Conexão entre o calendário e o sistema de base 20 utilizado pela civilização Maia

Abstract

In this study we discuss the connection between the systems of time counting and properties of the base 20 numbering system adopted by the Mayan civilization, which had the particularity of using a nonconventional evolution of levels, with 360 in the third order. There is strong evidence that this choice was made for the convenience of Long Count system in which the days are numbered sequentially from a primordial date, believed to be 12 August 3113 BC. The Mayan numbering system appears to have been designed specifically for easy identification of the dates on the Long Count, but at the cost of complicating rather any calculation algorithm that this civilization may have adopted even for sums or subtractions, even compromising the principle of unity of numerical representation, which is virtually universal in systems adopted by other people.