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In common with the other Mesoamerican civilizations, the Maya used a base 20 (vigesimal) and base 5 numbering system (see Maya numerals). Also, the preclassic Maya and their neighbors independently developed the concept of zero by 36 BC. Inscriptions show them on occasion working with sums up to the hundreds of millions and dates so large it would take several lines just to represent it. They produced extremely accurate astronomical observations; their charts of the movements of the moon and planets are equal or superior to those of any other civilization working from naked eye observation.[citation needed]

Martin Luther

Tetzel was born in Pirna, Saxony, and studied theology and philosophy at the university of his native city. He entered the Dominican order in 1489, achieved some success as a preacher, and was in 1502 commissioned by the pope to preach the jubilee indulgence, which he did throughout his life. In 1509 he was made an inquisitor, and in 1517 Pope Leo X made him commissioner of indulgences for all Germany.

Columbus called the colony La Navidad, Christmas, because it was founded on Christmas day.

When he landed, however, he saw eleven corpses of his men on the beach and discovered that La Navidad had been destroyed. He was told by nearby Tainos that the settlers had mistreated the natives, who retaliated by killing all of them.

After Columbus sailed away a second time, the site apparently was forgotten until a Haitian farmer led Dr. William Hodges to it in 1977. Hodges, an amateur archaeologist and American medical missionary, received permission from the Haitian government to excavate a tennis-court-size section of the marshland, and he and his helpers found some artifacts of La Navidad

The first attempt to explore western South America was undertaken in 1522 by Pascual de Andagoya. The native South Americans he encountered told him about a gold-rich territory called Virú, which was on a river called Pirú (later corrupted to Perú) and from which they came. These reports were related by the Spanish-Inca mestizo writer Garcilaso de la Vega in his famous Comentarios Reales de los Incas (1609).

Pinzón brothers