Mayan Mathematics and Astronomy

The Mayas were perhaps the first people to use the idea of a zero. This was an important invention. They used a picture of a shell to equal zero. They also used a dot to equal one. A bar equaled five. The Mayas used a base of 20 the same way we use a base of ten. However, they wrote their numbers from top to bottom instead of left to right like we do.

      An advanced system of astronomy was also developed by the Mayas. The priests studied the movements of the sun, moon, planets, and stars. They could predict eclipses and the orbit of the planet Venus. The Mayas believed that the heavenly bodies were gods. If they studied the sky, the Mayas hoped to learn to predict events on earth that these gods controlled.

      To study the heavens, the Mayas built large observatories in many of their cities. The observatory at Chichen Itza is one of the important Mayan buildings that still stands.

      The Mayan priests used their knowledge of atronomy and Mathematics to develop accurate calenders. They had two different calenders. One was a sacred calendar, the other was used for planning regular events.

      The sacred calender had 250 days. It used 20 day names, and each day had a god or goddess associated with it. They did not the sacred calendar into months. The Mayas used this calendar to determine religious events.

      A 365-day calender based on the movement of the earth around the Sun was also used. This Calendar had 18 months of 20 days each. The Mayas believed the five extra days at the end of the year were unlucky. The Aztecs later based their calendar on that of the Mayas.