Long Count

The Long Count is an ancient Mesoamerican calendar system used by the Maya civilization to track long periods of time. It assigns a unique date to events, much like a serial number, based on a starting point called the "creation date." The system counts days in units of increasing size—days, baktuns (about 394 years), katuns (~20 years), tuns (~1 year), uinals (~20 days), and kin (1 day). This hierarchical structure allows the Maya to record dates spanning thousands of years with precision, providing a way to understand historical and mythological timelines within their culture.