exceedingly complex ritual system. Other recorded calendars were used in Middle America, but all have in common:
The bar(for 5) and dot(for 1)...
Vigesimal counting (by twenties)...
A solar year (8 "months" of 20 days, plus an unlucky 5-day "month" to equal 365 days)...
A simultaneous "sacred year" of 260 days (the 20 day names in 13 revolutions)...
A 52-year "Calendar Round" (the interlocking solar and sacred calendrical cycles which both start over on the same day once every 52 years)...
The Maya are credited with using the concept of the zero before it was invented in the Old World. The Maya also had accurate supplementary Lunar and Venus calendars, as well as tables of eclipses. These calculations necessitated advanced mathematics and sophisticated astronomical observations. The calendar in common use in Middle America was astronomically more correct than the Julian calendar then available to Europeans.
"CALENDAR ROUND"
Only once every 52 years do the cycles of the 260-day sacred year and 365 day solar year mesh precisely at the same day, and start over again in endless revolutions.
The Maya did not visualize cog wheels, but they did keep close account of the intermeshing of the two simultaneous calendars.
MAYA CALENDRICAL INSCRIPTIONS
The Maya were fascinated by time, and recognized patron deities for each of the 20 named days and the 19 named months of the solar year, as well as years in multiples of 20. Each unit was represented by a glyph portraying the mythological patron deity, and a bar-and-dot number. Each calendrical date was recorded in a so-called Initial Series, or Long Count. This consisted of five positions, such as 9.17.0.0.0, which means:
9 Baktuns (9x400 years of 360 days)...
17 Katuns (7 x 20 years of 360 days)...
0 Tuns ("no" years of 360 days)...
0 Uinals ("no" months of 20 days)...
0 Kins ("no" days)...
...from the fictitious starting point of the calendar. Inscriptions are ordered in two vertical columns read left to right, top to bottom. The accepted correlation of the Maya calendar to the Christian calendar would place the Maya year 1 at 3113 BC. Therefore the inscription 9.17.0.0.0. translates to 770 AD.