Maya Calendar
<p >The <b>Maya calendar</b> is a system of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calendar" title="Calendar" >calendars</a> used in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pre-Columbian_era" title="Pre-Columbian era" >pre-Columbian</a> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerica" title="Mesoamerica" >Mesoamerica</a>, and in many modern communities in highland<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guatemala" title="Guatemala" >Guatemala</a><sup id="cite_ref-0" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_calendar#cite_note-0" >[1]</a></sup> and in Veracruz, Oaxaca and Chiapas, Mexico.<sup id="cite_ref-1" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_calendar#cite_note-1" >[2]</a></sup></p>
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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 BCE. It shares many aspects with calendars employed by other earlier Mesoamerican civilizations, such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zapotec_civilization" title="Zapotec civilization" >Zapotec</a> and<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olmec" title="Olmec" >Olmec</a>, and contemporary or later ones such as the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixtec" title="Mixtec" class="mw-redirect" >Mixtec</a> and <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec_calendar" title="Aztec calendar" >Aztec calendars</a>. </p>
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Although the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mesoamerican_calendars" title="Mesoamerican calendars" >Mesoamerican calendar</a> did not originate with the Maya, their subsequent extensions and refinements of it were the most sophisticated. Along with those of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aztec" title="Aztec" >Aztecs</a>, the Maya calendars are the best-documented and most completely understood.</p>
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By the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maya_mythology" title="Maya mythology" >Maya mythological</a> tradition, as documented in Colonial Yucatec accounts and reconstructed from Late Classic and Postclassic inscriptions, the deity <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itzamna" title="Itzamna" >Itzamna</a> is frequently credited with bringing the knowledge of the calendar system to the ancestral Maya, along with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Writing_system" title="Writing system" >writing</a> in general and other
foundational aspects of Maya culture.<sup id="cite_ref-2" class="reference" ><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayan_calendar#cite_note-2" >[3]</a></sup></p>