The simple question "How did the Maya come up with a calendar that had only 260 days?" led Vincent Malmstr m to discover an unexpected "hearth" of Mesoamerican culture. In this boldly revisionist book, he sets forth his challenging, new view of the origin and diffusion of Mesoamerican calendrical systems-the intellectual achievement that gave rise to Mesoamerican civilization and culture. Malmstr m posits that the 260-day calendar marked...