Mayan dating system

Similar to the number system we use today, the Mayan system operated with place values.To achieve this place value system they developed the idea of a zero placeholder.

As mentioned previously this system works on the basis of place values in base 20. 19 is represented by 4 pebbles and three sticks,, which is the maximum number of symbols that can be in one place.So we carry 18 to make one pebble in the 360's column and leaving 4 pebbles in the 20's column.Now in the 360's column we have 3 sticks and 5 pebbles (1 carried), 5 pebbles makes one stick, giving us 4 sticks which carry over to the 7200's column as a pebble.If we look at the base 10 system we will notice that the place values go up in powers of 10, for example: 100 = 10 (this applies to other bases as well).From this one would think that the place values in the Mayan system go up in powers of twenty.