Mesoamerican Long Count calendar 18. Thus 0.0.1.0.0 does not represent 400 days, but rather only 360 days and 0.0.0.17.19 represents 359 days. The name "b'ak'tun" was invented by modern scholars. The numbered Long Count was no longer in use by the time the Spanish arrived in the Yucatán Peninsula, although unnumbered k'atuns and tuns were still in use. Instead the Maya were using an abbreviated Short Count. Long Count dates are written with Mesoamerican numerals, as shown on this table. A dot represents "1" while a bar equals "5". The shell glyph was used to represent the zero concept. The Long Count calendar required
Maya calendar Long Count was particularly well suited to use on monuments. The monumental inscriptions would not only include the 5 digits of the Long Count, but would also include the two tzolk'in characters followed by the two haab' characters. Misinterpretation of the Mesoamerican Long Count calendar was the basis for a popular belief that a cataclysm would take place on December 21, 2012. December 21, 2012 was simply the day that the calendar went to the next b'ak'tun, at Long Count 13.0.0.0.0. The date on which the calendar will go to the next piktun (a complete series of 20 b'ak'tuns), at