Mayan Time

From the Paper:

"No other people in history made of time so great a fetish as the Maya (Coggins, 1979; von Hagen, 1961). Without doubt, time - and man's perception of it - has played an important role in the development of civilizations throughout the world (Thompson, 1966). The pre-Columbian Mayan civilization was no exception to the general rule. Instead, it raised the science of time-keeping via the calendar to a level of accomplishment that was as accurate as the sophisticated, verified calculations of today. The question immediately raised, of course, is: Why? Why such a preoccupation with time? With record-keeping? With such single-minded attention to accuracy that the Mayans devised not one but three calendar systems? The answer, not surprisingly for a civilization that never progressed technologically into the post-Stone Age, lies in agriculture."

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