Why thirteen?

Thirteen on our own map means unlucky. Are we afraid of the gods in the heavens? And on Easter Island we have made the discovery that 13 seems important for the calendar of the year. We arrived at 13 * 28 = 364.

The Maya indians had (and still have) a sacred year of 260 days, which equals 20 * 13. There must be reasons for this. That they knew that our world was created at 4 Ahau 8 Kumk'u 13.0.0.0.0 (= 13 August 3114 BC) does not explain anything, it just makes the question heavier. (Hopefully it is a coincidence that our own system of calculating dates also arrives at number 13.)

There are 52 weeks in a year and that gives 13 weeks per quarter. Is that an explanation? A pack of cards is similar to that. Why have we chosen 4 colours for the cards? We could have chosen 7 colours instead, because 364 / 7 = 52, and chosen a week with 13 days. Probably we liked the idea of 4 colours with one colour for each of our 4 seasons of the year (corresponding to our 4 cardinal points).

But at this point in the discussion the question is not 'Why seven?' but 'Why thirteen?'. I think I have made a case for 13 as a natural choice when making a calendar for the year. 91 days per quarter result in 13 sevenday weeks per quarter. To use 7 cardinal points, 7 seasons and a week with 13 days seems inconvenient.

The calendar for the year in Small Santiago Tablet perhaps is constructed with 4 cardinal points (and seasons), 91 days per quarter and 91 / 13 = 7 periods per quarter.

 
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