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Welcome to Math Science History.

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Today, we are going to look at how

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Mayan math was practically used from the stars

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to the markets.

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And we'll walk through the story of how

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the Dresden Codex was found, preserved and decoded.

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I'm your host, Gabrielle Birchak.

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I have a background in math, science and

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journalism.

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And by the time you're done listening to

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today's podcast, you're going to know a great

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deal more about the amazing and advanced mathematics

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of the Mayan culture.

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In the year 415, the infamous philosopher and

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mathematician Hypatia of Alexandria, Egypt was savagely murdered

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by church monks.

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This murder shocked the Roman community and its

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government leaders.

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Hypatia was known far and wide as a

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respected philosopher, mathematician, government advisor and a professor.

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Hypatia, the sum of her life, is a

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book that I wrote that looks not just

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at the circumstances surrounding her death, but also

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at the sum of her entire life.

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I weave in the details of her education,

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disciples, Neoplatonic philosophies, female contemporaries and the many

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mathematics that she wrote and taught about.

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There is truly more to Hypatia's life than

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her death.

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Hypatia, the sum of her life, written by

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me, Gabrielle Birchak, is now on sale on

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Amazon.

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Buy your copy today.

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Today we're traveling back more than a thousand

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years to explore a remarkable mathematical system developed

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deep in the jungles of Mesoamerica.

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Before calculus, before Newton, before Europe fully embraced

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the idea of zero, there was the Maya.

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Their number system, calendar and understanding of zero

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rivaled and in some ways exceeded their contemporaries

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around the world.

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We're talking about Mayan mathematics.

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We're going to explore how their base 20

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system worked, how zero was conceptualized centuries before

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it became mainstream and how modern scholars like

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Ernst Forstmann helped us rediscover this knowledge.

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We are going to decode the brilliance of

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the Maya.

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One dot, one bar and one shell at

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a time.

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The Maya civilization thrived in what is now

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southeastern Mexico, all of Guatemala and Belize and

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parts of Honduras and El Salvador.

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At its peak from roughly 250 to 900

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CE, known as the Classic Period, the Maya

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developed intricate city states like Tikal, Palenque, Copan

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and Chichen Itza.

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These were not only political and economic centers,

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but also cultural and scientific hubs brimming with

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artisans, priests, architects and astronomers.

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From these jungle metropolises, the Maya observed the

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skies with astonishing dedication.

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They tracked solar cycles, lunar eclipses and the

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movements of Venus and Mars.

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Time wasn't just measured, it was revered.

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Every ritual, harvest and political event was synced

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with the cosmos.

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Their concept of time was cyclical, not linear.

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And that cyclical rhythm formed the very backbone

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of their culture.

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The past, the present and the future all

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echoed one another through calendar cycles.

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To make sense of these vast cycles, some

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lasting thousands of years, the Maya needed mathematics.

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Not just tally marks or trade-based counting.

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They needed a system that could measure not

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only the number of cacao beans in a

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bag, but the number of days since the

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creation of the world.

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So they built calendars that could do both.

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Their temples and pyramids weren't just religious structures,

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they were astronomical instruments.

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At Chichen Itza, the famous pyramid of El

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Castillo casts a serpent-like shadow during the

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equinoxes.

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At Uxmal, the buildings are oriented with the

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rising and setting of Venus, which was central

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to both warfare and prophecy.

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These alignments weren't accidental, they were deliberate, math

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-driven expressions of cosmology in stone.

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But to accomplish this, the Maya needed a

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number system that could handle immense time spans

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and cyclical logic.

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They needed more than counting, they needed structure,

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scale and zero.

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Unlike our base 10 decimal system, which likely

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stems from counting on 10 fingers, the Maya

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used a base 20 or a vigesimal system.

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So why base 20?

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Well, one theory suggests they counted on both

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fingers and toes.

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Another theory suggests that the base 20 system

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could more easily accommodate complex calendar math.

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In the Mayan system, the numbers 0 through

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19 are the building blocks.

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The number 20 is like our 10, it

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starts a new positional level.

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400 is 20 times 20, 8000 is 20

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times 20 times 20, and so on.

