Muisca calendar

The Muisca calendar was a lunisolar calendar used by the Muisca. The calendar was composed of a complex combination of months and three types of years (Chibcha: zocam) were used; rural years, holy years and common years. Each month consisted of thirty days and the common year of twenty months, as twenty was the 'perfect' number of the Muisca, representing the total of extremeties; fingers and toes. The rural year usually contained twelve months, but one leap month was added. This month (Spanish: mes sordo; "deaf month") represented a month of rest. The holy year completed the full cycle with 37 months.

The Muisca were one of the four advanced civilizations of the Americas before the arrival of the Europeans^[1] inhabiting the central highlands of the Colombian Andes (Altiplano Cundiboyacense) and as the other three (Aztec, Mayas and Incas) they had their own calendar, arranged by Bochica.^[2] Important Muisca scholars who have brought the knowledge of the Muisca calendar and their counting system to Europe were Spanish conquistador Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada who encountered Muisca territory in 1537, Bernardo de Lugo (1619),^[3] Pedro Simón in the 17th century and Alexander von Humboldt and José Domingo Duquesne published their findings in the late 18th and early 19th century.^[2][4][5][6]

21st century researchers are Javier Ocampo López^[7] and Manuel Arturo Izquierdo Peña who wrote his master's thesis on the Muisca calendar.^[8]

Numeral system

The Muisca used a decimal counting system and counted with their fingers. Their system went from 1 to 10 and for higher numerations they used the prefix quihicha or qhicha, which means "foot" in their Chibcha language Muysccubun. Eleven became thus "foot one", twelve "foot two", etc. As in the other pre-Columbian civilizations, the number 20 was special. It was the total number of all body extremities; fingers and toes. The Muisca used two forms to express twenty: "foot ten"; quihícha ubchihica or their exclusive word gueta, derived from gue, which means "house". Numbers between 20 and 30 were counted gueta asaqui ata ("twenty plus one"; 21), gueta asaqui ubchihica ("twenty plus ten"; 30). Larger numbers were counted as multiples of twenty; gue-bosa ("20 times 2"; 40), gue-hisca ("20 times 5"; 100).^[2] The Muisca script consisted of hieroglyphs.

Numbers 1 to 10 and 20

Number	Humboldt, 1807[2]	De Lugo, 1619[3]	Muisca hieroglyphs
1	ata
2	bozha / bosa	boʒha
3	mica
4	mhuyca / muyhica	mhuɣcâ
5	hicsca / hisca	hɣcſcâ
6	ta
7	qhupqa / cuhupqua	qhûpqâ
8	shuzha / suhuza	shûʒhâ
9	aca
10	hubchibica / ubchihica	hubchìhicâ
20	quihicha ubchihica gueta	qhicħâ hubchìhicâ guêata

Higher numbers

To name the days and months the Muisca did not use numbers higher than 10, except gueta for their perfect number of 20. Instead, they named the 11th month just like the 1st; ata. Same for the other months and days until 19. That rather confusing system made it difficult to distinguish the 21st month from the 1st or 11th, but their naming of the three different years solved this.

Time calculation

Sketch of the Muisca calendar by Alexander von Humboldt

Days

The Muisca called "day" sua (the word for "Sun") and "night" za. The priests had divided a day in four parts:^[9] suamena (from sunrise to mid-day), suameca (from mid-day to sunset), zasca was the time from sunset to midnight and chaqüi the time from midnight to sunrise.^[10]

Weeks and months

About the configuration of the weeks in the Muisca calendar different chroniclers show various subdivisions. Gonzalo Jiménez de Quesada describes a month of 30 days comprising three weeks of ten days,^[11] Pedro Simón stated the Muisca had a month composed of two weeks of 15 days^[12] and José Domingo Duquesne and Javier Ocampo López wrote the Muisca week had just three days, with ten weeks in a month.^[12][13]

They started their month at full moon, on the tenth day (''ubchihica; "shining Moon") and counted the next stages of the Moon at cuhupqua, muyhica ("black thing"; New Moon). As the Muisca were very religious and honoured both the Sun (Sué) and the Moon (Chía) as their main gods the conjunction of the two spouses at New Moon was a sacred moment.^[14]

Years

Three types of years were used; common years, rural years and holy years. The years were composed of different sets of months; the rural year contained 12 or 13 months (the 13th was a leap month, called "deaf" in Spanish), the priest years were composed of 37 lunar months and the common year comprised the 'perfect' number of twenty months.^[5][15]

The Muisca never said "year" (zocam), yet they always used the word in combination with a number; zocam ata, "year one". The common year was divided in 20 months of 30 days each, making a full common Muisca year 600 days or 1.64 times a Gregorian year.

