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humanity. God D in the DresdenCodex and in Classical Mayan artcan be identified with him. He issometimes dressed as a high priest,and hieroglyphically identified asthe god of rulers. Rulers and calendarshave a very close relationship.In practical terms a Mayan rulerwould have supported the priestswho observed nature and compiledthe calendars. As the ruler himselfwas an essential part of the system,it was an enlightened form of selfintereston his part to understandthe cycle of the universe.In Classical Mayan art the godItzamna may be shown clinging toa peccary (a pig-like mammal) or adeer; he may be depicted in variousstages of sacrifice; or he may be portrayedas a bird pursued by hunters.The variety of ways in whichthis deity can be represented makesit clear that a vast narrative traditionhas been lost, but there may bea clue in his name. The Mayan rootitz denotes all sorts of secretions,such as dew, sap, and semen, andalso sorcery. So Itzamna may havehad many qualities that befitted apowerful ruler.The ancient Maya had severalmethods of measuring time. Onecalendar system is still used in modifiedform by highland communitiesin Mexico and Guatemala. This isnow called the Tzolk’in (a neologism)and it is of 260 days. Regardedas the oldest, it is spread across the4. Detail of the carvedstucco MargaritaPanel showing theemblematic name ofCopan’s founder,450 AD. The panelwas discovered by aPenn Museum team inthe 1990s. Photogrphcourtesy Early CopanAcropolis Project, PennMuseum.5. Dr. Robert Sharer,working in the HunalTomb, examinesthe bones of K’inichYax K’uk’ Mo’.Photograph courtesyKenneth Garrett.4entire Mesoamerican region. Somecalendrical glyphs appear on apparentlyearly objects. This issue is stillcontentious among scholars; somesuggest a first millennium BC datefor these objects. But 260 days hasno clear relationship to any earth5-based or celestial cycle, and manyother theories have been proposed.Perhaps it was based on the numbers13 and 20, which were held tobe significant; 260 days may relateto the agricultural cycle in highlandGuatemala, or it could be based onthe average time between the firstmissed period and a human birth.The modern New Age movementpioneered by José Argüelles uses theDreamspell calendar, which incorporatessome components of the260-day calendar.The Maya could give a dateaccording to a ‘Calendar Round’date. This date gives both theTzolk’in and Haab’ systems (18months of 20 days with five namelessdays at the end). The CalendarRound date will repeat after 52Haab’ years or 18,980 days. TheHaab’ system was used to keeptrack of seasons, but was inaccurate.The Calendar Round cyclewould last about a lifetime. In orderto record longer cycles, another calendarwas used.Most popular attention has beendevoted to the so-called Long Countcalendar, which starts from a mythologicalstarting point, and couldbe extended to refer to any date inthe past or future. The Long Count(starting at 6 September 3114 BCaccording to the Julian calendar) isMinerva November/December 2012 35