Muisca calendar

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.

The Muisca called "day" sua (the word for "Sun") and "night" za. The priests had divided a day in four parts:[16] 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.[17]

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,[18] Pedro Simón stated the Muisca had a month composed of two weeks of 15 days[19] and José Domingo Duquesne and Javier Ocampo López wrote the Muisca week had just three days, with ten weeks in a month.[19][20] Izquierdo suggests, however, that the concept for a standardized week was alien to the Muisca indeed, who instead organized the days of the month in terms of the varying activities of their social life.[21]

The Muisca, like the Incas in the Central Andes, very probably took notice of the difference between the synodic month (29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes); the time between two full Moons, and the sidereal month (27 days, 7 hours, 43 minutes); the time it takes for the Moon to reach the same position with respect to the stars.[15]

The Muisca word for year was zocam, which is always used in combination with a number: zocam ata, "year one", zocam bosa, "year two". Following the works of Duquesne, three types of years were used; Rural years, Common years and Priest's years. The years were composed of different sets of months:

• The Rural Year contained 12 synodic months,
• The Priest's Year composed of 37 synodic months, or 12 + 12 + 13 synodic months (the 13th was a leap month, called "deaf" in Spanish),
• The Common Year composed by 20 months, making a full common Muisca year 600 days or 1.64 times a Gregorian year.[8][22] Izquierdo suggests, however, that this year, unlike the Rural and the Priest's years, was based on the sidereal lunar cycle.[23]

Chía rising over the Eastern Hills above the savanna the Muisca lived

According to Duquesne, the Muisca used devised a Priest's Century by scaling up The Priest's Year by gueta (20 times 37 months; 740) which approximately equals 60 Gregorian years.[22][24] The same scholar referred to a Common Century (siglo vulgar) comprising 20 times 20 months.[25] Pedro Simón's differences on the accounts of the mythical arrival of Bochica to the Muisca territory brings clues about the nature of the Priest's Century. According Simón, the century (edad) corresponded to 70 (setenta) years, however, Izquierdo suggests that such a value is typo of 60 (sesenta) years, which is a value that better matches the entire calendar's description.[26] Besides the centuries, the chronicles describe further periods of time: the Astronomical Revolution as called by Duquesne, corresponds to 5 Priest's Years or 185 synodical months, thus comprising a quarter of a Priest's Century. Simón describes also an additional time period named the Bxogonoa which corresponds to 5 Priest's Centuries. Again, both Duquesne and Humboldt describe another time span, the Dream of Bochica which accounted for 100 Priest's Centuries, which correspond to 2000 Priest's Years or 5978 Gregorian years.[27] After the analysis of all these many units of time, Izquierdo proposed a hierarchical organization where these periods are the product of multiplying the months of The Priest's Year by both 5 and the first three powers of 20:[27]

First order		Second order		Third order
Time period	Synodical months	Time period	Synodical months	Time period	Synodical months
Priest's year	${\displaystyle 37\times 20^{0}=\ \ 37}$	Priest's Century	${\displaystyle 37\times 20^{1}=\ \ 740}$	Arrival of Bochica	${\displaystyle 37\times 20^{2}=14800}$
Astronomical Revolution	${\displaystyle 5\times 37\times 20^{0}=185}$	Bxogonoa	${\displaystyle 5\times 37\times 20^{1}=3700}$	Dream of Bochica	${\displaystyle 5\times 37\times 20^{2}=74000}$

The Gregorian month of December was a month of celebrations with yearly feasts, especially in Sugamuxi called huan, according to Pedro Simón.[29]

The archeological evidence for the Muisca calendar and its use is found in ceramics, textiles, spindles, petroglyphs, sites and stones.[30]

Important findings are:

• Choachí Stone, found in the first half of the 20th century in the municipality of Choachí may represent a calculator to convert the different parts of the complex Muisca calendar[31][32]
• Ceremonial flute (fotuto ceremonial), decorated flute made of a marine snail shell, found in Socorro, Santander, located in the Archeology Museum Sogamoso[33]
• Decorated textile, found in Belén, Boyacá and located in the museum of Pasca, regarded as a "Muisca codex"[34]
• El Infiernito, astronomical site of the Muisca near Villa de Leyva[35]
• Jaboque, in this humedal ancient menhirs were found, indicating an astronomical knowledge of the Muisca[36]

• Acosta, Joaquín. 1848. Compendio histórico del descubrimiento y colonización de la Nueva Granada en el siglo décimo sexto, 1-460. Beau Press. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• 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, 1-17. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• 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. Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• Humboldt, Alexander von. 1807. VI.Sitios de las Cordilleras y monumentos de los pueblos indígenas de América - Calendario de los indios muiscas - Parte 2. Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• Humboldt, Alexander von. 1807. VI.Sitios de las Cordilleras y monumentos de los pueblos indígenas de América - Calendario de los indios muiscas - Parte 3. Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• Izquierdo Peña, Manuel Arturo. 2014. Calendario Muisca - Muisca calendar. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• 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 (PhD), 1-170. Université de Montréal. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• Ocampo López, Javier. 2007. Grandes culturas indígenas de América - Great indigenous cultures of the Americas, 1–238. Plaza & Janes Editores Colombia S.A..
• Restrepo, Vicente. 1892. Crítica de los trabajos arqueológicos del Dr. José Domingo Duquesne - Review of the archeological works of Dr. José Domingo Duquesne, 1–44. Accessed 2016-07-08.
• Santos, Gisele. 2015. El Infiernito: sacred site of the Muisca civilization of Colombia. Ancient Origins. Accessed 2016-07-08.