Category
Tzolkin Tones
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The thirteen tones, or numbers, are the second cycle of the Maya tzolkin, running alongside the twenty day signs so that a given number-and-sign pairing recurs every 260 days. The 260-day count is attested across Mesoamerica for well over two thousand years. Note that the tone meanings in wide circulation today often come from the modern Dreamspell rather than from the traditional count.
Facts
Overview
- Entries in the Atlas
- 13
- Size of the Traditional Set
- Thirteen tones, numbered 1 to 13 1
Structure
- Structure
- The thirteen tones run against the twenty day signs. The two numbers are coprime, so the cycles return to the same pairing only after 260 days. 2
Attestation
- Era of Attestation
- Attested in Mesoamerica from at least the sixth century BCE. 1
Status
- Status Today
- Living: K'iche' day-keepers in the Guatemalan highlands read the tones alongside the day signs today. 3
Learn More
The Thirteen Tones
The thirteen tones, or numbers, are the second cycle of the Maya tzolkin, running alongside the twenty day signs so that each day carries both a number from one to thirteen and a sign, and a given pairing recurs every two hundred and sixty days. Each tone carries a quality, a character or force that colours the day sign it falls with.
The 260-day count formed by the thirteen tones and twenty day signs is attested across Mesoamerica for well over two thousand years, and its origin has been variously linked to the human gestation period, the interval between zenith passages of the Sun at certain latitudes, and the cycle of Venus, though its exact basis is debated.
Number as Force
In the tzolkin the number is not merely a counter but a force with its own energy, lower numbers often read as gentle or beginning, higher as strong or culminating, which combines with the day sign to give each of the two hundred and sixty days its distinct character. The day-keepers of the living Maya tradition still read the tones in this way.
The atlas gives each tone its number and its associated quality. The tones pair with the twenty day signs, and belong with the wider Maya calendrical material under Calendars & Time.
Enter a year to compare these entries as the atlas records them at that moment. Leave it empty for the present. A year before the common era is entered with a minus sign, so 44 BCE is minus 44.