Olmec+Calendar

The people of the Olmec civilization were intelligent in both astronomy and mathematics. They were one of the first civilizations who were able to make an accurate calendar to live by. The late Olmec had already begun to use a true zero (shell glyph) several centuries before Ptolemy, possibly by the fourth century BC. The shell glyph would later become a big part of Maya numerals. The Olmec calendar was very different from ours today, one Olmec calendar year would equal fifty-two current calendar years. The Olmec people used the "bar and dot" system of telling time, a dot symbolizing 1, a horizontal line symbolizing 5, and a special glyph symbolizing zero. Created by Anna Mack on September 3, 2008 Edited by Christina Oelsner September 4, 2008