Counting the Great Cycle

The completion of thirteen baktuns, reached in December 2012, drew wide popular attention as a supposed end-date, but in the Maya reckoning it marked the turning of a great cycle rather than an apocalypse, and the count simply continues. The atlas describes the units, their values, and how a Long Count date is composed, distinguishing the Maya understanding from the modern "2012" phenomenon.

The Long Count units belong with the Maya calendrical material, the haab, the tzolkin day-signs and tones, under Calendars & Time.