Kin (Maya) (kin)

MayaHistorical unit (no longer in standard use)

One day, the basic unit of the Maya Long Count calendar.

1 kin (Maya) = 86,400 seconds (exactly).

About the kin (Maya)

In Mayan languages the word kʼin also means sun, and as a calendar term it names a single day. It is the smallest unit counted in the Long Count, the Maya system for numbering days from a fixed starting point, and it normally appears as the last position in a written date.

Inscriptions carved on stone monuments open with an Initial Series that lists the larger cycles first and ends with the kin count, a number from 0 to 19. Reaching 20 kin rolls the count over into the next unit, the winal. Because the kin is simply one day, no uncertainty attaches to its size: it matches the modern 86,400 second day used here, even though the Maya reckoned days from their own observations and not by clock time. Scholars still debate how Long Count dates line up with European ones, but that affects the date assigned to a day, not its length.

Sources: Wikipedia: Kʼin; Wikipedia: Maya calendar; Wikipedia: Mesoamerican Long Count calendar

Kin (Maya) conversion chart

1 kin (Maya) expressed in every other time unit:

More Maya units

• winal (time)
• tun (Maya) (time)
• katun (time)
• baktun (time)

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