Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In the ancient calendar of the Maya Indians, a period of twenty years.
Etymologies
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Examples
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_hunpel katun_, one katun (twenty years), or, _hopel in katunil_, I am five katuns, or a hundred years old, as the case might be.
The Maya Chronicles Brinton's Library Of Aboriginal American Literature, Number 1 Various 1868
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Since the Maya year was only 360 days (with five "unlucky" days), 1 katun = 20 years x 360 days = 7200 days, not 7254 days as Chatelain would have it.
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The city upon which this honour was conferred had dynastic and religious influence over the rest of the country for about 256 years, after which the city was abandoned and the katun moved to another site.
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This is a kind of "prophetic history" in which the events of one katunwould be repeated in another katun of the same number.
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Although the final chapter of Tizimin ends on a note of resignation at the ending of this final katun and the seating of the "Christian katun," the author apparently believed that a new Itzá cycle was initiated as late as 1824, a testimony to the remarkable endurance and continuity of Maya culture.
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His other major claim to fame was his rewriting of the Maya Calendar based on the chance observation that the conjunctions (i. e when two or more planets closely approach one another) of Jupiter and Saturn occurred about 7254 days apart instead of the 7200 day katun, the basic 20 year time period of the Maya calendar.
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Since the Maya year was only 360 days (with five "unlucky" days), 1 katun = 20 years x 360 days = 7200 days, not 7254 days as Chatelain would have it.
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They were later joined by the Toltec Xiu and together the Itzá and the Xiu agreed on the seating of the katun.
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His other major claim to fame was his rewriting of the Maya Calendar based on the chance observation that the conjunctions (i. e when two or more planets closely approach one another) of Jupiter and Saturn occurred about 7254 days apart instead of the 7200 day katun, the basic 20 year time period of the Maya calendar.
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The history and chronicle of Chicxulub, which begins in the "fifth division of the 11th katun" (1511), tells us that the inhabitants were forced to pay tribute to the Spaniards.
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