Xultun Text A contains Maya super number of 1,195,740 days predicted years earlier. The 819-day cycle was a Late Classic Maya invention created at Palenque in the late 600s CE during the reign of K'inich Kan Bahlam, first showcased in the Cross Group inscriptions Within 20 years, Copán in Honduras also adopted the 819-day cycle, and it appears in the Dresden Codex 700 years later Xultun wall inscriptions include a contemporary date of 781 CE, roughly 100 years after the 819 cycle was created

The 819-day cycle was a Late Classic Maya invention born at Palenque in the late 600s CE under K'inich Kan Bahlam. Copán picked it up within 20 years, and it later surfaced in the Dresden Codex 700 years on. Xultún Text A, dated to 781 CE, ties together multiples of Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, the 819 cycle, and more, landing on a staggering 1,195,740 days — the highest common divisor bridging the older Maya long count with the newer 819-day system. Incredibly, Christopher Pel forecast this exact number in his 1997 University of Texas at Austin thesis, 15 years before it was published.

Key Facts

  • The 819-day cycle was a Late Classic Maya invention created at Palenque in the late 600s CE during the reign of K'inich Kan Bahlam, first showcased in the Cross Group inscriptions
  • Within 20 years, Copán in Honduras also adopted the 819-day cycle, and it appears in the Dresden Codex 700 years later
  • Xultun wall inscriptions include a contemporary date of 781 CE, roughly 100 years after the 819 cycle was created
  • Xultun Text A incorporates even multiples of Mars, Mercury, Venus, Jupiter, Saturn, the 819 cycle, and other Maya calendar cycles
  • The final total of 1,195,740 days represents the highest common divisor between the older Maya long count system (based on Sun and Venus) and the newer 819 cycle (based on Jupiter and Saturn)
  • Christopher Pel predicted this 1,195,740-day number in his 1997 University of Texas at Austin thesis titled 'A New View on Maya Astronomy,' 15 years before it was confirmed in the 2012 Xultun publication

Related site: Xultun — view location, images, and history on the Ancient Nerds map.

Source: Ancient Maya Scientist discovered by Archaeologist Ed Barnhart