Centuries

According to Duquesne, the Muisca used their 'perfect' number gueta; a century consisted of 20 holy years (20 times 37 months) which equals 60 Gregorian years.^[15]

Calendar

To name the months, the Muisca did not use higher numbers than 10, except for the 20th month, indicated with the 'perfect' number gueta. The calendar table shows the different sets of zocam ("years") with the sets of months, as published by Alexander von Humboldt.^[5] The meaning of each month has been described by Duquesne in 1795 and summarized by Izquierdo Peña in 2009.^[16]

Gregorian year 12 months	Month 30 days	Rural year 12 or 13 months	Common year 20 months	Holy year 37 months	Symbols; "meanings" - activities
1	1	Ata	Ata	Ata	Jumping toad; "start of the year"
	2			Bosa	Nose and nostrils
	3			Mica	Open eyes and nose; "to look for", "to find"
	4			Muyhica	Two closed eyes; "black thing", "to grow"
	5			Hisca	Two fingers together; "green thing", "to enjoy"
	6			Ta	Stick and cord; "sowing" - harvest
	7			Cuhupqua	Two ears covered; "deaf person"
	8			Suhuza	Tail; "to spread"
	9			Aca	Toad with tail connected to other toad; "the goods"
	10			Ubchihica	Ear; "shining Moon", "to paint"
	11			Ata
	12			Bosa
2	13	Bosa		Mica
	14			Muyhica
	15			Hisca
	16			Ta
	17			Cuhupqua
	18			Suhuza	harvest
	19			Aca
	20			Gueta	Lying or stretched toad; "sowing field", "to touch"
	21		Bosa	Ata
	22			Bosa
	23			Mica
	24			Muyhica
3	25	Mica		Hisca
	26			Ta
	27			Cuhupqua
	28			Suhuza
	29			Aca
	30			Ubchihica	harvest
	31			Ata
	32			Bosa
	33			Mica
	34			Muyhica
	35			Hisca
	36			Ta	Embolismic month
4	37	Deaf month		Chuhupqua	End of the holy year; full cycle

Archeological evidences

• Choachí Stone, found in the first half of the 20th century in the municipality of Choachí may represent the Muisca calendar.^[17]
• El Infiernito, astronomical site of the Muisca near Villa de Leyva
• Jaboque, in this humedal ancient menhirs were found, indicating an astronomical knowledge of the Muisca^[18]

See also

• List of calendars
• Aztec calendar
• Maya calendar
• Inca calender

References

1. Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.188
2. Humboldt, 1807, Part 1
3. (Spanish) 1619 - Muisca numbers according to Bernardo de Lugo - accessed 29-04-2016
4. Humboldt, 1807, Part 2
5. Humboldt, 1807, Part 3
6. Duquesne, 1795
7. Ocampo López, 2007, Ch. V, p.228-229
8. Izquierdo, 2009, p.1-170
9. (Spanish) Calendario lunar de los muiscas - accessed 28-04-2016
10. (Spanish) Calendario muisca - Pueblos Originarios - accessed 28-04-2016
11. Izquierdo, 2009, p.32
12. Izquierdo, 2009, p.33
13. Ocampo López, 2007, Ch.V, p.228
14. Duquesne, 1795, p.4
15. Duquesne, 1795, p.3
16. Izquierdo, 2009, p.30
17. Izquierdo, 2009, p.86
18. Jaboque Petroform Menhirs - accessed 05-05-2016

Bibliography

• Acosta, Joaquín (1848). Compendio histórico del descubrimiento y colonización de la Nueva Granada en el siglo décimo sexto [Historical overview of discovery and colonization of New Granada in the sixteenth century]. Paris: Beau Press. pp. 1–460. OCLC 23030434.
• Duquesne, José Domingo (1795). Disertación sobre el calendario de los muyscas, indios naturales de este Nuevo Reino de Granada [Dissertation about the Muisca calendar, indigenous people of this New Kingdom of Granada] (PDF) (in Spanish). pp. 1–17.
• Humboldt, Alexander von (1807). "VI". Sitios de las Cordilleras y monumentos de los pueblos indígenas de América - Calendario de los indios muiscas - Parte 1 [Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas - Muisca calendar - Part 1] (in Spanish). Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango.
• Humboldt, Alexander von (1807). "VI". Sitios de las Cordilleras y monumentos de los pueblos indígenas de América - Calendario de los indios muiscas - Parte 2 [Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas - Muisca calendar - Part 2] (in Spanish). Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango.
• Humboldt, Alexander von (1807). "VI". Sitios de las Cordilleras y monumentos de los pueblos indígenas de América - Calendario de los indios muiscas - Parte 3 [Views of the Cordilleras and Monuments of the Indigenous Peoples of the Americas - Muisca calendar - Part 3] (in Spanish). Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango.
• Izquierdo Peña, Manuel Arturo (2009). The Muisca Calendar: An approximation to the timekeeping system of the ancient native people of the northeastern Andes of Colombia (PDF). Université de Montréal. pp. 1–170.
• Ocampo López, Javier (2007). Grandes cultures indígenas de América [Great indigenous cultures of the Americas] (in Spanish). Bogotá, Colombia: Plaza & Janes Editores Colombia S.A. pp. 1–238. ISBN 978-958-14-0368-4.