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So that number 20 starts at the basic

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positional level, kind of like where we put

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our 10s.

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Each position increases by the power of 20,

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except in the calendar system, which I'll go

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into later.

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The genius of the system is its positional

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structure.

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Like in our own decimal system, where the

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digit 3 means something different in 30 versus

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300, the position of symbols in the Mayan

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system changes their value.

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The Maya managed large scale calculations with extraordinary

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economy of space.

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For example, a large number like 2482 in

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Mayan numerals would be represented with just a

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few glyphs across three levels.

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So the Maya had a really beautiful, simple

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way of representing the numbers.

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The number 1 was represented by a dot.

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The number 5 was represented by a bar

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or like a hyphen.

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And then the number 0 was represented by

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a shell.

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Basically, it was an ellipse that they would

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put a design within, so it looked like

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a shell.

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So number 1 would be a dot, 5

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would be a bar or a hyphen, 6

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would be a bar and a dot, because

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that's 5 and 6, 10 would be two

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bars next to each other, 13 would be

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a bar with three dots, and then the

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number 20 would be a new place value

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being the second level up.

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So for example, in the second level, number

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20 would be represented by a dot, because

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1 times 20 is 20.

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The Mayan number system was vertical in structure,

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which was a striking contrast to the horizontal

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layout we are used to in modern numbers.

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So think of it as a layered stack

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where each level holds a specific value based

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on the powers of 20.

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At the bottom level is the units place

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representing the ones.

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The next level up is the 20s place,

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and then that's 20 times the value below.

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And above that is the 400s place, because

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20 times 20 is 400.

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And then the 8000s place, which is 20

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times 20 times 20, would be the level

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above that.

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So I'm going to provide an example on

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my website at mathsciencehistory.com.

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And as a side note, while you're there,

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please click on that coffee button, because when

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you donate a cup of coffee or two

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or three or four to mathsciencehistory.com, you

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free educational platform for everybody, including college students

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that I'm seeing are listening to this in

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droves now, which is very exciting.

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Thank you so much.

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And thank you to all of you who

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have donated to the podcast.

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Your support means the world to me.

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Anyhow, back to the Mayan number system.

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So imagine a vertical stack with two dots

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at the third level, one dot at the

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second level and three dots at the bottom.

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So the two dots at the top level,

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the third level, that would be two times

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400, which is 800.

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In the second level, that's one dot.

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That would be one times 20.

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Then at the very bottom, we have three

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dots.

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Three times one is three.

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So the number equals 823.

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That's it.

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It's that simple.

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Just three glyphs neatly stacked.

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No separate symbols for hundreds or thousands, just

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dots, bars, and shells arranged in vertical layers.

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What makes this system so elegant is that

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it's positional and exponential.

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Like our own base 10 system, a dot

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in one level doesn't carry the same value

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as a dot in another.

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This allowed the Maya to write large, complex

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numbers efficiently and compactly, a necessity when they

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were carving in stone or painting on delicate

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codex pages.

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But this wasn't just about mathematics.

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It was about meaning.

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Mayan numbers weren't hidden in ledgers or buried

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in calculations.

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They were proudly and artistically displayed on temple

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steps, stelae, ceramic vessels, and city walls.

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On public monuments, large dates from the long

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count calendar were recorded in these vertical stacks

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of glyphs, often surrounded by images of kings,

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gods, or cosmic symbols.

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They gave weight to political power and religious

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legitimacy by anchoring a ruler's deeds within the

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context of time and celestial order.

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We'll be right back after a quick word

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from my advertisers.

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Even within sacred texts, like the Dresden Codex,

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the numerical stacks served not just to track

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astronomical events, but to guide rituals, forecast eclipses,

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and calculate offerings.

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The glyphs were rendered with such care that

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numbers themselves became aesthetic and spiritual elements.

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The vertical format wasn't just a style, it

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reflected the Mayan worldview, where time, space, and

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hierarchy were experienced in layers.

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Just as their pyramids rose in stacked platforms

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toward the sky, so too did their numbers

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build meaning upward.

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Math wasn't only functional, it was visual, ritualistic,

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and cosmic.

