gradually Firstman worked out how the Maya marked time a system now called the calendar round the calendar round is made up of three interlocking cycles a 365 days solar year a cycle of 20 names and a cycle of 13 numbers days are designated by the way these three cycles line up for example this day is three manique and the 14th of the month Pope followed by four Lamott 15 Pope five maluca 16 Pope and so on 52 years will pass before the three cycles line up in the same way again then these days will repeat like our days of the week the calendar round cycles on and on forever it is not by itself tied to any specific starting point in history but first humans greatest triumphs came when he realized that some very large numbers in the Venus pages of The Dresden work counts back in time they tied the Venus records to an historical starting point thousands of years earlier it fell on the calendar round a for a how 8 come qu from odds Lee's photographs first to Maynooth at this extraordinarily ancient date appeared throughout the Maya world from Palenque in northern Chiapas to Kira Gua in southern Guatemala Firstman concluded that for the Maya this date marked the creation of the universe just as Western culture measures its history from the birth of Christ so the Maya measured their history from the date of creation this system of dating is known as the long you