<P> During the Classic period, Tikal's North Acropolis consisted of nucleated royal burial temples and is even referred to as a' necropolis' . In Classic - period royal courts, tombs are generally found integrated in the residences of the nobility . Apart from the ancestral remains themselves, sacred bundles left by the ancestors were also an object of veneration . Reliefs from the Classic - period kingdom of Yaxchilan also show that royal ancestors were sometimes approached during bloodletting rituals and then appeared to their descendants, emerging from the mouth of a terrestrial serpent (which has been nicknamed' Vision Serpent'). </P> <P> The monthly feast cycle of the Postclassic kingdom of Maní included a commemorative festival for an ancestral hero viewed as the founder of Yucatec kingship, Kukulcan (a name corresponding to Quichean Gucumatz and Aztec Quetzalcoatl). Around 1500, the incinerated remains of the (male) members of notable Yucatec families were enclosed in wooden images which, together with the' idols', were placed on the house altar, and ritually fed on all festive occasions; alternatively, they were placed in an urn, and a temple was built over it (Landa). In the Verapaz, a statue of the dead king was placed on his burial mound, which then became a place of worship . </P> <P> Apart from writing, the fundamental priestly sciences were arithmetics and calendrics . Within the social group of the priests at court, it had by Classical times become customary to deify the numbers as well as the basic day - unit, and--particularly in the south - eastern kingdoms of Copan and Quirigua--to conceive the mechanism of time as a sort of relay or estafette in which the' burden' of the time - units was passed on from one divine numerical' bearer' to the next one . The numbers were personified not by distinctive numerical deities, but by some of the principal general deities, who were thus seen to be responsible for the ongoing' march of time' . The day - units (k'in) were often depicted as the patrons of the priestly scribes and diviners (ah k'in) themselves, that is, as Howler Monkey Gods, who seem to have been conceived as creator deities in their own right . In the Postclassic period, the time - unit of the katun was imagined as a divine king, as the 20 named days still are among the traditional' day - keepers' of the Guatemalan Highlands . On a more abstract level, the world was assumed to be governed by certain fundamental numbers, first of all the numbers 13 and 20 that, multiplied, defined both the mantic day count and, on a vast scale, the amount of time elapsed before the first day (5 Imix 9 Kumk'u) of the Long Count . </P> <P> Like all other cultures of Mesoamerica, the Maya used a 260 - day calendar, usually referred to as tzolkin . The length of this calendar coincides with the average duration of human gestation . Its basic purpose was (and still is) to provide guidance in life through a consideration of the combined aspects of the 20 named days and 13 numbers, and to indicate the days on which sacrifice at specific' number shrines' (recalling the number deities of Classic times) might lead to the desired results . The days were commonly deified and invoked as' Lordships' . The crucial importance of divination is suggested by the fact that the general Yucatec word for' priest' (ah k'in) referred more specifically to the counting of the days . </P>

How many gods are there in the mayan religion