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One of the Maya's most extraordinary contributions to

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the world of math is their early use

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of zero.

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Zero was not merely a placeholder in Mayan

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math, it was treated as a full digit.

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They represented it with a shell-like glyph.

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This allowed them to express quantities with place

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values clearly, such as 20, 1 in the

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second level or 0 in the base, or

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400, 1 in the third level or 0

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in the second, 0 in the base.

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While zero was also independently developed in ancient

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India, the Maya were one of the earliest

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civilizations to use zero in a positional system.

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Dating at least to the 4th century CE,

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this gave them a functional edge over many

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ancient cultures that lacked such a concept.

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Historian Georges Ifrah calls the Mayan use of

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zero, quote, one of the most striking inventions

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ever to emerge in a mathematical culture from

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the old world.

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The Maya developed multiple calendars.

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They were basically timekeepers of the universe.

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They developed a 260-day ritual calendar called

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the dzulkin.

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They developed a 365-day solar calendar called

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the hab.

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And they used another calendar called long count,

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which was used to track vast historical and

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mythological spans of time.

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The long count is especially interesting from a

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mathematical perspective.

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It used a modified the decimal system.

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For example, one kin equaled one day.

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One wino equaled 20 days.

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One tun equaled 18 winos, which was 360

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days.

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One katun equaled 20 tuns, which was 720

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days.

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00:12:28,020 --> 00:12:31,220
And then one baktun equaled 20 katuns, which

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was 144,000 days.

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What's interesting for the tun, which was 18

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winos or 360 days, they used 18 instead

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00:12:40,460 --> 00:12:43,620
of 20 because it was likely to approximate

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the solar year, which was 360 plus five

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extra days.

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00:12:49,100 --> 00:12:52,060
This calendar allowed them to date events thousands

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00:12:52,060 --> 00:12:54,820
of years in the past and in the

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00:12:54,820 --> 00:12:55,180
future.

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00:12:55,580 --> 00:13:01,760
The famous 13.0.0.0.0 long

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00:13:01,760 --> 00:13:06,580
count date corresponds to December 21st, 2012, which

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00:13:06,580 --> 00:13:08,620
is not the end of the world, just

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the end of a great cycle.

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00:13:11,220 --> 00:13:15,880
It marked the completion of 5125 years since

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00:13:15,880 --> 00:13:21,400
their mythological creation date of 3114 BCE.

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00:13:21,940 --> 00:13:25,780
Their calendars were tied to astronomy, particularly the

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00:13:25,780 --> 00:13:26,680
cycles of Venus.

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00:13:26,980 --> 00:13:30,800
The Maya tracked Venus's synodic period of 584

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00:13:30,800 --> 00:13:33,320
days with extraordinary precision.

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00:13:33,320 --> 00:13:36,060
It was so extraordinary, it was enough to

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00:13:36,060 --> 00:13:38,460
create eclipse prediction tables.

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00:13:38,820 --> 00:13:42,360
Their astronomical observatories, such as those at Copan

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00:13:42,360 --> 00:13:45,940
and Uxmal, aligned with these celestial events.

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00:13:46,320 --> 00:13:48,620
However, math wasn't just for the stars and

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00:13:48,620 --> 00:13:49,220
the pyramids.

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00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:52,880
The Maya used it in trade, architecture, taxation,

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00:13:53,180 --> 00:13:53,900
and agriculture.

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00:13:54,220 --> 00:13:57,680
Their marketplaces functioned with currency like cacao beans,

301
00:13:57,940 --> 00:14:00,160
obsidian blades, and woven textiles.

302
00:14:00,160 --> 00:14:04,140
Their irrigation and planting systems required calculating seasonal

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00:14:04,140 --> 00:14:07,360
cycles, rainfall expectations, and field rotations.

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00:14:07,900 --> 00:14:10,000
Markets needed pricing systems.

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00:14:10,360 --> 00:14:14,160
Tribute records were recorded with clear numerical glyphs

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00:14:14,160 --> 00:14:16,480
on monuments, murals, and codices.

