The "Mayan Calendar" is the popular name for a complex organization of time, number, astronomy, and astrology created and employed by the Maya (and probably some of their predecessors) in ancient Mesoamerica (central and southern Mexico and northern Central America). Archaeologists and historians of Mesoamerican civilization generally refer to this calendar as the Long Count. The Long Count has three elements that are shared with the Western Christian calendar; a base date, a means of grouping large periods of time, and an astrological component