Why go
Learn three signs before examining Maya calendrical inscriptions: a dot for one, a bar for five and a symbol for zero. Their vertical position changes value, turning a compact stack into a count across many years. This simple visual key is especially helpful beside longer chronological passages.
The full story
The Maya shared a base-20 counting tradition with other Mesoamerican peoples and used dots and bars to write values from one to nineteen. Zero marked an empty place and later functioned as a number in calculations. A shell-shaped zero is familiar from Postclassic examples, while earlier periods used other forms. Claims that this was the world’s first zero need caution because other traditions also developed zero concepts. In an ordinary vertical count, the bottom place holds units, the next holds twenties and the next four-hundreds. Thus 884 can be written as four in the units place, four in the twenties place and two in the four-hundreds place: 4 + 80 + 800. This positional logic made large counts manageable. Calendar notation has an important variation: the Long Count adjusts one place to 18 times 20 days, creating a 360-day tun. That distinction prevents a simple base-20 rule from being applied to every date. Number signs carved beside names or events at Maya sites are part of precise records, not ornamental patterns.