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00:14:16,860 --> 00:14:21,160
For example, murals at Bonampak show tribute lists

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00:14:21,160 --> 00:14:23,800
using dots and bars to represent payments in

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00:14:23,800 --> 00:14:25,400
cloth, food, or cacao.

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00:14:25,900 --> 00:14:28,720
Mathematics was woven into the social and political

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00:14:28,720 --> 00:14:29,540
fabric too.

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00:14:29,540 --> 00:14:33,680
Rulers often claimed their authority through grand calendar

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00:14:33,680 --> 00:14:37,860
-based inscriptions situating themselves in cosmic cycles as

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00:14:37,860 --> 00:14:39,240
divine actors.

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00:14:39,800 --> 00:14:42,080
Now on to the Dresden Codex.

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00:14:42,240 --> 00:14:43,340
It's not just a book.

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00:14:43,480 --> 00:14:44,520
It's a time capsule.

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00:14:44,860 --> 00:14:48,160
It is the most complete, best preserved of

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00:14:48,160 --> 00:14:49,980
the four surviving Maya codices.

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00:14:50,220 --> 00:14:52,500
And it's nothing short of a miracle that

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00:14:52,500 --> 00:14:53,540
it still exists.

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00:14:53,540 --> 00:14:56,480
Handmade from a model, which is a type

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00:14:56,480 --> 00:14:59,240
of bark paper, and painted with vivid natural

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00:14:59,240 --> 00:15:02,620
pigments, the Codex is folded accordion-style into

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00:15:02,620 --> 00:15:04,800
39 double-sided pages.

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00:15:05,020 --> 00:15:08,020
When you unfold it, it stretches over 3

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00:15:08,020 --> 00:15:09,920
.5 meters long.

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00:15:10,180 --> 00:15:11,100
That's incredible.

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00:15:11,800 --> 00:15:14,380
Scholars believe it was created in the post

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00:15:14,380 --> 00:15:17,900
-classic period, likely between the 11th and 13th

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00:15:17,900 --> 00:15:18,780
century CE.

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00:15:18,780 --> 00:15:22,200
Though its contents almost certainly draw from mathematical

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00:15:22,200 --> 00:15:25,740
and astronomical knowledge handed down from the classic

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00:15:25,740 --> 00:15:28,620
period, which was 250 to 900 CE.

335
00:15:29,060 --> 00:15:32,120
The scribe who composed the Dresden Codex was

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00:15:32,120 --> 00:15:35,340
not just a writer, but a mathematician, astronomer,

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00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:38,800
and ritual specialist, perhaps even a priest.

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00:15:39,100 --> 00:15:42,620
Its pages are filled with tables predicting eclipses,

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00:15:42,840 --> 00:15:46,020
charts tracking the synodic cycle of Venus, calendar

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00:15:46,020 --> 00:15:48,180
calculations, and ritual schedules.

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00:15:48,180 --> 00:15:51,560
There are gods, serpents, and symbols of fire,

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00:15:51,780 --> 00:15:54,700
maize, and rain, each connected to a monument

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00:15:54,700 --> 00:15:56,900
in time and a mathematical value.

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00:15:57,140 --> 00:16:00,280
What makes the Codex truly remarkable is that

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00:16:00,280 --> 00:16:03,860
it weaves mathematical precision with spiritual cosmology.

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00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:07,580
So, how did this ancient Mesoamerican manuscript end

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00:16:07,580 --> 00:16:09,420
up in Saxony, Germany?

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00:16:10,060 --> 00:16:13,340
Well, the exact chain of custody is lost

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00:16:13,340 --> 00:16:15,740
to time, but it likely came to Europe

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00:16:15,740 --> 00:16:17,680
during the early 1700s.

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00:16:17,680 --> 00:16:20,700
Perhaps taken from the Yucatan Peninsula by a

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00:16:20,700 --> 00:16:23,580
Spanish colonial official, a merchant, or a missionary,

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00:16:23,880 --> 00:16:27,360
it eventually entered the collection of Johann Christian

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00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:31,260
Götz, a theologian and a librarian, who facilitated

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00:16:31,260 --> 00:16:34,740
its acquisition by the Royal Library in Dresden

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00:16:34,740 --> 00:16:36,040
in 1739.

