 However, recent research has shown that the earliest orientations marking sunsets on August 13 (and April 30) occur outside of the Maya area.Their purpose must have been to record the dates separated by a period of 260 days (from August 13 to April 30), equivalent to the length of the sacred Mesoamerican calendrical count.In general, the orientations in Mesoamerican architecture tend to mark the dates separated by multiples of 13 and 20 days, i.e.