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Sacred Numbers in Mesoamerica
A survey of how four, thirteen and twenty shaped Maya and Aztec calendars, cosmology and counting, and where the surviving evidence is thin or debated.
Traditions Around the World
Numbers in Indigenous and Regional Traditions
Number ideas of the Americas, West Africa, Persia and Japan.
Four Sacred Directions in Navajo Tradition
How the number four organises directions, colours, mountains and ceremony in Navajo (Diné) tradition, based on what published ethnographic sources describe.
Ifa Divination and the 256 Odu of the Yoruba
How Ifa divination builds 256 figures called odu from two sets of sixteen, why the system is called binary-like, and what the tradition itself says it is for.
Maya Numerals and the Shell Zero
How Maya scribes wrote numbers with dots, bars and a shell sign for zero in a base-twenty place-value system, with worked examples and calendar exceptions.
Tawantinsuyu and the Fourfold Inca Realm
What the Inca name Tawantinsuyu means, how four quarters met at Cusco, and how the fourfold plan was used for administration, with notes on source limits.
The Amesha Spentas of Zoroastrianism
Who the Amesha Spentas are in Zoroastrian tradition, why they are counted as six or seven depending on the text, and how their names survive in Iranian months.
The Aztec Tonalpohualli and the 260-Day Count
How the Aztec tonalpohualli pairs thirteen numbers with twenty day signs to make 260 days, how the cycle meshed with the solar year, and what the sources say.
The Four-Day Market Week of the Igbo
How the traditional Igbo week of four named days, Eke, Orie, Afo and Nkwo, organised trade, rest and naming in southeastern Nigeria, and how it is used today.
The Seven Lucky Gods of Japan
Who the Shichifukujin are, where each of the seven came from, how they were grouped in the Edo period, and why the number seven recurs in their popular art.
Related topics
More in traditions around the world
Chinese Lucky Numbers Homophones, Feng Shui and auspicious numbers in Chinese culture and business. Ancient Near East and Mediterranean Numbers in Mesopotamian, Egyptian, Greek, Roman and Norse sources. Dharmic Thought, Duality and Zero Hindu, Buddhist and dualist ideas about numbers, and the story of zero.