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00:16:36,480 --> 00:16:39,060
At the time, it was admired for its

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00:16:39,060 --> 00:16:42,280
exotic artwork and the novelty of its unknown

359
00:16:42,280 --> 00:16:45,740
script, but its content still remained a mystery.

360
00:16:46,030 --> 00:16:48,620
So for over a year, the Codex sat

361
00:16:48,620 --> 00:16:50,020
largely misunderstood.

362
00:16:50,480 --> 00:16:53,640
European scholars in the 18th and early 19th

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00:16:53,640 --> 00:16:56,460
centuries had no frame of reference for its

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00:16:56,460 --> 00:16:58,880
complex glyphs and numeric tables.

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00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,800
Some believed it was simply an astrological almanac,

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00:17:03,000 --> 00:17:05,160
others assumed it was a work of mythology

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00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:06,079
or fiction.

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00:17:06,359 --> 00:17:09,720
Its pages were studied more as art than

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00:17:09,720 --> 00:17:12,920
as scientific or mathematical record, because it was

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00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:13,920
very beautiful.

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00:17:13,920 --> 00:17:16,480
But that began to change in the late

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00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:18,960
19th century thanks to the efforts of a

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00:17:18,960 --> 00:17:23,000
German scholar named Ernst Forstmann, the librarian who

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00:17:23,000 --> 00:17:25,400
had become the first person to unlock the

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00:17:25,400 --> 00:17:27,339
mathematical system of the Codex.

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00:17:28,100 --> 00:17:30,880
Forstmann discovered that the dots and bars weren't

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00:17:30,880 --> 00:17:32,580
decorations, they were numbers.

378
00:17:33,160 --> 00:17:35,900
He realized that the Codex contained base 20

379
00:17:35,900 --> 00:17:39,380
calculations, tables of Venus' position in the sky,

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00:17:39,620 --> 00:17:43,940
and precise calendrical cycles stretching thousands of years.

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00:17:44,580 --> 00:17:47,020
So here's a little bit about Ernst Forstmann.

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00:17:47,560 --> 00:17:48,980
I bet you've never heard the name.

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00:17:50,440 --> 00:17:52,660
And his story is actually pretty interesting.

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00:17:52,940 --> 00:17:56,060
He was a German historian, a librarian, and

385
00:17:56,060 --> 00:17:56,960
a philologist.

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00:17:57,360 --> 00:17:59,880
He became the chief librarian at the Royal

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00:17:59,880 --> 00:18:01,040
Library in Dresden.

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00:18:01,240 --> 00:18:04,760
In the late 1800s, he began closely examining

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00:18:04,760 --> 00:18:05,840
the Dresden Code.

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00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:09,900
Forstmann's great breakthrough came when he realized that

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00:18:09,900 --> 00:18:13,840
the repetitive symbols weren't decorations or astrological symbols,

392
00:18:14,080 --> 00:18:17,440
but numbers, written in dots and bars, structured

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00:18:17,440 --> 00:18:17,960
vertically.

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00:18:18,540 --> 00:18:20,700
He recognized the base 20 system and saw

395
00:18:20,700 --> 00:18:24,000
how dates and astronomical intervals related to real

396
00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:25,180
celestial events.

397
00:18:25,760 --> 00:18:29,200
Most crucially, he identified the shell glyph as

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00:18:29,200 --> 00:18:32,400
a true zero, not a decorative flourish, but

399
00:18:32,400 --> 00:18:32,980
a number.

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00:18:33,340 --> 00:18:34,340
This was groundbreaking.

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00:18:34,340 --> 00:18:37,020
It was the first time a European scholar

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00:18:37,020 --> 00:18:40,940
had acknowledged the depth of Mayan numerical sophistication.

403
00:18:41,460 --> 00:18:44,580
In 1901, he published his seminal work called

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00:18:44,580 --> 00:18:47,460
Commentary on the Maya Manuscript in the Royal

405
00:18:47,460 --> 00:18:50,260
Public Library of Dresden, which mapped out the

406
00:18:50,260 --> 00:18:52,980
structure of the long count calendar and many

407
00:18:52,980 --> 00:18:56,260
of the astronomical tables, especially those related to

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00:18:56,260 --> 00:18:56,500
Venus.

