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Deer symbol hints at early adoption of Maya calendar

Fragments from Guatemalan pyramid ruins suggest the system was already in use more than 2,200 years ago.
Left: A fragment collected from a mural with the 7 Deer day-sign; right black-line style from the Ixbalamque structure.

A fragment collected from a mural in San Bartolo, Guatemala, shows the earliest-known occurrence of the Maya calendar’s ‘7 Deer’ day-sign. Credit: photo, Heather Hurst; illustration, David Stuart/Sci. Adv.

A painting of a deer on a 2,200-year-old wall fragment from Guatemala could be the earliest-known evidence of the Maya calendar1.

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Nature 604, 601 (2022)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-022-01058-7

References

  1. Stuart, D., Hurst, H., Beltrán, B. & Saturno, W. Sci. Adv. 8, eabl9290 (2022).

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