Maya Long Count Calendar

Timeline

1. c. 600–800Tikal · PeténClassic-period Maya city-states systematically used the Long Count on stelae and buildings to record royal accessions, victories and ritual events; combined with the tzolk'in and haab calendars it formed a complete date expression, becoming an important symbolic tool of Maya political legitimacy.
2. 801–850Palenque · ChiapasIn the first half of the 9th century CE, city-states such as Palenque, Copán and Calakmul still erected numerous dated stelae; Long Count dates can be precisely correlated with the Gregorian calendar, and the inscriptions cover dynastic lineages, warfare and astronomical events, serving as PRIMARY source material for studying Maya history of this period.
3. 851–900Southern Maya Lowlands · Central AmericaIn the second half of the 9th century CE southern lowland city-states were successively abandoned and the erection of Long Count stelae nearly ceased; the last inscriptions mostly record political crises and environmental stress, marking the collapse of the Classic Maya political system, though calendar knowledge continued in the northern Yucatán.
4. c. 901–1000Chichén Itzá · YucatánAfter the Classic collapse, Long Count knowledge survived through documents such as the Dresden Codex and inscriptions at northern city-states like Chichén Itzá; the codices preserve precise astronomical and calendrical calculation tables, demonstrating that the Long Count system remained vital after the shift of political centers.