The Leyden plaque is one of the oldest mayan object using Mesoamerican Long Count calendar. It is remarkable for being the oldest known usage of a mayan ordinal zero, which symbol (graphically derived from the drawing of a sitting man, typically representing a king's crowning) appears two times, one to form the date "0 Yaxkin" from the first day of the seventh month of the festive year in Haab' calendar, and one to denote the Moon-Bird king accessing its throne on the other side of the plaque.
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History
The plaque was found accidentally in 1864 during a construction around Puerto Barrios, Guatemala. It is currently conserved at the Rijksmuseum voor Volkenkunde in Leyde, Netherlands.
Description
The plaque is 21.7 cm long, elliptic and made from jadeite. A hole at its top hints that it was used as a pendant. While it was found far from its probable original location of Tikal in a postclassical archeological context, it dates from the ancient classic era. It poses as an example of precious object preserved and used several centuries after its making, which is common in Mesoamerica.
The anterior face is engraved with a character trampling a fallen foe while holding a ceremonial jar, a common pose of mayan kings on other artifacts such as steles. The posterior face is engraved with an inscription bearing traces of cinnabar, documenting the crowning of a king the September 17, 320 in Long Count calendar.
Some years ago, most authors considered this king, nicknamed "Moon-Zero-Bird", to be one of the first kings of the Tikal dynasty. This interpretation is contested in recent publications: though the plaque is likely to be tied with Tikal, there is no hard evidence of this, and "Moon-Zero-Bird" does not appear in Tikal dynastic listings.