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00:18:57,060 --> 00:18:59,960
His analysis laid the groundwork for modern Mayan

410
00:18:59,960 --> 00:19:01,560
mathematics and scholarship.

411
00:19:01,560 --> 00:19:04,500
But the Codex's journey didn't end there.

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00:19:05,140 --> 00:19:07,200
During World War II, the city of Dresden

413
00:19:07,200 --> 00:19:10,600
was heavily bombed in 1945 by Allied forces.

414
00:19:10,900 --> 00:19:13,400
The Royal Library and much of the historic

415
00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:15,300
city was devastated.

416
00:19:15,620 --> 00:19:18,420
The Dresden Codex, stored at the time in

417
00:19:18,420 --> 00:19:22,520
fireproof archives, survived the bombings, but it suffered

418
00:19:22,520 --> 00:19:25,020
water damage from the firefighting efforts.

419
00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:27,740
Some pigment was blurred and a few sections

420
00:19:27,740 --> 00:19:28,860
were nearly lost.

421
00:19:28,860 --> 00:19:32,580
But remarkably, the majority of the Codex remained

422
00:19:32,580 --> 00:19:33,220
intact.

423
00:19:33,860 --> 00:19:35,800
Today, it is one of the crown jewels

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00:19:35,800 --> 00:19:39,160
of the Saxon State and University Library in

425
00:19:39,160 --> 00:19:39,600
Dresden.

426
00:19:39,840 --> 00:19:42,560
It has been fully digitized and made freely

427
00:19:42,560 --> 00:19:46,400
accessible online, offering scholars, teachers, students, and the

428
00:19:46,400 --> 00:19:49,080
public a chance to engage directly with one

429
00:19:49,080 --> 00:19:52,420
of the greatest surviving records of Maya scientific

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00:19:52,420 --> 00:19:52,860
thought.

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00:19:53,380 --> 00:19:55,340
We'll be right back after a quick word

432
00:19:55,340 --> 00:19:56,660
from my advertisers.

433
00:19:59,210 --> 00:20:02,530
Following Forstmann's work, interest in the Maya grew.

434
00:20:02,970 --> 00:20:05,330
But it wasn't until the mid-20th century

435
00:20:05,330 --> 00:20:07,590
that Mayan epigraphy took off.

436
00:20:08,050 --> 00:20:10,710
During this time, great strides in understanding Mayan

437
00:20:10,710 --> 00:20:11,750
mathematics were made.

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00:20:12,290 --> 00:20:17,590
Tatyana Proskouriakoff, a Russian-American Mayanist scholar and

439
00:20:17,590 --> 00:20:21,790
archaeologist, demonstrated that stelae were not just mythological,

440
00:20:22,110 --> 00:20:23,490
they were historical records.

441
00:20:24,010 --> 00:20:27,570
Yuri Norozov, a Russian linguist, showed that Mayan

442
00:20:27,570 --> 00:20:31,670
glyphs were phonetic, not ideographic as long assumed.

443
00:20:31,830 --> 00:20:34,930
And then David Stewart, starting as a prodigious

444
00:20:34,930 --> 00:20:37,990
teenager, cracked dozens of glyphs, tying them to

445
00:20:37,990 --> 00:20:40,110
real names, dates, and dynasties.

446
00:20:40,270 --> 00:20:43,190
These breakthroughs connected Mayan math not just to

447
00:20:43,190 --> 00:20:46,650
astronomy, but to language, dynastic history, and ritual

448
00:20:46,650 --> 00:20:47,090
life.

449
00:20:47,310 --> 00:20:50,570
Today, both indigenous and academic scholars work together

450
00:20:50,570 --> 00:20:53,730
to decode and revive this beautiful and rich

451
00:20:53,730 --> 00:20:54,170
heritage.

452
00:20:54,870 --> 00:20:57,310
So why does Mayan mathematics matter today?

453
00:20:57,830 --> 00:21:01,510
Well, Mayan mathematics offers a parallel development to

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00:21:01,510 --> 00:21:05,550
classical traditions, demonstrating that complex systems can arise

455
00:21:05,550 --> 00:21:06,250
independently.

