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"Nik": The Mesoamerican Representation of Zero (2021)
Presentation #336.03 in the session “Collaboration with Integrity: Partnerships with Indigenous Communities in the Americas and Polynesia”.
In various expressions—including stone sculpture, painted codices, and decorated pottery, among other media—the Maya zero is represented as a flower, a seed, a human head in profile, or a conch shell. The oldest representation of the Mesoamerican zero, dating from the year 31 BCE, is found in Stela C in the ancestral Olmec site of Tres Zapotes in Veracruz, Mexico. To summarize, the vigesimal Maya zero has the following meanings: (a) Beginning and end; (b) Center; (c) Seed; (d) Death; (e) Absence of quantity, among other variants, including “Mother.” More details about this research can be found in two publications by the author in 1996 and 1997, listed in the references.
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