Editing Maya calendar (section)

{{Short description|Calendar used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica}}
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{{Maya civilization}}
The '''Maya calendar''' is a system of [[calendar]]s used in [[Pre-Columbian era|pre-Columbian]] [[Mesoamerica]] and in many modern communities in the [[Guatemala]]n highlands,<ref>Tedlock, Barbara, Time and the Highland Maya Revised edition (1992 Page 1) "Scores of indigenous Guatemalan communities, principally those speaking the Mayan languages known as Ixil, Mam, Pokomchí and Quiché, keep the 260-day cycle and (in many cases) the ancient solar cycle as well (chapter 4)."</ref> [[Veracruz]], [[Oaxaca]] and [[Chiapas]], Mexico.<ref>Miles, Susanna W, "An Analysis of the Modern Middle American Calendars: A Study in Conservation." In Acculturation in the Americas. Edited by Sol Tax, p. 273. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1952.</ref>

The essentials of the Maya calendar are based upon a system which had been in common use throughout the region, dating back to at least the 5th century BC. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the [[Zapotec civilization|Zapotec]] and [[Olmec]] and contemporary or later ones such as the [[Mixtec]] and [[Aztec calendar]]s.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.questia.com/read/119342989|title=Maya Calendar Origins: Monuments, Mythistory, and the Materialization of Time}}</ref>

By the [[Maya mythology|Maya mythological]] tradition, as documented in Colonial Yucatec accounts and reconstructed from Late Classic and Postclassic inscriptions, the deity [[Itzamna]] is frequently credited with bringing the knowledge of the calendrical system to the ancestral Maya, along with [[writing system|writing]] in general and other foundational aspects of Mayan culture.<ref>See entry on ''Itzamna'', in Miller and Taube (1993), pp.99–100.</ref>