Tzolk’in · 13 × 20

A child can watch two wheels. One has thirteen numbers. One has twenty names. A day is a pair, 4 K’an. They do not meet the same pair again until two hundred sixty days have passed. That is the sacred round, still used in some Maya communities. 13 and 20 share no common factor except 1, so the least common multiple is the product. The Haab is eighteen twenties plus five nameless days, 365. Those two wheels together make the Calendar Round, 18,980 days, about fifty-two vague years. The Long Count is vigesimal with one 18, so a tun is 360. Dresden’s Venus table is five synodic periods against eight Haab. FAMSI and Van Stone’s factor list name 13, 20, 9, 260, 365, 584, 819. They do not name 42.

Not a 42 civilization. Adding 13 and 20 and the nine Lords of the Night is gymnastics after the fact. A k’atun is twenty tuns, about 19.7 years, not forty-two. Colonial Chilam Balam sometimes speaks of a 24-year Ahau katun; that is another argument, still not 42. The Dresden Codex is a Venus neighbor, not a hidden 42.

Control case. Egypt’s 42s are counted. Maya time is 13 and 20.