spiritofatlantis.com | Duane K. McCullough



This numerical data gives information as to how the 20-base numerical Mayan dot-bar number system of counting set the foundation to the 20-base binary Ogamic alphabet of the North Atlantic realm used by Neolithic Man.

Volume 2: The Atlantean Adventure
Chapter 1: The Trans-Atlantean Solar Calendar

1/ Let us begin volume two by returning to Middle America and decipher the numerical and chronological origins of the Ogamic alphabet.

2/ The Maya culture employed a vigesimal (base 20) system of mathematics in which a binary "morse code-like" style of alphanumerical markings was used to express multi-syllabic information between regional tribes.
(In Mayan mathematics, the numerical value of one through four were visually represented as a dot or consecutive dots, while the numerical factors of five, ten and fifteen were drawn as a bar or consecutive bars, leaving the number "20" to appear as two curved bars shaped somewhat like the end-view of a clam shell with one dot above it that began another measured layer of counting)

3/ This vigesimal dot and bar system of alphanumerical markings, together with certain pictorial and face-like "vowel" statements, was a visual extension of a very ancient method of calendrical record keeping that evolved from generations of astronomical observations.
(Conventional Mayan chronology is based on a "long count" theory in which the Maya kept a daily record for over four-thousand years, however, as we will learn later, this dating theory and all other conventional dates from before the discovery of the New World, may have been greatly exaggerated beyond their proper year values)

4/ According to the formative maritime culture of Middle America, the calendrical measurement of time was based on 91 days per season at four seasons per year.
(Four seasons of 91 days each, plus one extra "year" day, account for 365 days a year, however because there also exists a 365 day Nahuatlan calendar of the Toltec tribe in which 20 days per "month" and 18 months per "vague" year with five extra "leftover" days at years end, modern historians have only focused on the lunar-solar aspects of the Nahuatlan calendar and therefore have erroneously excluded any "seasonal" time-keeping methods once used by the original Mayans)
[A new theory suggest that the original Mayans employed a seasonal counting procedure in which one season of 91 days - or 13 seven-day weeks, was counted 4 times and then a "year" day was added. This value was multiplied 4 times to the total amount of 1460 days, whereby 1 extra leap day was added in order to verify a 4-year cycle of 365.25 days each year - or 1461 days total; See the Maya Data page at the end of this book for more new concepts as to how the Maya may have counted time]



This numerical data gives information as to how the early time-keepers of the Mayan realm used temple mounds as "public calendars" by placing markers on the steps that represented days, weeks, months and years - so local farmers would know when to plant or harvest their seasonal crops on time.

5/ Furthermore, in order to account for the true and exact tropical solar year of 365.2422 days so that the agrarian time-table of seasonal planting and harvesting would be annually accurate, the original solar calendar of Middle America - referred to in this book as the Trans-Atlantean Solar Calendar, also included an extra "leap" day every alternate fourth and fifth year - together with a "super leap" day every fifty years!
(There exist archeological evidence that certain Middle American temple mound parameters, some of which have or may have had four sets of stairways with 91 steps each, were "ceremoniously enlarged" every fifty years)
[Considerable confusion regarding the calendrical interpretation of some pyramids can be blamed on the false assumption that the Mayans used a 360-day yearly calendar like the Hellenic 360-day yearly calendar, for example, one particular rebuilt monument contains a single stairway of 52 steps that some historians believe represent step-markers to a 52-year time cycle known as the "Calendar Round Cycle" - whereby 260 days were added every 52 years to account for 52 years of a 365-day Toltec Calendar. However, these 52 steps may in fact mark 52 weeks to one year, thus the early Mayans used a seven-day weekly time count long before the Toltec/Aztec era altered their time keeping ways]



This data page list certain timekeeping formulas used by ancient cultures that attempted to balance annual time. A recent calendrical overview of the numerical possibilities suggest that the 7-day weekly count may have been used in the New World long before 500 years ago. Also revealed is the suggestion that the 4-year "leap" day concept of the Julian Calendar may be linked to the Mayan calendar by way of the Armorican maritime culture.

6/ The decision of adding "leap" days onto the annual 365-day solar calendar was the remarkable result of recognizing a very important geometrical ratio formula and applying the art of chronological measurements with certain astronomical observations.



Calendar stick from the British Isles.

El Castillo temple at Chichen Itza in the Yucatan contains 91 "day" stairs on each of its four "seasonal" sides - which equal a total of 364 stairs or an annual 364 day count. Add to this value a "year" day ceremony and the full total of 365 days a year would suggest the Maya once used a 7-day calendar count because the number 364 (less the year day) is divisible by seven 52-times - or 52 seven-day weeks a year.
An "Anglo-Saxon" calendar stick found in the British Isles contains 91 marks along each of its four sides that total to 364 days. Add to this value an annual "passover" day or "year" day and the full total would equal 365 days a year.

Image courtesy of Collier's Encyclopedia / New York Public Library

7/ However, before we indulge into numerical ratios and calendrical mathematics of The Trans-Atlantean Solar Calendar, let us continue our investigation of Ogamic communication and learn how its logaoedic format of linear information evolved into the English language by way of the maritime alphabet of the Phoenicians.

Return to Volume 2