bʼakʼtun

Noun

bʼakʼtun (plural bʼakʼtuns or bʼakʼtunob)

1. In the Maya calendar, a period of 144 000 days (20 k’atun periods): 394.25 solar years.
   • We would create the same problem that the Mayas did in omitting the b’ak’tun if we were to drop the number that indicates where a century falls in relation to a fixed point in our own calendar. For example, reference to the "nineties" could refer to the ninth decade of any century past or present.1998, Grant D. Jones, The conquest of the last Maya kingdom, page 431
   • Because this "long count" had a fixed beginning point and identified b'ak'tuns and each of their 20 k'atuns in numerical sequence, scholars can correlate long-count dates with the Gregorian and Julian calendars.1998, Grant D. Jones, The conquest of the last Maya kingdom, page 14

   Synonyms:

   pik