456
00:21:06,790 --> 00:21:10,570
It challenges the Eurocentric timeline of mathematical progress.

457
00:21:10,790 --> 00:21:13,590
Their innovations in zero, place value, and base

458
00:21:13,590 --> 00:21:17,150
-20 logic reflect a profound understanding of time

459
00:21:17,150 --> 00:21:17,670
and space.

460
00:21:18,010 --> 00:21:22,070
Rediscovering this knowledge not only honors indigenous intellectual

461
00:21:22,070 --> 00:21:24,710
heritage, but it also reframes how we think

462
00:21:24,710 --> 00:21:26,130
about the history of math.

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00:21:26,450 --> 00:21:29,670
By preserving and celebrating Mayan mathematics, we gain

464
00:21:29,670 --> 00:21:30,470
more than numbers.

465
00:21:30,710 --> 00:21:33,470
We gain insight into a worldview that saw

466
00:21:33,470 --> 00:21:37,370
math as sacred, cyclical, and woven into the

467
00:21:37,370 --> 00:21:38,870
structure of the universe.

468
00:21:39,830 --> 00:21:42,150
The Maya just didn't do mathematics.

469
00:21:42,650 --> 00:21:43,510
They lived it.

470
00:21:43,650 --> 00:21:46,610
It was carved into stone, painted into sacred

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00:21:46,610 --> 00:21:50,590
books, echoed in temple alignments, and inscribed into

472
00:21:50,590 --> 00:21:52,910
the very rhythm of daily life.

473
00:21:53,150 --> 00:21:55,470
Their math was not abstract and detached.

474
00:21:55,730 --> 00:21:58,130
It was sensory, celestial, and sacred.

475
00:21:58,350 --> 00:22:00,910
To study Mayan mathematics is to step into

476
00:22:00,910 --> 00:22:04,750
a civilization where numbers had personalities, calendars had

477
00:22:04,750 --> 00:22:08,370
souls, and time itself was a living, breathing

478
00:22:08,370 --> 00:22:08,930
force.

479
00:22:09,270 --> 00:22:12,430
In recognizing the legacy of Mayan mathematical genius,

480
00:22:12,590 --> 00:22:14,710
we're not merely filling a gap in the

481
00:22:14,710 --> 00:22:15,650
historical record.

482
00:22:15,850 --> 00:22:18,410
We're expanding the map of human imagination.

483
00:22:18,410 --> 00:22:20,770
We are reminded that there are so many

484
00:22:20,770 --> 00:22:23,190
ways to understand the universe, and the Maya,

485
00:22:23,690 --> 00:22:27,250
through their shells, dots, bars, and stars, offered

486
00:22:27,250 --> 00:22:30,210
us one of the most beautiful examples of

487
00:22:30,210 --> 00:22:33,690
how math resides within us and around us.

488
00:22:34,130 --> 00:22:35,930
Thank you for tuning in to Math Science

489
00:22:35,930 --> 00:22:38,890
History, and until next time, Carpe Diem.

490
00:22:39,650 --> 00:22:41,770
Thank you for tuning in to Math Science

491
00:22:41,770 --> 00:22:42,230
History.

492
00:22:42,490 --> 00:22:45,470
If you enjoyed today's episode, please leave a

493
00:22:45,470 --> 00:22:46,650
quick rating and review.

494
00:22:46,650 --> 00:22:48,230
They really help the podcast.

495
00:22:48,610 --> 00:22:51,870
You can find our transcripts at mathsciencehistory.com,

496
00:22:51,970 --> 00:22:53,810
and while you're there, remember to click on

497
00:22:53,810 --> 00:22:56,470
that coffee button, because every dollar you donate

498
00:22:56,470 --> 00:22:59,430
supports a portion of our production costs and

499
00:22:59,430 --> 00:23:01,770
keeps our educational website free.

500
00:23:02,110 --> 00:23:04,510
Again, thank you for tuning in, and until

501
00:23:04,510 --> 00:23:06,050
next time, Carpe Diem.