Meaning
Thirteen closes each run: after 13 the count returns to 1 with the next sign. It is the strongest of the numbers in the highland reports, and Thompson found thirteen counted very good at Santa Eulalia, a town's grading we do not repeat as a fortune.
Our sentence: thirteen is the strongest number and the end of the run, completion before a new beginning; the keyword is "completion, greatest force". Both are ours. The Classic and Postclassic Maya counted thirteen layers of the sky.
Days and ceremonies
13 Iq' bore the highland year that opened on 18 February 2025. Its first day in the count is 13 Aj, day 13 of the 260, the last day of the first run.
Thirteen is also the number of b'ak'tuns in the Long Count's era as the 2012 ending was reckoned; that ending was the start of the fourteenth, not the end of the count.
The numeral
Two bars and three dots. Thompson identified the Classic head for 13 as a reptilian earth monster with a water-lily flower, matched with the day Muluk.
Thirteen is the highest number the day count uses; in the Long Count the scribes wrote larger numbers by place, in twenties.
In the count
The number 13 falls on twenty days of the 260: days 13, 26, 39, 52, 65, 78, 91, 104, 117, 130, 143, 156, 169, 182, 195, 208, 221, 234, 247 and 260, with the signs Aj, Kame, Kawoq, E, Kan, Tijax, B'atz', K'at, No'j, Tz'i', Aq'ab'al, Ajmaq, Toj, Iq', Tz'ikin, Q'anil, Imox, I'x, Kej and Ajpu in that order. A sign comes back every twenty days and a number every thirteen, so the same pairing, such as 13 Aj, returns only after 260 days. Each year the highland year bearer's number rises by one, because 365 days are 28 runs of thirteen and one day more.
Correspondences
Each item with how it stands: “sourced” is in the work cited, “our construction” is EsoTerrier’s own, and “disputed” means the sources disagree.
- Strength, in the highland reports
- The number gives the day its force: low numbers gentle, high numbers strong (Tedlock at Momostenango and Bunzel at Chichicastenango, as reported) sourced
- Our band
- strong; the bands and their edges are EsoTerrier's grouping, not a published scheme our construction
- Our keyword and sentence
- "completion, greatest force"; Thirteen is the strongest number and the end of the run, completion before a new beginning; thirteen is also the number of the layers of the sky in Maya cosmology. our construction
- Head variant of the numeral, after Thompson
- a reptilian earth monster with a water-lily flower, the god he gave to the day Muluk sourced
- A fixed character for the number
- None established; which numbers are good differs from town to town disputed
How the schools read it
- Highland ethnography, as reported
- The number is the strength of the day, gentle in the low numbers and strong in the high.
- Thompson's survey of highland towns
- Which numbers count as good or bad differs from town to town.
- Classic scribes
- Wrote 13 as two bars and three dots, or as a god's head: a reptilian earth monster with a water-lily flower, in Thompson's identification.
- Dreamspell (1990)
- Gives each number a name of its own in a different modern count; not used here.
- EsoTerrier
- Strong in our bands; keyword "completion, greatest force". Our words, a reading aid.
Claims about it
-
The number 13 has a fixed traditional character.
unverifiedWhat the record shows: The highland reports give the numbers strength, low gentle and high strong; fixed characters per number are modern, and our own keyword is labelled as ours.
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Thirteen is one of thirteen cosmic "tones" with a Maya name.
falseWhat the record shows: The tone names are Dreamspell's, from 1990. The Maya count has numbers 1 to 13.
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The Maya calendar ended on 21 December 2012.
falseWhat the record shows: On 4 Ajaw 3 K'ank'in the Long Count completed its thirteenth b'ak'tun and the fourteenth began.
